Logo Restriction Leads To Betclic Everest Exit From Global Poker Masters

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Monday, February 2nd, 2015 | Written by Shane Larson

The grand plan of Global Poker Index CEO Alex Dreyfus to create a second poker boom by launching his Global Poker Masters event has hit a hitch after Betclic Everest has pulled its sponsored players from the tournament for not being allowed to wear their site’s promotional logos. The event had been billed as the “World Cup Of Poker,” but the withdrawal of two of France’s top players from its national team now threatens to dampen spirits ahead of the 2015 Global Poker Masters (GPM), and as Dreyfus commented after the surprise news:

“This vision is shared by almost all players.. around the world, as well as the poker media, and other leading groups in the world of media and sport, as you’ll see in a few weeks.. I did not count on the French “idiocracy.” I, who left France eight years ago, found myself this week in a ridiculous situation that hurts and saddens me.”

The Global Poker Masters

The Global Poker Masters uses its unique points system to bring together the top eight poker countries in the world, based upon the results of their best five players, where they then compete in an exciting $10,000 buy-in invitational competition. The eight teams which subsequently are due to compete at the inaugural event on March 21st/22nd are Team USA, Team Canada, Team Russia, Team Ukraine, Team Germany, Team UK, Team Italy, and, of course, Team France.

“For almost three years now I have tried to create an initiative, a dynamic, to revive media interest in poker, as much in France as in (most) of the rest of the world. To that end, I bought a few companies, the GPI, HendonMob, EuropeanPokerAwards and the FrancePokerAwards. The idea is to “sportify” poker“; to popularize the game; to invigorate it and trigger a boom,” explained Dreyfus.

The only thing being that now French company Betclic Everest has thrown a spanner in the works by pulling Benjamin Pollack and Frabrice Soulier from the five-man French Team, which was selected wholly on merit.

Dispute Over Gaming Free Sponsorship

Following Betclic Everest’s surprise announcement, Dreyfus vented his frustration on the company by suggesting Betclic Everest should now qualify for an “Absurd” award at the upcomingFrancePokerAwards, an event also owned by Alex Dreyfus. As the French GPI CEO further explains:

“Managers of [Betclic Everest] simply cut two of the best players from the France team because they could not accept [unlike Winamax, PMU or Pokerstars] to see their players represent France for two days without a 5cm2 their logo on their chest. This reduces the team’s chances of winning and that’s a shame.”

The dispute seems to have come about due to a difference in opinion related to keeping the event free from gaming sponsorship, an approach deemed necessary by Dreyfus in order to ‘Sportify’ poker’ and attract a new batch of non-gaming sponsors into the game. Interestingly, Everest Poker sponsored pro Sam Trickett will still be competing for Team UK, indicating that the decision to halt Soulier and Pollak’s participation in the event was perhaps one made not by the Group as a whole, but by Betclic Everest’s local management team.

Incident Causing Increase In Interest

The two players in question, Benjamin Pollack and Frabrice Soulier, were expected to join PMU’s Erwann Pecheux, and Winamax’s Sylvain Loosli in the national competition, neither of whose online poker sponsors had a problem letting their players take part in the 2015 Global Poker Masters. The team’s fifth wildcard entry is then due to be named in a few weeks time. Since the disappointing news of Betclic’s exit, however, the GPM appears to have attracted a lot more interest, and as Dreyfus explains:

“The tournament has actually gained more traction since this incident. I especially love the reaction of Unibet France, who said: ‘We can send you Quentin Lecomte to represent France, without stickers, without shirts and without pants.’ Or another player on the ClubPoker.net forum who said the only logo that matters is the French flag.”

In further good news, Soulier and Pollak’s omission from Team France almost certainly means popular pro Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier will now get a chance to represent his country in the event. In any case, the Global Poker Masters will run as scheduled come March 21st, with or without Betclic’s participation.