Poker Agent Brian Balsbaugh

Poker Agent, poker business and industry leader Brian Balsbaugh — Founder, President & CEO of Poker Royalty

Las Vegas poker Agent Brian Balsbaugh — Founder, President & CEO of Poker Royalty
Email: brian@pokerroyalty.com

Source : Gamblin' Man — An article written by John Gonzalez for SPIRIT, Southwest Airlines Magazine.
The phone in poker agent Brian Balsbaugh's office rings off the hook. The business of poker is booming and the top professional poker players in the world are demanding Balsbaugh's attention. Everyday he is negotiating deals for his big name clients: Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren. The biggest and best names in poker are in high demand.

Poker agent Brian Balsbaugh's thriving business symbolizes just how far he has come over the years. Today Balsbaugh is the owner of Poker Royalty, the premiere poker agency that represents the kings and queens of poker. He currently represents 25 professional poker players including hotshots such as Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, and Antonio Esfandiari.

Just four years ago life was drastically different for Balsbaugh. He was working as a professional golf agent in Minnesota, negotiating deals for professional golfers such as Casey Martin, Natalie Gulbis and Ben Crane. He had been with his company for five years and was doing well. However, Balsbaugh was not satisfied with doing well, he wanted more.
"It's pretty insane how fast all this happened," says Balsbaugh, 34.

One afternoon Balsbaugh was working on a deal to place a sponsorship patch on one of the golfer's shirts. While negotiating a price for this deal Balsbaugh had an epiphany.
"The company was asking me how often the patch would get seen if it was on the golfer's left shoulder, you know, wondering how much they'd get for their money," Balsbaugh recalls. "It was a hard question to answer. Because he has to play really well. And then the camera has to find him. And the camera has to zoom in on his left shoulder. I wasn't sure what to tell them."

"So then, over the weekend, I'm at home watching the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) on TV – and I didn't even play poker – but that's when the exact idea hit me that these guys need agents. Here are six or nine guys sitting around a table wearing hats and shirts with logos on them, and the camera can't go anywhere but on their hats and shirts. It just... something clicked in my mind."

Birth of a Poker Agent

Balsbaugh immediately began making phone calls to poker players and the World Poker Tour (WPT). Two days later he decided to quit his job, start his own company and become poker's original poker agent. This was a risky move. Not only were there no prior poker agencies in the industry, but Balsbaugh's wife Nicole was nine months pregnant at the time.
"I walked into the kitchen one day, and she was standing there," Balsbaugh remembers. "I told her, 'I want to quit my job and represent poker players.' She said, 'Do you even play poker?'"

Balsbaugh had minimal experience playing poker, but knowing the rules of the game does not matter as much as knowing how to maneuver within the industry. The skills Balsbaugh obtained while working as a golf agent – marketing, networking, negotiating – were similarly applicable in the poker industry.

Despite all Balsbaugh's experience being an agent, it still wasn't easy for him to get his foot in the door. The transition from a golf agent to a poker agent was challenging, but he managed to pull it off beautifully. He didn't accept any business partners when founding Poker Royalty, but instead put all his business expenses on his credit card.
"I didn't make any money at all for the first six months or so," Balsbaugh says. "I own 100 percent of the company, but, in retrospect, if I could do one thing over again, I would have taken on some investment capital and staff to be ready when the phones started ringing." ... "You know, timing really is everything. If I had started six months earlier or six months later, I don't think I would have made it."

The Poker Agent's Breakthrough

An important milestone for Balsbaugh was when he met and pitched to his first client, Daniel Negreanu. After dining at the Palomino restaurant in Minneapolis, Negreanu decided to take a chance and sign with Balsbaugh.
"He said, 'You may think you picked me, but I picked you. You're my guy,'" Balsbaugh says.

Negreanu then introduced Balsbaugh to some of his friends, including player Erick Lindgren. Lindgren also signed with Poker Royalty after realizing the importance of having an agent.
"It was kind of funny to me when Brian pitched me and some of the other players," Lindgren says. "I was like, why would I need a poker agent? There was nothing going on for me at the time that I thought would matter. But I realized that Brian could take care of a lot of things for me. I like to deal just with poker. He handles everything else. He got me the World Poker Tour book deal. And, he also got me a deal with Knob Creek [bourbon]. Now I have 12 cases of it in my bar... Well, I had 12 cases."

Before long Balsbaugh was recognized in the poker industry as the biggest poker agent around. He moved his operation from Minnesota to Las Vegas and founded his poker agency, Poker Royalty, LLC.
"If you want to be a poker agent, where else would you be?" says Balsbaugh laughing.

Poker's Top Poker Agent

Balsbaugh bought an office on West Flamingo Road, minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. He hired a knowledgeable staff of five employees, including two lawyers and 2 MBA graduates, as well asm a few interns from UNLV. Once he became established more poker players started coming aboard — David Williams, Evelyn Ng, Antonio Esfandiari. A big accomplishment for Balsbaugh was signing Phil "The Brat" Hellmuth, winner of nine WSOP bracelets.
"Brian is a very talented guy," Hellmuth offers. "He's the kind of guy who can talk out a lot of scenarios. He's always prepared. If I send him to meet with the CEO of Oakley, I know that he's going to show up in a nice suit and he's going to know our situation and the facts of the negotiation up and down. He's a guy who gets it. He just gets it."

The list of Poker Royalty clients is growing at an alarming rate. Recently Balsbaugh has negotiated deals with online poker sites such as Bodog, Poker Stars, and Ultimate Bet. Appearance fees for his players can range anywhere from $7,500 to $50,000 depending on the nature of the event such as poker player appearances and poker speaking. Balsbaugh has even negotiated deals with video game companies to use his poker players' "likeness". Almost 70 percent of the revenues he generates for his players still come from poker-related concerns. Those other 30 percent of revenues validate how fast the business of poker is growing. In addition to the Knob Creek arrangement, poker agent Balsbaugh helped Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth land a deal with a major soft drink company.

Possibly the most impressive negotiation was Balsbaugh's ability to broker an agreement between Negreanu and the US Government.

Negreanu, who is a Canada native, was subject to immigration laws that restricted how long he could reside in the United States. Balsbaugh contacted a prestigious immigration lawyer in Dallas, Texas to work on the case.

Before long Negreanu was granted a five-year workers' visa which was previously reserved for high-end entertainers and professional athletes.

After a lot of hard work and dedication, poker agent Brian Balsbaugh and Poker Royalty have become a huge success. Strangely Balsbaugh, a poker agent, still hasn't gotten around to playing poker.
"Poker takes a lot of time," Balsbaugh says. "When I was in golf, I didn't play much of that either. So I don't play a lot of poker now." He stops, and then laughs: "I do play more golf, though."