Alex Dreyfus Talks GPL And Criticism

Poker 2.0 is just around the corner. This past Thursday, the City of Angels, Los Angeles hosted the inaugural Draft of the Global Poker League (GPL), a unique pro league comprised of 12 teams from all around the world. During that day, the managers of those 12 teams had the opportunity to select four of the best poker tournament players from around the globe with the hope that the coming season will create a foundation that could reshape the game as we currently know it.

Unsurprisingly, most of the poker community has been looking forward to this event as it brings exposure and, quite possibly, new players to our favorite game. But that doesn’t mean al everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Over the last couple of weeks, several voices have expressed their concern and criticized the GPL and its founder, Alexander Dreyfus. The reason? The standardized player contracts.

Do You Want To Promote The League You Play In, Or Promote Yourself?

One of the loudest voices on social media regarding the GPL player contracts for the last two weeks has been WPT DeepStacks ambassador and WSOP-bracelet winner Tristan Wade.

Upon reading the contract carefully, Wade tweeted out his findings and why he thinks the contracts are unfair to the poker pros.

You aren't allowed to participate/sponsor/promote any competitor of GPL. (They say this doesn't include poker tournaments like WSOP)

— Tristan Wade (TristanCre8ive) February 9, 2016

It's nice to know GPL can use my signature though. Maybe they will sign some bills for me. Or sell a huge TRISTAN WADE blank check?

— Tristan Wade (@TristanCre8ive) February 9, 2016

The American is enraged because the player is not the focal point of the contract, the league is. According to the contract, the GPL receives 70% of the revenue while the team (the players included plus manager) receives just 20%. The other GPLers (not part of the 12 franchises) will receive the rest of 10%.

Moreover, the players that are part of the upcoming league are not allowed to support their individual sponsorships (unless it’s GPL affiliated) and aren’t allowed to participate in any similar event that is direct competitor to the GPL (tournaments like the WSOP are excluded from that rule).

Other points of emphasis Wade found worthy of mentioning were the length of the contract - two years - the payment terms and the ACE SELECTION - basically a clause that allows the league to include certain players (outside of top 1,000 GPI) to participate in a GPL event.

In other words, as Wade put it in one of his tweets:

Think about it from a bigger issue. Do you want to promote the league you play in, or promote yourself? What's more important to growth?

— Tristan Wade (@TristanCre8ive) February 9, 2016

Daniel Negreanu: Think Of GPL As A Freeroll

Not long after Wade’s rant on Twitter, Poker Hall of Famer, Daniel Negreanu, shared his view with the world on this matter. KidPoker wrote on his blog about the relative fairness of the GPL contract. Negreanu admitted he didn’t read the contract that carefully, but with the help of his legal representative, he can comment on the situation.

He suggested anyone who supports Tristan Wade not to be nitpicking and just to try and think of the league as a freerol

Participating in this ‘freeroll’ is a matter of choice and thinking in terms of ‘fair or not’ is again a matter of view. He concluded that ‘the GPL investment’ can be a profitable proposition for the player in the long run even though short-term money may not be necessarily a real motivation.

Alex Dreyfus: Sponsors Don’t Give A S### About Poker

The founder of the GPL, Alex Dreyfus didn’t just sit back and let the critics shred his creation to pieces. He even had an outburst calling poker writer Paul Oresteen a ‘nobody.’ Oresteen shared Wade’s view that the GPL contract is basically one-sided.

PaulOresteen because you are nobody and I don't know why I should, but because I'm polite, let's make a Skype/GoogleHangout. Nothing 2 hide

— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) February 10, 2016

Several days later, after trying to get in touch with both Oresteen and Wade, Dreyfus collected his thoughts and did an interview with Lee Davy via CalvinAyre.com. He talked in depth about the league and the clauses included in the player contract.

In his view, the GPL is basically a framework much like Formula One where you have 12 cars and several racetracks. In this particular environment, the sponsors are placed on the car (aka poker team/franchise) and not on the driver (aka players). The media will talk about the 12 cars competing against one another on the racetrack. The founder added:

What the GPL does is provide a package for the sponsors interested in that exposure and selling it. An individual poker player cannot provide that and nor can a fragmented environment. Most importantly, the GPL wants to create a whole new poker market that roots for a team and want to be a part of it much like in a sports league. Dreyfus said:

So what about players not being allowed to supports their own sponsors? Well, it’s not anything new. The EPT, WPT and WSOP are already doing it and enforce players not to support any other sponsors. Dreyfus even called online poker ‘toxic’ and and resented the idea of having a final table full of players that promote different poker rooms, noting that this wouldn’t help the league at all.

And what about the revenue split and payment issues? Dreyfus was clear on that: the players aren’t the ones investing! He and the investors around him are the ones risking $5 million. He reminded everyone referring to the GPL’s current exposure:

The founder also clarified the ACE SELECTION rule saying that it’s a sort of protection for the league to bring in celebrities for certain exhibition and charity events, celebrities like Barcelona FC star Neymar and most decorated Olympian of all-time Michael Phelps.

Last but not least, he gave his insight regarding the two year contract agreement: the league must be a long-term affair in order to be truly successful.

It certainly remains to be seen if the GPL is indeed successful. And if you believe it is, like we at PokerTube do, be sure to stick around ‘cause the fun starts soon.