POKER GAMBLE PAYS OFF FOR FILMAKER

Online poker winnings fund British film

It's the kind of storyline you would see in a film - but one online poker win means that a new film will make it to the big screen.

"We're pretty sure that ours is the first film to be entirely funded by online poker winnings" says film director Nick Scott , who turned to poker after being frustrated by the lack of official film funding. "It's difficult for British filmmakers to fund their projects. We had a great script and just wanted to make the thing, but it was going to take us months to raise the cash ourselves."

It was whilst at a friend's poker night that Nick was introduced to online poker. "I was a bit sceptical because I'd always played live, but multi-player tournaments immediately stood out because of the amount you can win off a very small stake."

After thinking the project might never happen, Nick financed the project after six hours of play from a GBP 3 stake on the Betfair Poker.com site.

"I qualified for Betfair Poker's daily GBP 15 000 tournament and just played unbelievably tight", says Scott. "Players kept dropping out and after some careful play, I found myself playing one-on-one for GBP 5 000. I have to admit to being lucky on the last hand - I hit pocket nines and shoved all my chips in, the other player called and turned over aces. I thought that was it, but the nine of diamonds came up on the turn and I started dancing a little jig around the room. I rang my producer up to tell her that I'd just won our budget but she didn't believe me and hung up."

The winnings allowed Nick and his producer Fiona Brownlie, to set up their own production company, aptly named The Winners Productions, and to put their short film into pre-production. The film, called 'Breaker' , is a Faustian tale about an artist who throws bricks through windows to create a controversial piece of art, and has already been requested by a number of international film festivals. "We just made the official selection for a festival in South Africa, so I guess I better get back to the tables to pay for our tickets" Nick adds. 

Betfair's Head of Poker Ben Fried said, "Nick saw off more than three hundred players to win the tournament. If he keeps playing, this time next year he might be financing a Hollywood blockbuster."

Meanwhile, whilst still playing on Betfair Poker, Nick and Fiona are currently looking for more serious investment in their feature film project 'Black Box Recorder' , which won the Panasonic script award at the Cannes Film Festival.