ChipTalk Chip Contest
Code Named Protégé
This Letter of Agreement
(the “Agreement”) is made this 8th day of February, 2006, between ChipTalk.net
(“ChipTalk”), and Sidepot Gaming Company (“Sidepot”), (collectively referred to
as the “Parties”).
WHEREAS, Sidepot is in the
business of developing high-end poker chip lines available to consumers, and can
benefit from the design idea formulation and early adopter feedback loop that
ChipTalk and its members (“Members”) can facilitate; and
WHEREAS, financial
sponsorships are the primary support of ChipTalk and it’s aim to create a
vibrant community for the exchange of information and commentary amongst poker
chip aficionados.
The Parties hereto agree as
follows:
ChipTalk and Sidepot enter into this Agreement in good
faith with the intent of running a clay poker chip design contest (“Contest”) on
Sidepot’s Cigar & Snifter mold with a $750 fee paid to the winner (cash or
merchandise), where Members are invited to act as contestants (“Contestants”)
and judges (collectively referred to as “Participants”), sharing their likes and
dislikes, and collectively deciding on every possible element of the chip
design.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF SIDEPOT - Sidepot agrees to:
1.
Provide the incentive for Members to participate in the Contest in the
form of a fee paid to the winner, which at the option of the winning contestant,
will be either;
a.
A 750-chip set of chips with their winning design plus a mahogany case, a
2-pack of KEM cards, eight poker chip racks, and a dealer button set. (Shipping
will be included only in the US.)
b.
$750 cash
2.
In addition to the incentive above, provide the winner the option (not
required, of course) of having attribution for the design (i.e. “award-winning
design by Joe Smith”) within the description of the chip line on the Sidepot
site.
3.
Offer any interested Participant the ability to pre-purchase chip sets
(300-chip minimum) of the winning design at a discounted pre-pay price of $0.79
per chip (roughly 35% off anticipated retail pricing) for a period of 30-days
from the announcement of the Contest winner.
4.
Handle all payment processing and pre-order record-keeping, and absorb
any fees involved in collecting funds.
5.
Pay the agreed upon administrative and sponsorship fee to ChipTalk.
6.
Handle all public relations and marketing support of the Contest for any
promotion that occurs outside of the ChipTalk.net web site, and agree to mention
ChipTalk and/or provide their logo and a link to ChipTalk.net where suitable, at
the sole discretion of Sidepot.
7.
Leave unchanged all elements of the final winner’s inlay design, color
choices, and edge spots, except for elements that are prohibitive due to
excessive physical, legal, or practical manufacturing reasons. Of note, inlays
with dark or color-matched outer backgrounds may need to be strategically faded
towards the outer edge of the inlay (by a design representative of the printer)
to prevent a known white circle effect between the inlay and outer track of the
chip.
8.
Serve as the sole liaison between ChipTalk and the underlying
manufacturer.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHIPTALK – ChipTalk agrees to:
1.
Handle all aspects of administering the Contest, which is expected to run
approximately 60 to 90 days from beginning to finish.
2.
Host the Contest on the ChipTalk.net web site.
3.
Serve as the sole liaison between Participants and Sidepot for purposes
of any additional information or clarifications.
4.
Grant Sidepot exclusive rights to do all public relations or promotions
related to the Contest that fall outside of the web pages of ChipTalk.net.
5.
At the request of the underlying manufacturer, use the Sidepot name
instead of the manufacturer’s name in all associations with the contest, chip
colors, edge spot options, etc. Specifically, except for purposes of conducting
the Contest, the chip colors and edge spot options are not to be publicly
associated in any way with the underlying manufacturer on any web based chip
design interfaces.
6.
Ensure that Contestants understand and agree that by submitting a design
in the Contest they are transferring the full and exclusive rights of that
design to Sidepot.
CONTEST RULES – The Parties
agree to the following Contest rules:
- Eligibility is open to
all ChipTalk Members - The
participation in the Contest is open to all new and existing ChipTalk Members.
This includes anyone with a ChipTalk.net user name. No more than one inlay
design submission to the Contest is allowed per person.
- A generic inlay style
is preferred - Generic, in this
context, simply means not having a fantasy theme. The only prevalent theme
should be that of luxury, style, opulence, or something signifying high class.
Think Bellagio or the Palms, not Treasure Island or the Luxor. This doesn’t
mean the design has to be void of all thematic elements rather just that it
does not rely too heavily upon one. The Starbucks logo is a good example of
this. While their logo has a mermaid in it, people don’t think of mermaids
when they think of Starbucks. They think of the experience of the coffee
house.
3.
Full and exclusive rights to design submissions belong to Sidepot -
By submitting a design to the Contest, Contestants are giving the rights to
their design to the Contest sponsor, Sidepot. The full and exclusive rights of
the winning design will remain the property of Sidepot in exchange for the $750
fee paid to the winner (cash or merchandise). Additionally, Sidepot has a
60-day option (from the announcement of the Contest winner) to purchase the full
and exclusive rights to any of the two or three non-winning designs that make it
to the semi-final round for a $400 fee paid to the contestant. The rights to all
design submissions that do not make it to the semi-final voting round (either by
election of Participants or at Sidepot’s option following the general election)
will be returned to the individual Contestants at the conclusion of the
semi-final voting round.
4.
There will be 8 denominations (tentatively) – These will be 25
cent, $1, $5, $25, $100, $500, $1000, and $5000. An additional two denomination
choices will be considered if the Participants collectively deem them desirable.
- Inlay style and size
is 100% up to the Contestants – The
Cigar & Snifter mold is designed for a round 7/8ths inch inlay as it has a
slight topographical depression designed to fit that size inlay. That is the
inlay that will look most natural in the chip mold. Nonetheless, inlay size is
entirely up to each Contestant. Additionally, if desired, contestants may
choose from an assortment of 15 simulated shaped inlays (printed round inlays
made to look like shaped inlays – understand that these can come out quite
different than shaped inlays due to difficulties in color matching and/or a
known outer white line manufacturing effect, so designers be warned), which
will be provided graphically by ChipTalk. At the will of each Contestant,
designs may be consistent among all denominations, unique for each
denomination, and/or different on the front and back of each chip.
- Colors and edge spot
options are up to Contestants, but due to a required “Blind submission
process” involved in registering colors with the manufacturer, a full set of
default base color and edge spots will be chosen by Participant vote – Prior to the official start of the inlay
design submission stage, Participants will collectively discuss, vote on, and
subsequently decide on the default base and edge spots colors from a palette
of 35 colors and edge spot designs from a choice of numerous edge spot
designs, which will all be provided graphically by ChipTalk. The only
limitation here is that the $1, $5, $25, and $100 chips will be required to
roughly follow casino color precedents of blue/white, red, green, and black,
respectively. Note that once the winning chip color and edge spot option
combinations are selected, there will need to be an official manufacturer
review process to ensure the colors and edge spot option combinations are
available. It’s a blind submission process. Any that infringe upon existing
colors registered with the manufacturer (at the manufacturer’s sole
discretion) will need to be modified or replaced with an alternative
selection. Understand that it is typical and likely that probably 1 or 2 of
the chosen color/edge spot combinations will need to be modified or replaced.
- The Contest will
consist of 8 stages –
- Stage 1: Roundtable
discussion – Open Member
discussion of favorite historical chips, including specific design element
comments and/or chip color edge spot combination reasoning for choosing
favorites.
- Stage 2: Default
base color and edge spot submissions
– Open submissions of base color, edge spot color, and edge spot option
combinations.
- Stage 3: Default
base color and edge spot voting –
Narrow submissions down to the final 8 (or 10), one for each denomination.
- Stage 4: Initial
inlay submissions – Open
submissions of inlay designs. What constitutes an adequate initial
submission is largely dependent on each Contestant’s design concept. An
initial submission of one design is fine for concepts where the only thing
that varies from chip to chip is the denomination, while A/B design concept
submissions should include two designs, one for the front and back, and
multi-design concept submissions should provide 3 or more designs (whatever
is necessary to adequately convey the concept). Contestants that make it to
the semi-final voting round will need to complete their design submissions
by including a finished inlay design for each of the decided 8 (or 10)
denominations. All inlay submissions are to be 1 ½ inch by 1 ½ inch at 300
dpi, which equates to 450 pixels by 450 pixels. This sizing just refers to
the inlay portion and does not include the outer clay track of the chip.
- Stage 5: Public
discussion, critique, and commentary on inlay submissions
– A feedback loop where Participants give input to Contestants on their
inlay submissions, which Contestants can choose to use to refine their
designs or ignore.
- Stage 6: General
election – Open elections intended
to narrow the submissions down to the top three semi-finalists as selected
by the Participants. Additionally, at the sole option of Sidepot, Sidepot
may choose a fourth Contestant to advance to the semi-final voting round.
- Stage 7: Semi-finals
– Once again, Contestants that make it to the semi-final voting round will
need to complete their design submissions by including a finished inlay
design for each of the decided 8 (or 10) denominations. In addition to the
inlay design submissions, each Contestant may choose their own chip and edge
spot colors and configurations (but understand that any submissions must go
thru the same blind submission process to the manufacturer as stated in rule
#6 above, before they are considered viable options), or use the default
base color and edge spots as determined by Stages 2 and 3 above. The
semi-final round will consist of an open election among the top 3 (or 4 at
the option of Sidepot as stated above) intended to narrow the semi-finalists
down to two finalists.
- Stage 8: Finals
– Winning inlay design selected by majority vote.
No agency, partnership, joint venture or employment is
created as a result of this Agreement.
