GPL Indian League to Kick-Off on October 14th

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Sunday, September 17th, 2017 | Written by Stephen Smith

Following in the footsteps of the original Global Poker League (GPL) that first started last year in the Americas and then Eurasia, the owner of the GPL, Mediarex S&E, has announced that the organization intends to launch a new Global Poker League in India, with the action scheduled to get underway on October 14th. Commenting upon the exciting development, Mediarex CEO Alexandre Dreyfus, stated:

“The GPL India will create the most legitimate – and perhaps more importantly most appealing – poker competition witnessed in India until now.”

GPL Indian Format

The Indian GPL will take its cues from the inaugural season of the first Global Poker Leagues in order to create an appealing competition that will not only benefit the existing poker lovers in the country, but also attract new fans. This is because there will not only be top players involved from India’s professional poker scene, but there will also be plenty of room for amateur players to work their way into the rankings as well.

To start off, there will be six different teams, with each one of these teams representing India’s most poker friendly locations. The person that wins the first season of the Indian GPL will then be able to play against some of the top teams of the Global Poker League in the GPL World Championship.

GPL China

China also has a Global Poker League, but despite its announcement back in December of 2016, there have been no matches played nine months later, and as a result the league has stayed firmly under the radar. Nonetheless, when it does eventually get underway, it will boasts a dozen different teams, but unlike the main GPL where players are eligible according to their ranking on the Global Poker Index, the teams in China will be determined by tournaments that serve as local qualifiers. Consequently, these teams will not just be made up of high ranking players, and in this way, the GPL China will have a process of selection similar to the one used in India, which uses qualification, instead of traditional drafting methods.

Stiff Competition in India

While India’s poker industry is thought to be rather small right now, and worth around $50 to $120 million, it is believed that the Indian GPL will help the industry to grow further. In the meantime, the GPL will have to face some stiff competition which already exists within the sub-continent’s poker market from two other rival competition’s, namely the Indian Poker League (IPL) and the Poker Sports League (PSL).

Furthermore, both have been enjoying more and more popularity since their inception, therefore providing them with a competitive edge against the GPL. Their advantage will also be enhanced by having the financial investment and backing of a mix of businesses and entrepreneurs, not unlike as in a sports league, as opposed to the GPL model which is run by just a single organization. Plus, the Poker Sports League has already completed its first season, which proved a great success.

GPL Optimistic

Even with the odds seemingly against them, the Global Poker League feels confident that launching its GPL India will be a mutually beneficial arrangement for both the company, and the country’s poker loving public, who will have another outlet to enjoy their game. The French entrepreneur further believes that the GPL will be able to make up for any initial competitive disadvantages on account of the organization’s already established international reputation for poker excellence.

Elaborating further about the competition, Dreyfus said that believes the model currently used by the Poker Sports League (PSL) was “flawed and doomed”, while the GPL would benefit from his more than two decades in the internet industry. Explaining that his was a 3 to 5 years investment, Dreyfus added:

“The only downside of having several operators is that not all of them will survive, and when one disappears, it affects all the others negatively in term of PR. On the long-term vision, I’m not worried about our approach.”

Top Indian Players

In the meantime, the GPL has added two of India’s top ranked players to its line up, including the female player, Muskan Sethi, and Nipun Java, India’s first ever winner of a WSOP bracelet. This summer, Java took down the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Tag Team event for $75,318, before a few week later capturing yet another bracelet, this time at the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – WSOP.com Online Championship event for $237,688. The following month, Java then went on to take down the $570 Deep Stack Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for $230,848, with the player currently boasting live career earnings of $2,276,457.