Posts Tagged ‘Global Poker Index’

Does the Global Poker League stand a Chance?

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Taking a cue from sports leagues like the NBA and NFL, Global Poker Index founder Alex Dreyfus recently announced the formation of the “Global Poker League,” or GPL for short.

While few details are known on the GPL, this poker league follows up on Dreyfus’ mission to sportify the game and make it more entertaining for casual audiences. Here’s more from the man himself on what to expect:

GPL will be Poker’s professional league. The initial vision is to have a series of live events akin to a sports season co-hosted by international poker events, with between six to eight different franchises (poker teams) competing against one another with initial seasons lasting a short three to four months. Unlike the Global Poker Masters – where teams are comprised of each Nation’s top 5 available players – GPL teams will consist of “draftable” players from GPI’s Rankings and 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.

So does Dreyfus’ proposed league stand a chance of success? Well looking back through history, there’s a little thing called the Epic Poker League, which flopped miserably. The EPL was designed to be a professional poker league of sorts, where qualified players competed in tournaments – all marching towards a $1 million freeroll.

The EPL was a massive failure, highlighted by the fact that the $1 million freeroll never took place. In the aftermath, Annie Duke’s reputation was tarnished even more than through her long-term promotional ties to UB. So is Dreyfus destined to be the next Duke?

Probably not since he can learn from the huge mistakes of the EPL. Plus he seems like a very capable business guy. But this isn’t necessarily to say that a professional poker league will take off either. Only time will tell if Dreyfus can make his vision a success.

Read more about the GPL at Dreyfus’ blog.

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Daniel Negreanu earning More than Roger Federer?

Sunday, July 27th, 2014

Thanks to his $8.3 million cash in the 2014 WSOP Big One for One Drop, Daniel Negreanu is having an unbelievable year. In fact, he recently tweeted about how his tournament profits are looking right now, which you can see below:

Events 44
Cashes 12
Hours 416
Buyins $2,931,661
Payouts $10,247,143
Profit $7,315,482

As you can see, Negreanu is close to a 300% ROI on his tourney buy-ins this year. And Mirror UK took notice of this tweet and decided to do something very interesting with it. They compared how Kid Poker is doing financially to some other top athletes this year. Converting Negreanu’s winnings into pounds, he has £4.2 million, which ranks ahead of some of those listed below:

1. Tiger Woods – £7.6 million
(2. Negreanu – £4.2 million)
2. Roger Federer – £4.1 million
3. Phil Mickelson – £2.9 million
4. David Beckham – £2.9 million

Besides comparing Negreanu to big-name athletes, another interesting thing that Mirror does is look at the top 10 earners from the PGA, ATP and poker. Here’s a look at their list:

1. Top 10 PGA players – $52,775,979
2. Top 10 ATP tennis players – $48,566,433
3. Top 10 Global Poker Index players – $47,870,710

Poker pros may not rank quite as high as professional golfers when it comes to winnings. However, they do rank pretty comparably to tennis pros, trailing them by just under $1 million so far.

So what’s the lesson to kids here? Give up spending hours sweating your ass off in the hot sun trying to be a tennis pro or golfer – instead opting for studying opponents’ 4-betting range? Well, we don’t expect poker popularity among the youth to experience a sudden spike simply because of Negreanu’s great year. However, the Mirror’s research does go to show that poker is no doubt a lucrative game that pays very well when somebody is running hot.

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Poker Player Newspaper ends Print Magazine just as GPI launches One

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

With a wealth of poker news and information now available on the internet, many printed poker magazines are having a rough go of it these days. For Poker Player Newspaper, the pressure became too much as they ended their print edition after 30-plus years in the business.

Owner Stan Sludikoff said that the costs of printing and distributing a magazine “have escalated past a point of feasibility in our current business model.” He added, “Accordingly, effective immediately, we will be publishing Poker Player Newspaper exclusively on the Internet at pokerplayernewspaper.com.” Sludikoff, who’s 78, also mentioned that he’s open to selling the business with the following statement:

At this point in my life, given my desire to pass the mantle as well as to work through the economic pressures as expeditiously as possible, I am looking for a working partner/investor or alternatively for a full buyout of my family-based Poker Player business which has operated since 1982.

Just as Poker Player Newspaper is getting out of the print magazine business, the Global Poker Index will be launching a free printed mag. As an official partner of the World Series of Poker, the GPI will have a booth at the Rio this summer and distribute their magazine. In addition to the Rio, the free publication will also be handed out at other Las Vegas casinos like the Aria, Bellagio, GoldenNugget, Venetian and Wynn.

The company’s CEO, Alex Dreyfus, is extremely excited to venture outside the bounds of their internet presence. “This is our first full-scale foray outside of the digital,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier to take this step and keep our growing momentum going in time for the 2014 WSOP.”

Some of the content that’ll be in GPI’s June edition includes a feature on Vanessa Selbst and her WSOP plans, Top 1,500 GPI US Rankings, and a guide of Las Vegas for WSOP out-of-towners. If you’d like to read the first edition of GPI’s magazine online, you can do so here.

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GPI Owner Alexandre Dreyfus only thinks Poker will get Bigger

Wednesday, September 11th, 2013

Most experienced online poker players have come to accept the fact that the game is no longer filled with easy money. Nearly all players know at least a little poker strategy, and information is readily available with just a few clicks of the mouse. This being said, many people are doom and gloom about the prospects for growth because the boom is over.

But Global Poker Index (GPI) owner Alexandre Dreyfus isn’t one of these people. The businessman has run several successful ventures within the poker world, including Winamax, GPI, iGamingFrance.com, Chilipoker, FantasyPokerManager, and his latest acquisition, HendonMob. Dreyfus agrees that poker is no longer offering the dream of quick money like it did in the mid-2000’s. However, he also doesn’t believe this marks a drop in the game’s appeal.

“I believe that, like in any industry or life, there are cycles. We are at the end of the golden age of poker, both online and live,” he said. “Does it mean it’s the end? Of course not. I wouldn’t invest millions, literally, if I thought so. It’s just different and we are now starting to build a real industry, one that will be there for another decade. There is no room anymore for easy money, it’s a challenge and only committed people will survive.”

If Dreyfus didn’t truly believe what he’s saying, then he wouldn’t have purchased HendonMob recently. This is the world’s most comprehensive poker tournament database and is accessed by tens of thousands of players every day. The businessman will also be busy keeping up with the GPI, which will help the European Poker Tour determine its Player of the Year.

As for what he sees happening within the US in the near future, Dreyfus thinks that we’re a long ways off from pre-Black Friday levels. But he does see some positive things happening on the US front and thinks there are still opportunities here. “Money was easy five or 10 years ago, now we need to be smarter and work harder to make it happen,” he stated. “I see poker evolving, growing and we need to stop comparing poker as it was before. It will never be. It will be better, in many ways.”

Dreyfus is definitely right in that poker is not the same as it was before Black Friday. But it’s exciting to hear him talk about the potential that’s still there and how the game should continue evolving and growing as a “real industry.”

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Epic Poker League Bankrupt – Is this the End?

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

We at ThePokerPractice have always been skeptical of the Epic Poker League, and have often questioned whether a PGA-style tournament organization could be successful in poker. So far, our skepticism hasn’t wavered – especially amidst news that the Epic Poker League is bankrupt.

Their parent company, Federated Sports + Gaming, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday, which means they’re in serious debt and having trouble paying it back. Now this doesn’t mean they’re finished quite yet because Federated Sports + Gaming still retains rights to the EPL and their Global Poker Index ranking system. But they obviously haven’t experienced a lot of financial success so far.

Jeffrey Pollack, who is the Chairman  of FS + G, believes that the answer in getting the Epic Poker League back on track centers on finding a good partner. He also spoke about the bankruptcy by saying, “This reorganization filing is an important first step in that direction and our goal is to keep the Epic Poker League and all of our key initiatives – including the Global Poker Index, epicpoker.com, the Epic Poker game on Facebook, and the Heartland Poker Tour – moving forward with a continued spirit of innovation.”

Pollack added a word about the partner by saying, “We will most likely accomplish this by entering into an agreement with another firm that shares our passion and vision – a process we had been working toward prior to the filing.”

The Epic Poker League intrigued the poker world when they started operating last year, and they’ve successfully held three tournaments so far. However, their system is very different from other poker organizations since they only invite pros to the events, and front the prize pools for each tournament. Right now, the latter is proving to be a difficult hurdle for the EPL, which relies on lucrative TV contracts to keep going. It will be interesting to see if they can pull out of this mess, and we’ll keep you updated on any further news.

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