Alexandre Dreyfus Plans to Make Poker a Spectator eSport

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Thursday, October 29th, 2015 | Written by Charles Washington

Is it possible that one day residents of major cities will be pumped up for poker game day? If the Global Poker Index (GPI) has its way, it will. The Global Poker Index is striving to make poker the next big professional sports craze and has developed innovative new technologies to try to make the company’s vision a reality. Commenting on his new plan to make poker a spectator game, GPI CEO Alexandre Dreyfus explained:

“We wanted to think out of the box and to create products that focus on fans, not on players. For years, the industry focused too much on players and customers; now we believe it’s time to shift the paradigm and think more about what can we do to create more ‘poker fans’ and keep them interested in the game.”

Inspired by eSports

Alexandre Dreyfus has been trying to popularize poker for a few years. In early 2016, Dreyfus’ new concept in competitive poker is scheduled to launch its inaugural season. Called the Global Poker League, this competitive poker series was inspired by the massive interest in eSports like professional Hearthstone matches and similar online events that are drawing millions of viewers online. eSports is predicted to be a $765 million industry by 2018, and the Global Poker Index is hoping to cash in with their new league.

Behold, the Cube

The Global Poker League will stream tournaments online, but it will also have a live audience of spectators. How exactly? The answer lies in The Cube, a state-of-the-art soundproof glass room that Dreyfus and his team have developed. Measuring 20 feet by 20 feet in size, The Cube allows players to be seen from all angles during tournaments. The players will stand at a table and will likely wear sponsor logos on their backs during game play. Everything that takes place inside of the cube will be visible on screens in the live venue and online. Elaborating further, Alexandre Dreyfus explained:

“You just have to make sure you do not offer the poker we know today. You need to offer something different from the WSOP, the WPT, or the EPT. You need to offer the GPL. To achieve our goal, we created The Cube, and we will keep people entertained with light shows, music, stories, and fast-paced action.”

Details on the Global Poker League

Alexandre Dreyfus has already shared a lot of information about how the Global Poker League will work. Some of its key features include:

– There will be two separate conferences; one for the Americas and one for Europe and Asia.

– The Americas league will have teams based in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paolo and Toronto, while the EurAsia league will have teams in Barcelona, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, Paris and Prague.

– The teams are privately owned franchise teams.

– To eliminate the stigma of gambling for the “sport,” the Global Poker League will not involve money. Instead, players will bet points. Poker chips will still be used to place “bets.” The state-of-the-art chips use RFID chips that allow them to be instantly calculated to display accurate point counts and wagers in real time throughout games.

– Instead of traditional cards, players will be dealt virtual cards, allowing for faster tracking.

– Each game is expected to last only 30 to 40 minutes. There will be time limits for each player’s turn with a clock counting away the seconds as is done in a game of chess.

The Next Big Thing in Poker?

With millions of people tuning into Twitch to watch top online poker players head to the virtual tables, it is possible that the Global Poker League could become the next big thing. We’ll have to wait until early 2016 to see if Alexandre Dreyfus’ bet on making poker a sport will make him a big winner. In the meantime, the global poker audience is estimated to be around 100 million people, and Dreyfus’s claim that 30% of the audience his company surveyed said they would consider paying a fee to watch live poker may not be quite as far fetched as it sounds.

This year has seen a dramatic change in which the game is viewed, thanks to Twitch, which has shown that online poker can become a popular spectator sport. Whether or not that will extend into the live arena, however, is a matter of debate as many of the Twich fans tuning in to watch players such as Jason Somerville and Griffin Benger play are very often interested in picking up some educational tips. If The Cube doesn’t prove a success, though, at least we will still get to see an entertaining show, while the organizers also inject some valuable cash back into the poker economy.