Spanish Tennis Champion Rafael Nadal and PokerStars Part Ways After 3 Years

The game of match and break-up continues at PokerStars with the latest being the news of Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal (cover image) and the site deciding to part ways after three years of association.

The site’s representative told that, “Rafa Nadal has played an important role for our brand and while his time as a member of Team PokerStars SportsStars has concluded for now, we remain close to him and his team.”

The site has declared that it now intends on concentrating on its current footballer stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr. PokerStars intends to intensify and focus its marketing strategies around these two stars.

“Our strategy and work with Rafa has led our strategy to evolve, and consequently, our current focus in on working with Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr.“

This move to concentrate on the two footballers was evident since Aug this year, when PokerStars had released a series of video ads through Facebook to more than 150 million fans, in an unprecedented “biggest marketing campaign” in its history.

During his stint with PokerStars, Nadal had won the EPT Charity Challenge in the 2013 PokerStars EPT Prague. He was also active in popular campaigns including a heads up event against Vanessa Selbst at the 2014 EPT Grand Final, as well as in a charity match, “The Duel” against Brazilian football icon Ronaldo at London’s Hippodrome Casino.

Despite Nadal’s departure, the PokerStars Team SportStars stable continues to remain strong, with names like Brazil’s football champions Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima and Neymar Jr., Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Dutch field hockey Olympic gold medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo, Sweden’s cross-country skiing Olympic gold medal winner Marcus Hellner, besides recently added, Isle of Man Olympic Snowboard Cross champion Zoe Gillings-Brier.