Global or Online Poker League?

If you’ve read any of my previous articles about the future of poker, you probably already know that I love leagues. I think, as far as spectator sports go, a league is pretty much a necessity. A good league will manage to sort out players in such a way that players of equal skill end up in the same brackets, fans have clear teams or players that they can root for, and there will be a schedule we can all follow so we know where we can find the next action.

In the past month or two, I have seen the announcement of two extremely important poker leagues that will likely shape the sport over the next few years, these are the Global Poker League (GPL) and the Online Poker League (OPL). While the two have yet to clash head-2-head in any way, there have been rumblings of competition and dissonance between the two, so I’m here to set the record straight. First, what is the GPL?

The GPL is the brainchild of poker innovator Alexandre Dreyfus. You can read more information about Dreyfus and the GPL here, but let me share a summation. Dreyfus has this idea that professional poker needs to be “sportified.” Among the many things this entails, it includes an international poker league. This league will be composed of six teams in each of two conferences, one for the Americas, and one for Eurasia. Six cities within the bounds of each conference will be selected to produce a 5 person team (3 drafted from the top 1000 on the GPI and 2 “wild cards.”) Games will be played until an ultimate victor is crowned. So the GPL ends up being comparable to FIFA or the NHL. Its intention is to produce big names and national teams that large groups of non-participating fans can get behind.

The Online Poker League (OPL), on the other hand, is not geared toward spectators, but toward players. First and foremost, the league is open to anyone. All you need to do to join is create an account. Instead of forcing everyone in the league to select games, the OPL will host 50+ tournaments over the course of a season each of which has it own individual prizes in addition to being worth league points. At the end of the season, players will be ranked in the league based on their ten best performances across whichever of the 50+ they choose to play, and the top 100 players will split the prize pool. I see the OPL as a proving ground equivalent to college level play. Anyone who thinks they have talent can join in and the best of these unknown players will rise to the top.

So now that we understand the two entities we are talking about here, let stack them side by side.

Sponsorship:

Both leagues are well sponsored. Alexandre Dreyfus has piles of money and backers to boot, but the OPL is being supported by FullTilt, PartyPoker, William Hill, Unibet, and America’s Card Room to name a few. Each league should be well off financially to launch without a hiccup.

Player Base:

In terms of actual player base, the OPL clearly takes an advantage over the GPL. While the GPL will be picking players from the Global Poker Index (GPI), these will almost certainly be big name, sponsered professionals. I think that by being open to all challengers, the OPL will both be more interesting to watch, and more likely to produce star players.

Fan Potential :

The GPL has the advantage here. While spectators will certainly pick favorites and follow individual players on their rise through the ranks, there is nothing quite like backing the home team. If your city got a GPL team, how could you not root for them?

Financial Prospects:

This is a tough call. The GPL is a huge endeavor and will involve extremely costly advertisement and fees, not to mention tournament prizes worthy of the world’s top players. That being said, the potential money made if the fan base grows as expected is just as large. The OPL, on the other hand, is taking a much smaller risk with its comparatively smaller tournaments, and semi-professional player base. That being said, there isn’t nearly as much advertising space to sell unless the league gets big. However, if it does, the OPL stands to make a decent mint. I’m calling this a tie.

Selling Points:

This category is up in the air.The GPL has huge potential with “The Cube,” the GPI, and the potential to play on inherent nationalism for fan support. That being said, it’s all about momentum for Dreyfus. One flop could send the multi-million dollar venture spiralling down a hole from which it won't recover. By offering less and risking less, the OPL is well provisioned to withstand seasons or even years of slow growth if it does not take off as fast as intended. However, it lacks the glamour and star-studded feel of the GPL. Favor falls based on how much you like to gamble. For better or for worse, we’re all gamblers here.

Ultimately, I think both are going to be a great boon to the future of professional poker, but when called to judge between the two, I support the OPL. It's not that I don’t like Alexandre Dreyfus. I think he's got big ideas and a whole lot of pizzaz. The problem for me, is that I’m not just a fan, I’m a player. I love poker in all of its forms, the game, the atmosphere, the feel of the felt. The GPL is a great idea, but it’s for spectators, not for me. So when they tell me their is a Global Poker League, I wonder, just how much of the globe is in on this? 60 people? That's not really very global. I’d rather put down $5 to play than $5 to watch pretty much every time.