Yes and No
Every televised tournament is different... in regards to exclusionary clauses (a period of time in which you cannot appear on any other gambling tv show - or in some cases, tv altogether) and in the non-disclosure agreements (in which you agree to keep all results confidential, and not talk about them either in a public forum, or in some cases, at all).
'King of Vegas' is on Spike, which is owned by Viacom, which also owns MTV -- so the contract we had to sign there looked like it had been taken from the Real World (the famous mtv reality tv show) or something, it was incredibly restrictive at first in terms of how long we supposedly could not appear on any other show without their permission (something like 3 years!!!) but after a lot of great negotiations between my agent & the Spike lawyers, they came to a much less restrictive compromise -- to where i cannot appear on another gambling show in a freeroll format as a player until 30 days after the final KoV episode airs... about the last week of March. Which is great, considering that World Series (if i am to be involved again, although at this point i haven't heard anything one way or the other) will most likely air starting in May or June.
As for non-disclosure agreements, Spike's was huge - 5 million dollars of liquidated damages for revealing the winner, or how any of us did individually ahead of time. While this seems excessive, imagine if this show had blown up to the proportions of American Idol or some other epic television experience -- while this may seem to be wishful thinking, its only natural for the network to want to protect its interests, just in case.
Other shows i have worked on are much less restrictive, although these two components are pretty typical. Both World Series and the UBT had no stipulations as far as exclusivity was concerned, but NDA's were standard -- though without the 5 million dollar penalty!
In terms of non-compete clauses, the world of blackjack is going through some necessary growing pains right now... whereas in the poker world, players regularly appear on competing networks -- ESPN, FoxSports, GSN, etc -- in blackjack sometimes appearing on a competing network can work against you. One reason, for instance, that i may not be included in the World Series this year could have to do with appearing on Spike right now. There is certainly a fine line between networks wanting to associate their brand with specific talent, and a network benefitting from the unique brand of a player who has created a larger demand for him/herself due to exposure on multiple networks.
Lots of fun considerations, and certainly we will continue to see these aesthetics change as more and more blackjack shows crop up on tv in the next few years...
-holly d.
