Harrah’s Being Sued By WSOP Winner For Unauthorised Advertising
October 28, 2009 10:11 amThe 2007 WSOP Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship winner is suing Harrah’s and the World Series of Poker Academy for using her name to sell their products without her consent.
Named in the lawsuit, which Sally Anne Boyer filed Monday, are WSOP owners ‘Harrah’s Operating Company Inc.’, WSOP Poker Academy owners ‘Post-Oak Productions Inc’, as well as owners of ‘Post-Oak Productions Inc’ itself, i.e. Brandon Rosen and Jeff Goldenberg.
Sally Anne Boyer had only been playing poker for about year when she won a WSOP bracelet in June 2007, picking up $262,077 for the second biggest winning a woman has ever achieved at a WSOP event.
The lawsuit claims that “Soon thereafter, the WSOP Academy began extensive marketing efforts, using Boyer’s recent win to widely market itself as an academy that breeds success in tournaments.”
Despite only having attended the WSOP Academy on just one of the two day event and never having graduated, she says the WSOP Academy printed her photo on their advertisements quoting, “The quickest way to your WSOP Bracelet!,”and calling her an “Academy Graduate.” These advertisements subsequently appeared on the WSOP Academy Web site, in academy newsletters and e-mail marketing, as well as Bluff magazine.
“Boyer never said nor authorized a statement on her behalf to the effect that participating in the WSOP Academy was ‘the quickest way to your WSOP Bracelet!’ or intimating that her success in the tournament was attributable to her experience attending one day of a two-day WSOP Academy event,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was filed Monday by Henderson law firm of Bowler Dixon & Twitchell LLP in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. Sally Anne Boyer is seeking damages and recovery of money generated from the unauthorised use of her name and likeness.