The owner of Global Poker Index, Alex Dreyfus, wants to create a new genre for the game of poker. By the fall of 2015, Dreyfus is hoping to launch the Global Poker League which will be a team based poker experience. Players are constantly looking for new ways to enjoy the game and with the Global Poker League, players from around the world will be able to team up and take on the best and brightest of the game.
The poker competition will have a never before seen format that will offer live gaming featuring eight sponsored teams. Each team will have seven players, with the teams competing for a set prize pool. The prize money would be produced by sponsors and the Global Poker Index. The group behind Global Poker Index plans on investing as much as $3 to $5 million on the project to get the ball rolling.
Speaking with Pokerfuse, Dreyfus stated that each team will have a commercial sponsor. Each team will not be associated with a poker brand per say but will have a strong backer in the process. In most competitions, players are backed by a top poker brand. Dreyfus wants to break from the regular mold and show poker has more to offer than brand names.
During the season of the Global Poker League, there will be ten weeks of game play. The season would begin with an initial draft where the team owners will select the players of each team. The plan of the GPI is to have three out of the seven players be chosen from the top tournament players of the GPI 300 or GPI 500 list. Two additional players would be chosen by the team owners and would be considered wild card players with two additional players added by live and online qualifiers.
Qualifiers would take place at 1,400 casinos that are currently working with the GPI or have worked with The Hendon Mob. Players who are chosen will not have to pay to be part of the unique team process. Everything will be paid for and players simply show up to compete. Every league match will be streamed via Twitch so players and fans can catch all the action. GPI is also planning on placing the new league in front of a larger audience by working on partnerships with SportingNews and USA Today. The Global Poker Index is currently in discussions with media distributors to try and build partnerships to show of the new teams and competitions.
According to Dreyfus, four team owners have already committed to take part in the project. Dreyfus admits that creating a team is a ballsy move but the Global Poker Index and himself has a track record in the poker industry for ten years and 18 years online to help support the ambitious goal. The industry, poker media, poker tours and players have been very receptive to the new plan for poker team gaming.
The GPI is only further introduced to the public by the most recent event, the Global Poker Masters. This event took place in Malta and saw teams created after different countries including the United States and Italy. Dreyfus feels that the Global Poker Masters helped to prove that team poker can work and it makes sense for GPI to organize and promote live events in the game of poker.
So for now, we wait until August or September to see if the Global Poker Index will be able to make their dream of team poker a reality. The process is unique and it should be interesting to watch as the new variant of poker gaming takes shape and comes together.