Alex Dreyfus’ brainchild, Global Poker League (GPL), is a bold initiative and is starting to become reality. With the latest announcement regarding the team managers and the team franchises, this initiative is really going from only an idea to reality.
Things as really starting to take shape, last week the name of the first of the 12 franchises was made public, it is going to be called Las Vegas Moneymakers, named after Chris Moneymakers, the team manager. This franchise will compete in the first season of the Global Poker League.
The other 11 franchise names were revealed last Wednesday. You can find below the list with all franchises that will compete in the inaugural season of GPL, along with their location and the name of their team manager:
- Berlin Bears – Philipp Gruissem (Twitter: @BLNBears)
- Hong Kong Dragons – Celina Lin (Twitter: @HKGStars)
- Los Angeles Sunset – Maria Ho (Twitter: @GPLSunset)
- Las Vegas Moneymakers – Chris Moneymaker (Twitter: @LASMoneymakers)
- London Royals – Liv Boeree (Twitter: LDNRoyals)
- Montreal Nationals – Marc-Andre Ladouceur (Twitter: @MTLNationals)
- Moscow Wolverines – Anatoly Filatov (Twitter:@ MSKWolverines)
- New York Rounders – Bryn Kenney (Twitter: @NewYorkRounders)
- Paris Aviators – Fabrice Soulier (Twitter: @ParisAviators)
- Rome Emperors – Max Pescatori (Twitter: @RomeEmperors)
- San Franscisco Rush – Faraz Jaka (Twitter: @SanFranRush)
- Sao Paulo Metropolitans – Anddre Akkari (Twitter: @saopaulomets)
Global Poker League Draft
Besides participating in the Global Poker League, all twelve franchises will also play in the first Global Poker League Draft on the 25th of February. The league will start at 2 PM, PST and will be co-hosted by Phil Hellmuth and Kara Scott.
During this event, three eligible players will be selected by each team, they will probably be chosen by the team manager of each team. To be eligible players must be ranked in the top 1,000 Global Poker Index and must also be willing to play in the GPL. This draft will be the part of the annual American Poker Award and Conference.
Besides all team managers, a press released by the GPL has stated that many well-known poker players such as Fedor Holz, Anthony Zinno, Chris Moorman and Darren Elias have decided to join the league. And it is also very likely that they will also join the first GPL season.
After choosing three players during the Global Poker league Draft, teams will be able to choose two more players, at this time teams can choose from a wide selection as not only top 1,000 players can be chosen, but any player willing to participate can join a team, those players are named wild cards. Also, each team player is also eligible to play, according to Dreyfus. And if you look at managers’ resume there is a high chance this will indeed happen. The only thing that is still unclear is whether the teams will expand to six players or managers will count as one of the five team players.
The GPL Franchises’ evolution
The original idea of GPL was to have 12 individual franchises owner. However, Dreyfus changed plans as he though individual owners would generate complications to the league. He then decided GFL would own all 12 franchises and there would be individual investors.
Dreyfus believed this solution would make the process easier and it would prevent a number of issues from advertising to marketing. Below you can find some of the most important reasons why consolidating the franchises under league umbrellas are a much better option.
- This new idea of aggregating everything is much more appealing to investors and sponsors interested in the GPL. Potential investors can sponsor the GPL league wide, instead of having to sponsor on a team-by-team basis.
- By aggregating, many duplicate costs can be eliminated to individual teams. For instance, now there is no need for every franchise to have its own marketing department.
- Using this new concept teams’ owners within the league don’t need to compete as all 12 franchise have the same goal.
- Also, another important factor is that by choosing this approach income inequality is avoided. All franchises have the same chances. This league is more similar to the parity seen in the NFL than the concept of Major League Baseball.
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