Relationships between sponsors and poker professionals have sometimes been fraught. We don’t mean to cite the recent case with William Kassouf. The incident we have in mind involves the talent of Cate Hall, an established pro of her own making and a dashing figure at any final World Poker Tour table. She seems to be in trouble over unsettled payments with her sponsors. Here’s the deal.
Cate Hall and a Difficult Sponsorship
Two years ago, Cate Hall met Chad Power, a fellow gamer with sufficient means to afford to nurture and back other aspiring gamers. Chad offered her $60,000 to play with at a female poker event, but Hall faltered and ended up playing through the amount without winning anything back. There’s nothing surprising there. The fortunes of poker players are a fickle mistress after all.
With a total of $1 million to her name, though, Cate Hall is hardly unable to take care of herself and her poker exploits. However, Chad is still of the opinion that win or lose, Hall owes him the amount back. Cate thinks differently and it’s in the midst of this disagreement that things have gotten slightly out of hand.
Hitting Twitter, a medium for many celebrities to settle their beef, garner support or downright try to overwhelm their foes, Cate argued that the conditions of the deal were rather vague to begin with. She continued by saying that she would have never agreed to deal where she could only keep part of the winnings but have to return all of the losses.
She did take a pre-emptive move against Power, saying that he had threaten to cast her as a scammer unless she paid up. Given publicity, Hall had to buckle, letting an arbitrator solve the problem.
No Legal Bailment Has Been Created
Hall is right. In the cases where there is no written agreement, the sponsorship agreement has no legal bearing. In other words, granting $60,000 is the equivalent of handing them out of one’s good will. Naturally, it’s a stretch to expect that Cate would have allowed herself to keep Chad’s share of the winnings.
However, the focus of the dispute is different and it concerns exclusively the fact that Chad demands money that are not there anymore. Following the publicity of the case, though, an arbitrator has been appointed to settle matters.
As expected, the ruling was in favor of Cate. In the absence of any legally-binding document, it’s not realistic nor is it obligatory for Cate to have to pay. With the arbitration settling matters in favor of Cate Hall, the case could have been brought to a halt. However, Chad is quite intransigent and he is determined to continue and pursue Cate, even though she’s quite the respected face in the industry, and she has been involved in various podcasts and interviews.
However, other than badmouthing her, he has not other means of proving whether she indeed owes him money. Even then, taking things public and arguing with proof casts Mr. Power in a very poor light indeed. All such claims need to be backed by serious evidence. Otherwise, Chad Power is losing credibility, not only in relation to the case.
