PokerStars, the biggest online poker website in the world has been focusing on adding high profile celebrities and poker players to its Team PokerStars to serve as brand ambassadors and help promote PokerStars all over the world. The company is currently running its biggest marketing campaign using some of the best football players in the world such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr.
PokerStars recently signed up Yaxi Zhu And Chen-An Lin as the company is now looking to target and expand its presence in the lucrative Asian market. PokerStars already had a strong Asian team but wanted to bring on board China’s Yaxi Zhu and Taiwan’s Chen-An Lin so that the brand can get even more leverage in these two exciting markets. The two new ambassadors now join the Asian team that features the likes of Naoya Kihara, Vivian Im, Aditya Agarwal, Bryan Huang, Bryan Huang and Celina Lin.
PokerStars’ Associate Director of Pro & Celebrity Marketing Kirsty Thompson stated that they specifically wanted to hire Yaxi Zhu And Chen-An Lin as they were well respected in their countries and had a strong fan following.
Speaking about its marketing strategy in hiring key individuals as brand ambassadors, the company released a statement which said
PokerStars has played a key role in the growth of online and live poker, first in the United States, then Western Europe, and more recently in Eastern Europe and Latin America. The popularity and appeal of local professional players and celebrity enthusiasts help to inspire new audiences around the world, as they seek to learn from and then play against their poker heroes.
Chen-An Lin only started playing poker on a serious level in 2009 and has had quite a lot of success since then and has accumulated around $216,571 in total prize money since then. The biggest highlight of Lin’s career till date is winning the 2014 Macau Poker Cup when he went on to win the HK$20,000 No-Limit Hold’em and took home prize money that was around $50,000.
Zhu is ranked 34th on China’s all time prize money list and has won over $250,000 till date. She was a finance and business manager before deciding to become a full time poker player and her biggest win was when she won the EPT11 Event #32 which was a €2,200 No-Limit Hold’em and brought her close to $148,000 in prize money.
