Picture and article posted by http://www.chessbase.com/
Chess soon to be a million dollar business?
Interview with Dutch businessman Bessel Kok
Will chess soon become a millions dollar business like boxing or soccer? Dutch media tycoon Bessel Kok, 65, is chairman of the Amsterdam based company “Global Chess BV”. The aim of this enterprise, which reportedly commands an initial start-up capital of 4.5 million Euros, is the marketing of major FIDE events, with special attention to World Championships. German journalist Dr. René Gralla conducted an interview with Bessel Kok who, after having been the Vice-President of Český Telecom, now lives in Prague, from where he runs “Global Chess BV”.
Dr. René Gralla: You are the chairman of “Global Chess BV”. The aim of that company, as far as we understand, is to professionalise of the marketing of chess. So big chess events, like the world championship, will be marketed in the near future like a world championships in soccer or boxing?
Bessel Kok: We need to make chess more interesting to follow, both from the sponsorship perspective as well as the public perspective. The marketing strategy to promote chess is not like that of boxing, of course, since we represent a different product and concept. However we will have to rebrand FIDE and the game of chess as a sport which can be supported with benefits to all stakeholders.
Dr. Gralla: “Global Chess BV”: Is it a big company or more a kind of task-force? How many employees does “Global Chess BV” have currently?
Bessel Kok: Today Global Chess is a company with a small work force, whose mission will be to make chess more attractive and by coming up with sponsorship, branding and communication opportunities.
Dr. Gralla: Now that “Global Chess BV” has taken over the professional marketing of chess, can we, in the near future, expect prize funds in chess – for instance in a world championship match – to rival the prize funds that are common in world championship boxing?
Bessel Kok: The comparison with boxing or football is not feasible today, since professional chess nowadays has become marginalized – especially in the daily press. It is only with great effort that we will manage to push up the prize funds and allow professional players and organisers to make more money out of chess. The fundamental requirement here is to increase the public interest and to help the development of chess as a mass sport in each country. Only in this way will sponsors be more willing to support chess competitions and ultimately increase prize funds.
Here is the full interview.
The guy speaks well. However, he failed to produce results and lost elections regardless of all support and $$ that he received. Just to compare, Susan won her elections with an investment of $50. Kok said in his interview with Chessvibes that the only way for Global Chess to attract financing was that Ilymzhinov of Russian government injects million of euros, and therefore owns the company. It is true that Global Chess has no assets, no intellectual property, simply an empty shell. However any new business with a promising business plan has chances of attracting financing. This tells me that the business plan of Global Chess may not be ready, and that they are perhaps uncertain how to reach the objectives. It will be challenging for Global Chess to work around some of the negative image issues, as corporations require clean image associated with their brands. Perhaps Global Chess could attract someone like Lukeoil. What are the chances that Kok spends 4.5 million Euros without producing any return on investment? Grand-Prix in the world cycle? Copy cats, followers not leaders.
Bessel Kok’s run for the presidency of FIDE has nothing to do with his chairmanship of Global Chess. Kok lost because of unfair tactics on the part of the incumbent.
But, I do agree that there is very little chance for success using the old methodology of trying to attract sponsors for individual chess tournaments or matches.
Both the Knock-Out and Grand-Prix are poor choices for choosing the World Champion of chess. But Ilyumzhinov likes the former, and Kok the latter, so the rest of the chess world will suffer (especially the most talented GMs).
What a pity!