Chess is played by more than 600 million people worldwide and is more popular in the USA than golf or tennis. However, the revenues earned by these two sports dwarf those of the chess world. The problem is that chess is not the most spectator friendly of pastimes, though the same could have been said of poker 10 years ago
The growth and profitability of poker websites and TV tournaments has sparked the interest of Andrew Paulson, who has paid $500,000 to secure the rights to chess and created a prize fund of over $6million for the next year. Over 55% of the chess players in the USA are aged between 16 and 34 and are therefore a prime target for advertisers — especially considering that they tend to be educated, affluent and technically minded. There are many chess websites and apps, and Paulson believes there is a potential goldmine in coordinating these areas. He believes that ‘just because chess is not in the media, doesn’t mean that it does not exist’.
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