Finally all the smack talk can be put to rest in poker and those who truly are the top dogs can now just point to the scoreboard after Federated Sports and Gaming announced the launch of its Global Poker Index.
According to USA Today Sports, The Global Poker Index ( GPI) is, “a patent pending system that ranks and tracks the weekly performance of the world’s top 300 live tournament poker players.” These tracked rankings will be available at USA Today Sports and GlobalPokerIndex.com as well as EpicPoker.com.
Pokernews.com reported Annie Duke, commissioner of the Epic Poker League saying “This system is revolutionary for poker and will provide a clear-cut, statistically definitive means for comparing the live tournament accomplishments of top players…Many of the world’s best players are not well known outside of the avid fan base. The Global Poker Index will not only create excitement around the rankings of the more established players, but will also put a focus on a new generation of young players.”
No more bragging or tall tales of grandeur. Now, there are numbers to back a player’s performance as finishing-place, buy-in, and aging factors for each qualifying tournament will be used to put together every player’s composite GPI score.
It will be interesting to see just how sponsors will view and use this data when looking for their next poker player to sponsor.
