JOPT Faces Backlash Over Condom Prizes at Ladies Championship

The Japan Open Poker Tour has revised the public prize listing for its upcoming Ladies Championship after backlash over a sponsor package originally advertised as 150 condoms and three bottles of lubricant for the winner.

Why, you might ask, the unorthodox prize?

It was courtesy of the event's sponsor, the condom manufacturer Sagami. After an industry backlash, the specific prize is no longer on the tour's website.

Let's take a deeper look at this unique situation and why it was so controversial.

The headline prize was one that would make you read twice to check you got it right.

12 boxes of Sagami's standard condoms and three boxes of the large size. That's 150 in total, plus three bottles of water-based lubricant for the champion. The second- and third-place finishers were also in line for condoms and lubricant. The top three would also receive jewellery and branded merchandise.

Sagami is a long-established Japanese condom maker and has been around for ages. However, the stir here lies in the fact that lube and condoms were the grand prize for a womens poker event.

The criticism was towards at what many deemed a tone deaf and inappropriate prize.

The Ladies Championship exists to broaden the base of female players. It exists to give women a space, an opportunity, and resources to play poker. So, handing the top finishers large quantities of sex products seemed counter productive.

Commentators argued it framed the winners as something other than competitors. Objectifying women. Others considered it a joke in poor taste. Many said that such optics could discourage women from entering at all. Naturally, this defeats the event's entire purpose.

One user on X claimed this prize was treating women as "sexual beings". The same user also asked "did anyone involved imagine how these women would feel receiving this"?

For the case on the other side, one can imagine it was due to Sagami's promotion of sexual health and awareness.

Saku Matsukawa, the founder, made Japan's first thin latex condom in the 1930s. Her ethos was "Fun First, Respect Always". Again, a condom company sponsoring a poker event is not the issue. The question is if it was a good idea to make it the main prize for a womens only event.

After the backlash, JOPT removed the explicit prize details from its website.

The listing changed to the more neutral Sagami Product Gift Sets. Sagami also pulled the specific condom-prize promotion. The sponsor also responded publicly, defending the intent behind the partnership. It stated poker as a game of the mind, and respect for its women players, while acknowledging the discomfort the promotion had caused.

The event itself remained on the schedule.

As women's poker events become more common, marketing and framing have to be addressed. Indeed, for more women to take part, opportunities and events must be packaged with fairness and respect. It will be a point for tournaments, sponsors and organisations for years to come.

For all the noise, a novelty prize is a poker tradition, and the condoms join a strange little canon. The gold-standard example is still Russ Hamilton's.

When Hamilton won a 1994 tournament, the prize came to match the silver anniversary theme. On top of the $1 million, he become a proud owner of his own body weight in silver. Hamilton was a large man, so that was a considerable haul of bullion to carry out of Binion's.

Against that backdrop, 150 condoms is unusual but hardly poker's first odd trophy. The game has a long habit of dangling novelties alongside the cash. The difference this time was less the strangeness of the prize than the event it landed on.