Apparently chess has about six hundred million followers around the world.
It doesn't, of course.
This isn't the first time Leontxo's facts and figures have been at variance with reality.
Come to that, it's not the first time Leontxo's put about this particular figure.
Last time he did, and was advised by the present writer that the facts were otherwise, he promised to do some research.
Busy man, Leonxto García. Very busy man.
[Oh, and YouGov is not an American company.]
When Garcia asked Ilyumzhinov if FIDE was going bankrupt, the latter responded with a farrago regarding how he had grown chess from 100 million to 600 million people since he became president in 1995. What I'm wondering is whether he'll be able to break thru this "600" barrier (been there maybe 4 years by now?) and reach a billion like his dream is ("a billion smart people").
ReplyDeleteSo now I think Agon has rolled its dice the wrong way on VR based upon its faulty Agon data.
ReplyDeleteThere are 3-5 million VR users, depending on whom you ask. Agon guesses 10-15% are "chess fans", and maybe 10% of those (amortized) will want to purchase WC VR (US$15). That's let's say 50000 buys, for $750K. Myself, I would guess 10K buys would be fantabulous. Maybe they depend upon their incentives for Carlsen and Karjakin to promote the match more, but Karjakin just interviewed said he was going into hibernation for 2 months, so I guess it's up to Carlsen to make a VR celeb appearance before Nov 11?
On the plus side, I don't think the extra costs in producing VR are that high. Maybe just some extra cameras and some software (maybe even freeware by now). But doing it the first time will always be growing pains (as Agon Candidates showed, technology wise).
The US$15 package has BIG CAPITAL LETTERS about move transmission, but it's still unclear what it actually means in a contract of adhesion (for purposes of damages). The implied expectant "loss" of Agon (oh sorry, World Chess Events Limited) is just some gibberish about "reducing the incentive of the organizer to stage similar events in the future", which is not a tangible good AFAICT. Unless they make it explicit what they expect their commercial loss to be due to a breach, I don't think a judge/arbitrator would look too kindly on this clause in such a contract.
They've also removed the Moscow arbitration jurisdiction, with now none named at all. Not sure I would draft it that way. Maybe a lesson learned from their Candidates lawsuits? Rather unclear.
I'd also like to see if they find any "select broadcasting partners and chess federations that agree to join the World Chess affiliate program", which I assume means passing on this move transmission obligation contractually to their users.
Any case, viewers of NRK live TV in Norway won't be limited by such legal strictures AFAIK, so there's already a huge loophole.