The second most populous country in the world has a spa for elephants, and three poker leagues, after the man on a mission to ‘Sportify Poker’ prepares to unleash his league in the region.
When a TV series ends, I feel like someone has died. And to learn that I may have to mourn until 2019 to watch Game of Thrones Season 8 makes me want to emigrate to the South Pole, and spend the next few years perfecting my Snowman building skills.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Spin-offs.
GOT remains the star attraction, but George R. R. Martin’s world is vast in both space and time. If Breaking Bad can create Better Call Saul, I don’t think GOT fans have anything to worry about once the next six episodes pass into the celluloid cellar.
And I think Alex Dreyfus might be a GOT man.
The CEO & Founder of Mediarex Sports & Entertainment and the Global Poker League (GPL) has been keeping fans interested with a spin-off of his own.
GPL China is currently breaking new ground in the most populous country in the world, so why not create a second spin-off in the second most populous region?
The Global Poker League Moves Into India
Earlier today, my email became positively effervescent with the news that Dreyfus and his team were preparing to launch GPL India.
The timing is perfect.
Although Dreyfus refers to GPL Season 1 as an experiment in every sense of the word people tuned in 8 million times showing the French visionary, there was a space for Team Poker.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) took the baton and revived their Tag Team contests. Aditya Sushant and Nipun Java became the first bracelet winners from India when they took down the $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em event (Java would go on to win a second bracelet in an online event).
Amit Burman, Anuj Gupta, and Pranav Bagai went a step further and introduced a live league based on Indian soil (ok, Goan waters), when the Poker Sports League combined pro players from India, with local amateurs, and a few global stars.
And more recently, entrepreneur Raj Kundra and the International Federation of Poker (IFP) created the Indian Poker League (IPL), based around the Match Poker concept, including eight franchises.
The inaugural GPL India will consist of six teams:
• Delhi Diehards
• Mumbai Jetsetters
• Bengaluru Hackers
• Chennai Sharks
• Kolkata Creators
• Ahmedabad Alphas
A selection process will involve the top Indian players according to the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings, and there will also be a route into the teams for amateur players based in India.
In the press release, Dreyfus referred to his new baby as the most legitimate and most appealing poker league in India, before going on to promote the virtue of operating GPL India as a standalone project without other business interests muddying the Ganges like waters.
Recently, the Indian gaming law website, Glaws.in brought the legitimacy of the IPL into question after revealing players have to pay for a subscription to use the IFP’s Match Poker, a glitch that lawmakers could construe as an illegal wager. Kundra has other business interests outside of the IPL.
And moving into the future, Dreyfus plans to bring the spin offs together with the winner of GPL India taking on the best teams in the world in a GPL World Championships.
Let’s hope we don’t have to wait until 2019 to learn more; I’m sad enough as it is.
