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If you’re in the UK, I hope you’ve been watching the Dragons’ Den series (BBC2 8.00pm Wednesdays). It’s a very interesting and entertaining series, especially for entrepreneurs.

If you haven’t seen it or you’re outside the UK, you can actually watch the series online. More about that in a moment.

The program shows entrepreneurs and inventors pitching their business ideas to 5 venture capitalists, who are referred to as Dragons.

The Dragons are all highly successful multi millionaire business people, and sit there asking questions and ripping holes in the presentations. The idea being that by the end of the show they’ve found at least one combination of a good product/service, and just as importantly the right person with the knowledge, drive and business acumen to invest in.

Last weeks episode (6), was a little unusual, where we saw four dragons trying to out bid and maneuver each other, to try and secure an investment in ‘The Nuts Poker League’. This competition amongst the dragons led to the investment offer being pushed up to £60K from the original asking price of £50K. That was the first time anyone on the Dragons’ Den had got more money than they had pitched for.

Now, you may or may not be opposed to gambling. That doesn’t matter, because what’s interesting is why the dragons would want to invest £60k in an idea that had only made £11,000 so far.

Someone With Real Drive, Enthusiasm and In Depth Knowledge Of His Market

The Dragons don’t usually just invest in a product, they investment in the person or people behind it. The guy pitching the nuts Poker League had clearly done his homework, and knew his market initimately. He was pretty good when put under pressure, and negotiated well at the end. Plus he was likeable; which is also one of the unspoken rules they appear to have when deciding to invest in someone.

A Scalable Business With Big Potenial…

I joined in on a Warrior forum thread about this episode, and a few people on there didn’t see this as a great investment opportunity. A few friends of mine also shared the same viewpoint.

The Dragons may have other ideas, but here’s why I think this is a very attractive investment opportunity for them.

1. Poker is a big growth market, and The Nuts Poker League is tapping into the market in a way that no one else is currently doing.
2. Pub quizzes, darts, pool and other games are already very popular in pubs and clubs up and down the UK. So a poker league with cash prize money up for grabs, can easily be targeted to this market of people.
3. So far, The Nuts Poker League just operates in North Wales, but it is very scalable and could be expanded across the whole of the UK.
4. It’s a new concept that is already proving very popular with poker players in north Wales, so I think it’s very ‘newsworthy’. I would expect the league to get increasing coverage in gambling related publications, mainstream press and certain cable TV channels. The bigger the league gets, the more poker players are going to want to know about it.

   This factor is huge because all the free publicity will just keep driving the brand and keep it in front of the target market.

5. It was mentioned that a bigger corporation could come in a do something similar. But The Nuts Poker League has ‘first mover advantage’, and the opportunity to position ‘The Nuts’ as ‘THE’ poker league to play in. If they move fast to expand and ride all the free publicity they can get, it will be much harder for another league to come in and be as popular.

   Another league coming in later just won’t be as newsworthy.

6. Opportunity to build an unrivalled community of UK poker players. At the moment, the league website isn’t doing anything to capture email/physical addresses, or building a community/membership base.

   With the right strategy they can build a huge database of UK poker players, providing a weekly newsletter and league forum. This would be a very lucrative asset with on-going opportunities for advertising and sponsorship deals.

7. As the league and national tounaments grow in size, TV coverage will almost be guaranteed, and with it even more sponsorship opportunities.

I’ve only touched on some of the potential with this, but I hope you can see why the dragons were almost falling over themselves to invest.

I don’t play poker myself, but I could quickly see the potential in the concept. It will be interesting to see how the league moves forward, and whether the Dragon’s input and investment can help get the most out of the potential that is there.