Top Poker Executives to Discuss Future of Online Industry Behind Closed Doors
Top managers from most of the biggest online poker sites will head to London in October to discuss the future of the industry behind closed doors, a source close to the meeting informed PokerNews.
Although there isn't an official list of participants, PokerNews has been told attendees will likely include the Head of Poker at Unibet, Andrew West; as well as representatives from other major players in the industry like 888poker, partypoker, iPoker, and MPN.
To date, it still remains unclear whether representatives from the poker rooms that are part of Amaya — PokerStars and Full Tilt — will join the proceedings.
As reported by PokerFuse's Nick Jones and confirmed by PokerNews' source, the meeting has been called by the Global Poker Index (GPI). In the eyes of the organizers, this get-together in London should see poker's top managers sitting around the same table to examine the possibility of creating a common strategy for the future to guarantee the development of the industry and increase the popularity of the game of poker.
This is not the first time the GPI has tried to create an occasion for those in the poker industry to meet and share their vision for the future, although it is the first time that a meeting like this has been held behind closed doors and without any media representatives.
During past years, the GPI organized a number of poker conferences in London, San Francisco, and Malta - trying to engage those who work in the poker industry with seminars and panel discussions.
The meeting will also offer the GPI a chance to share more details about the upcoming Global Poker League (GPL), the ambitious project that CEO Alex Dreyfus unveiled in an interview to PokerNews back in April.
"We, the GPI, want to 'sportify' poker," Dreyfus told PokerNews. "This does not mean that we want to make poker a sport, but that we want to use the same logic that runs behind the sports industry to promote poker. If we want to serve poker-related content to the media on a weekly basis, and if we want people to talk about poker, we need to build a platform — a league that will give everyone a reason to be engaged and interested in the game."
In this sense, the GPL aims to become a three to four-month long poker league that will involve "eight teams of seven players each. The team members will be selected in a draft that will be held either during the WSOP or right after the event. Each team will most likely include three players from the GPI 300 or GPI 500, two wildcards and two qualifiers," that are going to be selected through special live and online events.
Image courtesy of BuduTime.com
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