GPI Continues the Efforts to Sportify Poker
10 years ago
06 Nov
Alex Dreyfus, the leading man of the Global Poker Index, is the guy with the vision – there is no denying it. We could debate the validity of his vision with pro and con arguments, but visionaries are those always driving a change. Some of them fail in the process, of course, but in the words of a very dear TV show character ‘He who dares - wins!’
We written earlier about Dreyfus’ plans to sportify poker and make it more main stream which would, in turn, attract sponsorship and marketing deals common in numerous other sports. In his latest blog entry, he divulges further on what the steps moving forward should be to start realizing these goals.
Also GPI has introduced some interesting concepts like American Poker Awards, acquired European Poker Awards and created Fantasy Poker Manager, but all this is not enough to achieve the ultimate goal – fully sportifying poker. So moving forward, Dreyfus has a vision for a new kind of poker tournaments.
Sports Formatted Events
We are used to seeing poker played in a tournament format where players pay their buy-ins. These buy-ins create the prize pool which is then distributed amongst top X finishers. GPI now has a different vision – creating sports-like events with no gambling, which could attract mainstream digital sports and news media.
World Cup – the first step towards achieving this is the Global Poker Masters scheduled to take place early in 2015, where top eight poker countries will bring out their best five players to compete. The event should be streamed live on several major sports sites.
Professional League - the Global Poker League is envisioned so to have a series of live events similar to a sports season. Initial seasons should last 3 – 4 months until the whole idea gets bit more off the ground. Six to eight different poker teams will compete against each other and players in the team will be draftable from GPI’s rankings combined with the wildcard entries.
I’ve already presented this concept, and terms for participation, to a number of prospective future team owners. It’s been an extremely positive experience - reception has been warm across the board and we’ve already had a number of commitments from intrigued future ‘franchise’ owners. Commitments from leading figures from both in front of and behind the felt are rolling in too. Alexandre Dreyfus, GPI owner;Interesting Developments Ahead
Although a lot is still to be determined and finalized, it seems that Dreyfus and Global Poker Index have a very interesting vision for poker – the one that could, in fact, greatly change the game and how it is perceived by the general public.
What other side effects these changes (for better or for worse) would have on the game is to early to tell. Generally speaking, however, mainstreaming poker must have an overall positive influence on the game as more people will become interested and those without prior knowledge will no longer associate poker with gambling and dark back rooms of shady establishments and much more.
Perhaps it is a time for poker to experience an evolution of a sort and, with all the enthusiasm and energy he is displaying, Dreyfus just might be the right man to get the things started!
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