Alex Dreyfus – Sportifying Poker

Rikard caught up for a chat with the Global Poker Index owner Alex Dreyfus during this year’s EPT11 in London. Dreyfus explained that one of the main items on the GPI’s to-do list was the idea of ‘sportifying’ poker, making it more appealing to the mainstream media which, in turn, would lead to more sponsorship deals from major companies.

The whole concept revolves around the idea of making poker foundations clearer to the media houses and agencies and helping them understand that poker is more sport and competition than gambling. This is, of course a daring task considering the currently existing prejudices and forces working against mainstreaming poker, but that makes it even more of a valiant effort.

GPI owner is aware that the things will not start with A-list sponsors but there are many open-minded people who are not afraid to enter a new field. Poker certainly has more than enough elements that classify it in the ‘sport’ category.

Like many of GPI’s efforts, this one also seems very ambitious. Poker has been around for years and it has grabbed quite a share in the media, but there was never a particular interest by the companies not directly involved with the industry to sponsor or otherwise help poker events and / or players.

The very obvious reason from this stems from the clear connection between the poker and gambling in majority of people’s minds. Most of the companies would not be connected to the ‘evils of gambling’ if they can help it, so this stigma first needs to somehow be removed.

Alex has some plans and ideas, as explained in the interview, but will these be enough – it’s hard to say. Although many of the arguments hold water, there are still so many that, without some deeper understanding of the game intricacies, just put it into ‘gambling’ category.

Will there be enough companies out there with enough daring spirit, patience and willingness to learn to make this happen? Not impossible, of course, but it does feel like an uphill battle right now. If it does happen, however, all the better – anything that helps popularization of poker as a skill game is, of course, positive for the entire poker community.