Watch The (Sports) Pros go Heads-up

888poker has just launched a new monthly heads-up video series with a twist – the players are famous sports stars!

In an attempt to appeal to sporting fans who also love poker, the site has introduced #HEADSUP, a monthly digital magazine, which will see two well-known stars of the sporting world not only play against each other, but also discuss a variety of sporting and poker-related topics during the match.

The first episode sees two retired stars of the English football (soccer) Premiership – Wayne Bridge and Paul Ince – do battle.

The poker isn’t of the highest quality, but the pair make up for this with friendly banter on a number of subjects, including their worst poker opponents (perhaps difficult to believe there could be worse than these two according to some reports), jokes and pranks, and discussions of David Benyamine’s skills.

The 888poker idea of bringing sports stars to the poker table isn’t completely new – PokerStars have their own Team SportStars which includes the likes of Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. and Fatima Moreira De Melo in their ranks. Previously Rafael Nadal was the biggest ‘face’ of their campaign, and other sporting stars are likely to follow.

Naturally, despite some successes at the poker tables, this 888poker focus on sports heroes is designed to draw in a new audience – with the demographic for poker being similar to sports, primarily males 18-40. The rise of DFS has provided a great oppertunity to attract sports fans to poker, and vice versa!

Both Max Steinberg and Brian Hastings are avid DFS players, and recently the Global Poker Index inventor Alex Dreyfus has announced plans for the GPL – a Global Poker League run along the same lines as a sporting league.

A 14-week season of league matches between teams of 12 players, held in sports stadia settings is his dream – vastly different to current world-leading poker leagues such as the OPL.

The 888poker monthly digital magazine offerings will hopefully fare better than their previous venture into the sporting world, which last year saw them sign up Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez to both play and promote the site.

Unfortunately, barely a month into their contract, Suarez (not for the first or last time) caused controversy at the World Cup by biting an Italian opponent!

The poker room quickly decided to terminate their relationship with the hungry Uruguayan, stating at the time: