MUMBAI: A new team-based poker competition will soon enter the Indian market with the launch of GPL India.
The regional league will include six teams covering India’s “largest and most poker-friendly” cities, reports Gutshot Magazine. Teams from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad will have a mix of Global Poker Index (GPI) pro players as well as “grassroots” qualifiers.
GPL India, a national team-based league “will function as a promotional platform for poker as a sport throughout the country and help tie India into the game’s worldwide community,” reports quote an official release as saying.
While details are still unclear on the exact format to be adopted for GPL India, it is expected that it will follow the GPL China model. Season 1 of GPL India will be 8-12 weeks long starting in Q1 next year. This will be followed by Season 2 after summer. The League will feature a mix of Online Matches, Studio Matches as well as Live Matches, reports indicate.
The company is aiming to start GPL India Season 1 in the first quarter of 2018. The announcement of GPL India follows on from the completion of the international Global Poker League Season 1 last December, and the launch of the first regional tour, GPL China, is currently underway. Season 2 of the GPL is still expected next year.
“GPL India will take all the lessons learned in GPL’s first season, as well as GPL China’s current successful rollout, to create the most legitimate—and, perhaps more importantly, most appealing—poker competition witnessed in India until now,” it was stated.
The six teams in GPL are the Delhi Diehards, Mumbai Jetsetters, Bengaluru Hackers, Chennai Sharks, Kolkata Creators and the Ahmedabad Alphas.
The Poker Sports League (PSL), founded by Indian online poker room Adda52 ran its first event this year in the country. Recently, the Raj Kundra promoted Match Indian Poker League (MIPL) announced its inaugural season with eight local franchises set to take place in October.
Alex Dreyfus, the founder of Mediarex Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the GPL, has been quoted as saying that he welcomes the existing local initiatives. "While each event aims to showcase poker as a game of skill, the execution of each is quite different. The PSL culminated with a live poker event while the MIPL looks to use poker software on mobile devices to conduct its format. “We have a five-year experience in sportifying poker,” Dreyfus said.
Drefus has made ‘sportifying poker’ his tagline for the GPL and he wants to capitalise on the ever growing interest for the sport of poker in the Indian market.
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