Participants must sign up for the contest and pay an in-person admission fee at Westgate at the start of the season, but many can use the proxy service to submit their options every week, allowing out-of-state residents to play. Kornegay estimates that nearly 50 percent of all participants used the proxy service last year.
He said his team is already working to de-select in person and get a requirement that allows participants to choose online. This is a development that could double the number of participants at a much faster rate. 파워볼게임
“It’s a long way off, but we want it to happen,” he said. “It takes a lot. Whenever we make any kind of adjustments to the contest, we have to run it by Nevada regulators, lawyers, and compliance. Nothing can be done without their approval.”
Challenges to running the competition have also increased for Kornage and his staff, with an 8 percent cut from the prize pool for the first time this year. Over the past few years, 100 percent of the pool has gone to the contestants.
Cornegei knew there would be a backlash, but he had no other choice.
“We could no longer run the super competition as a losing contender, and that was it,” he said. “It’s different when there are 300 or 400 people. But now we’re close to 2,000 people. Like any business, we had to look at all the time and resources that we put into the competition and make sure it was worth us.
“I want the people who complained about it to really know what it takes to run it. We have lawyers and compliance to deal with, as well as the people at the front who are enrolled and chosen to take questions. We have a $40,000 marketing budget. We have a 26,7 percent bonus. As competition grows, so does the cost, but it benefits everyone involved.”
Brady Kannon has been in the competition for the past 14 years and understands Korngay’s dilemma. Kannon was part of the four-member “Sans Souci” team that won with a record-breaking performance in 2011 and saw firsthand how the competition has changed in the space of six short years.
Kannon, a 47-year-old general manager of LVTeeTimes.com , said, “It’s incredibly difficult to achieve that rate now, because you can’t even make it out of money, and as everybody knows, it’s incredibly difficult.” In 2012, he helped create the annual Super Tournament Weekend, where Kornegay is held every year at the end of August and starts its season with a golf tournament at the American Football Handicap Seminar.
“In order to make money these days, you have to make about 65 percent. So it’s a little disappointing, but it’s a reality. It has become a big event nationwide and the biggest event of its kind.