PokerStars Bail Out Alexander Dreyfus and GPL

It was heralded as the ‘next big thing’ for poker – a mix of live and online team games starring the world’s top players – but the Global Poker League (GPL) has singularly failed to attract the viewing public and has now drafted in PokerStars in a desperate bid to win fill an apparent financial hole and win over fans.

Announcement that Stars would take over as the sole sponsor is a harsh blow to the man behind the failing league – Alexander Dreyfus having repeatedly stated that the 12 teams would be financed by ‘merchandising’ them and that fans would flock to the ‘sportification’ of the game. That simply hasn’t happened, and there’s much more woe besides for the entrepreneur.

It’s not even clear whether PokerStars biggest face - Daniel Negreanu - even really believes his own ‘party line’ anymore - some of his followers obviously don’t…

PokerStars on board to help give the GPL the push it needs. https://t.co/9gRfVVcxpI

— Daniel Negreanu (RealKidPoker) September 30, 2016

“Do they even have any money?” and “Honestly surprised @PokerStars got involved in @GPL after CEO Dreyfus was scamming WSOP players this summer”, being the first two responses to Kid Poker’s tweet, with another reply fairly indicative of the prevalent public view…

@RealKidPoker@gpl all the scammers together now!

— Nik (@NikPkr) September 30, 2016

Earlier this month it was revealed that Dreyfus himself had borrowed money from two of leading lights in the high-stakes game – a total of $30,000 (that we know about) - and had failed to repay them on time, leading Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz to state on the 2+2 forum:

"He represents poker to the outside (world), so he represents us as a community to the outside…I think the story above is very questionable as a serious entrepreneur and a showing of missing integrity. I really do hope that this was a single misstep.”

And Dreyfus, beyond an initial public apology, has decided to stay schtum since on his reasons and ethics behind the loans and non-payment. Never a good sign from the head of a supposedly huge poker business.

There is also the huge hype around the ‘Cube’ in which the top pros were supposed to be playing, but has also turned out to be a damp squib so far, one poster summing it up perfectly...

"The cube was just really badly executed overall,” wrote ‘RaiseAgainst’. “Two guys standing over a tablet playing poker on awkward software where you had to wait like three seconds for the river to show up. I was watching the Bonomo match where he had to explain to his opponent how to fold (you have to touch both your cards and drag them to the side, or something). Then there was some big river bet and a call and they had to stand around and wait for the software to show the outcome of the hand. Awkward is what I would call the entire experience…I was pretty shocked after all the big promises and (attempt at) hype, that it was like this.”

With Dreyfus claiming it costs $half a million just to ship the bloody thing from A to B, you have to wonder how he’s doing it – using a fleet of gold-plated limos?

And then there’s the sudden decision to scrap the huge Twitch Con and Wembley Stadium championship finals plans, replacing them with the less-arousing GPL Arena/Cube. The reality is sadly falling short of the hype and promises.

Further accusations of ‘view-botting’ to get the numbers up to something approaching respectable on Twitch, and it’s becoming hard to see why PokerStars or any other big name company would want to be involved?

Well, let’s have a look at this idea from 2+2:

"There is not big enough prize money to get viewers truly excited, there is zero chance of a recreational player, or even of a lower-stakes good player of playing in the GPL, which I think is wrong, there should be some chance for a small number of non-elite players to be involved through on line satellites.”

Could this be the plan for PokerStars down the line? PokerStars eventually buying over the GPL and introducing an element of ‘Joe Average’ into the equation? Well, it’s possible –a company like PokerStars under Amaya is not exactly noted for being free and easy with their money, so they must have a plan to recoup whatever investment their recent announcement involves.

So far all we have is more of the corporate-speak from Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars’ Director of Corporate Communications, who stated:

"The Global Poker League brings an innovative team-based twist to poker and we are happy to support Mediarex in their quest to bring poker to new audiences.”

As ‘Auralex14’ posted on 2+2:

"The GPL will fail because the market just isn't there and the product isn't compelling. But good on Alex for trying something - most people will never even try to accomplish anything this big in their lives. Of course that's no excuse for being shady.”

Unless things change seriously – and soon – you could rip out that ‘good on Alex’ line and quite easily be staring at the whole truth behind the GPL.