Award-Winning Poker Journalist Lance Bradley Launches 'The Overlay' Newsletter of Substack
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One of poker’s leading industry members has launched a new venture. Award-winning journalist and author Lance Bradley recently debuted The Overlay, a Substack built around poker coverage that will include feature articles, interviews, and commentary.
Poker fans can subscribe for free (for now at least) and get content from Bradley, who wrote the poker book The Pursuit of Poker Success: Learn from 50 of the world's best poker players.
“Apart from my family, there's quite literally nothing I love more than I love writing a good story,” Bradley told PokerNews. “I've been lucky to have spent my career in the poker world telling stories here and I want that to continue. The Overlay lets me do that while also allowing me to explore some other opportunities and platforms.”
He continued: “The Overlay will only have content from me and I'll also use it to put a spotlight on content from other outlets, such as PokerNews, or vlogs, podcasts, social media, etc. that I think are well done.”
Click here to subscribe to 'The Overlay' now!
What to Expect
Bradley has long been one of the most-respected poker media members, having worked for outlets such as BLUFF Magazine, Pocket Fives, and most recently the World Poker Tour (WPT). When it comes to longevity within the industry, few can compare.
"I think fans will appreciate that I'm writing articles about the people that make our world so special."
“I'll be creating the content for The Overlay, so in that sense it's quite similar to my past positions but the best answer is I'm not sure,” Bradley said when asked how the new venture might differ from his past positions. “I have a content plan for The Overlay but also know it needs to be fluid and adjust to what the audience responds to. For now, I want to put the content together and grow the audience.
“I have a notebook full of story ideas and plan to pursue those for The Overlay. I'll leave event recaps and the more news-based content to the people doing that now. I think fans will appreciate that I'm writing articles about the people that make our world so special. I'm aiming to put together two issues every week plus one more each month … The popularity of email newsletters has grown tremendously over the last few years and I think a lot of people now use them to follow the things they love. I am looking forward to learning about the medium while also focusing on the stories and getting them to an audience.
Closing One Chapter and Starting Another
Bradley, who earlier this year was a casualty of the WPT’s editorial layoffs along with several others on his team, recently traveled from his home on the East Coast to the 6th Annual Global Poker Awards, where he was nominated for ‘Written Content of the Year.’
“I love what the GPI Awards represent: a chance to celebrate the best in our business,” said Bradley. “Being there, with people whom I have the utmost respect for was great. It's a fun night and not something that is to be taken too seriously.”
While at the awards, Bradley got to present the award for ‘Journalist of the Year,’ and as fate would have it he got to hand it over to one of his peers – Brad Willis.
“When the news broke that WPT was making changes, the first person I heard from - even before I heard from a lot of my colleagues at WPT - was Brad. That says a lot about the person he is. He wanted to know if I was okay and if there was anything he could do for me and my family. Being able to call his name and present him with his award was an incredibly special moment for me personally. I've long considered him to be the standard for what we do and we go back a long way.”
While Bradley will be busy breathing life into The Overlay, he’s already looking ahead to the summer.
“There is no festival in the world that can match the energy in the room that the World Series of Poker (WSOP) presents,” he said. “I'll be at the Main Event for sure and likely another event or two before that.”
If you ever have an article, a podcast, a video, even a meme that you’d like Bradley to feature in the newsletter, feel free to send him a link. You can follow him on X at @Lance_Bradley.
*Images courtesy of GPI & Lance Bradley.
