Harsher climate in the poker world with growth problems/traffic recession on many sites since 2009
Exceptional Betfair deal struck in early 2010, bit of a one off element to that
Added value often relates to the live events of the sponsor concerned eg Blue Sq = GUKPTs, DTD=Their events.
For 888 I think there was a view (probably a correct view) that the growth large buy in tour in the UK was UKIPT and with GUKPT numbers falling in 09 and 10 then the UKIPT was the way to go. This is irrespective of the relative buy ins.
All the sponsors provide terrific value in their own ways, of course. Without them the events would not be registration free (one of the major differentiating factors of APAT, still, after five seasons), there wouldn"t be updates or wouldn"t have been live streaming, just to name a couple of areas aside from the added value to players
We (APAT) and players should be enormously grateful to them all. I think we are, generally!