Alexandre Dreyfuss is an entrepreneur with a love for poker. In Feb 2012, the former CEO and founder of Chiligaming sold his B2B iGaming platform to Bally Technologies, for an undisclosed amount, before launching his new baby Zokay Entertainment shortly after.
The first big deal that Zokay struck was to purchase the Global Poker Index (GPI) from Pinnacle Entertainment, who acquired the assets after the fallout of the Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G) bankruptcy, that saw the demise of the Epic Poker League (EPL). There were a few eyebrows raised, but Dreyfuss and his team have turned the GPI from a decent idea into a format that is recognized globally as the world rankings for live tournament poker.
“I believe in the growth of poker and believe the GPI, as a ranking system, can help grow poker and promote it to the non-poker players of the world.” Said Dreyfuss.
Dreyfuss was in Venice for the World Poker Tour (WPT) to oversee his team on the ground, who were promoting the GPI and the Fantasy Poker Manager (FPM) to the locals playing, or milling around, the event. The FPM is the official fantasy game of the WPT, but this doesn’t mean you can only play the game at WPT sponsored events.
Dreyfuss was in Venice for the World Poker Tour (WPT) to oversee his team on the ground, who were promoting the GPI and the Fantasy Poker Manager (FPM) to the locals playing, or milling around, the event. The FPM is the official fantasy game of the WPT, but this doesn’t mean you can only play the game at WPT sponsored events.
The Fantasy Sports market is currently a hot topic of debate Stateside right now. During the introduction of the UIGEA it was decreed that Fantasy Sports was a game of skill and large sums of money are past from player to player. But the recent moves by some companies to introduce short term Fantasy Sports picks has resulted in cries from the governing bodies that it is no longer a game of skill. So is FPM primed to also cash in on the real money business at some point in the future?
“In terms of a business model. I don’t think that within the next 12-18 months we will have introduced real money gambling into FPM. We want to seduce new fans and not just the top 100-150 players who are able to make a side bet.
“Poker is followed by people who play poker. I want to drive people who don’t follow poker into poker.”
