Alex, even if you're French, you're not allowed to say Looooonch

Best of luck for the project, I really hope it will work, seems fun.

You mean "can't"?

That makes more sense then.

>> You mean "can't"?"

Yes that's what I meant I was multi-tabling and got distracted when answered this.

You can't have London Vodafone or the New York 888

Whats to stop players from collusion?

What do u mean ? there is NO format where players from same team players together obviously.

Alex

You've been totally transparent with your plans which is refreshing to see in the poker world.

Have you spoken publically about GPI / GPL ownership?

I understand that GPL is very different from Epic Poker league, but one of their many issues was that they weren't properly funded.

You obviously feel good about your ability to fund the league for a few years to prime the pump. Are there any investors that are in with you that you can share that others would recognize?

I certainly understand if you'd rather not talk about that info on the interwebz, but was just interested and didn't know if you've spoken publically about this before and wanted to ask.

hi PTLou,

thanks. I believe that transparency is a key element to success, even though its easier to get **** out of it :-)

I funded the company myself for the last 3 years, thanks to the sale of my last company to Bally Technologies in Las Vegas. In July, we raised $4.9mm from Venture Capitalist, including a giant private equity fund in China (!) and some investors like the French Billionnaire Xavier Niel ($10B net worth) or the co-founder of the Sports Media Group Perform recently sold for $1.2B.

Hope it answers to your question.

Ok. sounds like your checks will clear thanks

Although I agree with you, most people don't obviously, because people are very loyal to their NHL or whatever team for their city although often times there are NO players from their city on the team. Chalk it up to mass ******ation?

Players dont need to be on the same team to collude.

If owners are being encouraged to pick local players, I'm not betting on Barcelona.

I think it might not work then. I thought that the franchised teams would work like Formula 1 or pro cycling, where there is a lead sponsor for each team, and the members of each team can be from anywhere on earth.
e.g. In F1, you used to have the Marlboro McLaren team, and now it's the Mercedez McLaren team. In cycling, Dave Brailsford runs Team Sky, which mostly contains British cyclists, but if Sky (the main sponsor) quit the sport, he would call it something else and probably build a less UK-centric roster.

To me, it seems natural for the GPL teams to be called things like The Pokerstars Canadians (with Amaya paying for it, ldo), or The 888 Brazilians. Maybe you can get Hellmuth to be a figurehead/co-owner for Team Aria Las Vegas or something like that. Whether someone can form the Red Bull New Yorkers, or the LA Draft Kings, or Toronto Twitchers is another matter, but I can't really see sponsors putting a lot of money into the event if all they get is some patches on shirtsleeves.

All that said, I've really warmed to the idea of the GPL (I watched about half of the Twitch Q&A, and you came across very well), but it seems like a huge step to go from "no league at all" to "12 teams with 12 owners and 12 sponsors on 4 continents". Best of luck, all the same.

This exact concept was tried 10 years ago at the palms.

Pokerbowl with franchised teams.

My team finished second.

Juanda had trips.

From what I recall about the PokerBowl, the Palms had to pay players themselves when the person who ran the PokerBowl bounced checks.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/busines...er-tournaments
http://pokerati.com/2008/01/pokerbow...checks-bounce/

Exactly. I got paid from the palms

When you say that matches last around 40 minutes is that because its a timed event and person with the most chips at the end of the period wins? Or do the blinds go up so fast as it is expected to be over quickly?

And for player compensation is it just salaries or is there money for the winning team each week or at the end of season?

Thks

Alex Dreyfus talks about the GPL media strategy, hoping to make similar impacts that the UFC and Esports have made.

http://www.mediarex.com/gpl-can-make...s-ufc-esports/

"Sometimes it pays to make a flop." - the producers

Poker and esports do not go together, but you can call this whatever you want since esports isn't really a sport either. If you added a penalty box and let players fight after getting rivered, I'd watch.

Know were cookin with gas....

He's making comparisons that simply don't exist.

How is poker similar to the fight scene 20 years ago? Is he trying to say the WPT, EPT, HPT etc are the equivalent to these different governing bodies?
If so, it's simply not comparable. Everyone is playing the same game on those tours, poker. Playing on one tour doesn't meant you can't play on another.
UFC combined groups of competitors in different disciplines of martial arts.
It's a totally different thing.

How is the poker fan base 'fragmented'?

I'm not sure Alex even understands the game he's trying to sportify.

This is actually pretty interesting news.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151112006589/en/USA-TODAY-Sports-Media-Group-Global-Poker

It's good timing to launch the league in first quarter 2016. The massive buzz and excitement generated by the WSOP Final Table will just be starting to dissipate and the first GPL event can feed off of that momentum.

I think this idea is bound to fail, for several reasons.

Poker is just not a spectator sport (it's questionable if it's a sport at all) like football and basketball. The idea that people will pay tickets to watch people play poker is redicolous.

It's also individual and not a team sport/game. In poker every man plays for himself. Individual tournament leaderboards are OK but long-term teams of poker players? No way.

Also Alex mentioned that events will have no buy-in to take gambling out of poker. I just can't see how any top player will play for "play money". Remember that most professional players are in this to win money. Only a minority want fame.

Poker is not a sport and I don't claim so. The poker that WE know, you and me, today is not made to be a spectactor sport, its made to be played. We agree on that. That's why you need to create a dedicated framework that is build to create a watchable game. "Shifting from a player experience to a fan experience". That's our motto.

(ps : 30% of US poker fans (who have interest in the game) in a national/representative survey claimed that would be interested to PAY to attend to watch a GPL event. Its a trend, as much ad Trump being president. You are not sure, but there is a trend).

Again, depends how your structure your platform and our events. Need to break codes.

Who said they will not play for money ? There is money to win, provided by the League and its partners, just the money is NOT coming from player's pockets

Alex