Interview with Alex Dreyfus: what is the Global Poker Index?

Barry Carter chats to Alex Dreyfus to find out what the Global Poker Index means for poker and whether the game needs to be ranked like a sport.

Alex Dreyfus

I never thought I would particularly want to interview someone about a poker ranking system, but the Global Poker Index has become so big that I can't really ignore it any longer.

In the last year, the GPI has invested a huge amount of money and time to become the ranking system of poker.

The pros at the top end of the rankings (the GPI 300) seem to be talking about it, the European Poker Tour revealed they would be using the GPI for their Player of the Year award, the European Poker Awards partnered with the GPI this year, and most notably the GPI has acquired the Hendon Mob database.

An event is ranked if it has 21 players or more and a $1,000 minimum buy-in. Points are scored for players making the money, and there is an age factor on results, meaning only the last three years count and recent results count for more.

While I understand how a ranking system could work in poker, I was quite skeptical about whether it was a viable business when you consider the amount of money that has already gone into it. I have also been quite skeptical in general about promoting poker as a sport in the past; I thought that things like this only tended to appeal to a very small group of elite players.

I caught up with the owner of the GPI, Alex Dreyfus, to find out why he has put so much into this, how he plans to turn it into a business, and why poker should be ranked like a sport.

"Poker needs independent ranking like the PGA or ATP"

The GPI ranking system (Click to enlarge)

PokerStrategy.com: How did the GPI come about?

Alex Dreyfus: Global Poker Index was an asset of Federated Sports + Gaming, who also had the Epic Poker League, which went bankrupt last year. When they sold their assets I bought the Global Poker Index because I believe it was the right product; it had the formula that gave the best picture of the best poker players in the world.

The reason I took this over was because I am a strong believer in the future of poker; I have invested a lot of my own money in this so definitely believe that. I feel if you want to grow poker you need to expose it more - we need more of a sports feel.

If we want to promote poker as more of a skill game instead of gambling, then you need an independent ranking like the ATP or PGA. I am not comparing poker to them as a pure sport (there are a lot of things that make them different) but there is skill and there are better players than others, so we need to have a ranking.

Once you have a ranking, you can have international rankings, local rankings, even rankings from your own card room.

PokerStrategy.com: It seems the most interested players are those that have made the top list, the GPI 300. Do you think the GPI appeals to anyone other than the elite players?

Alex Dreyfus: Even though we are talking about the top players, we are ranking 40,000 players. We have the GPI 300 which is the elite; someone like me, recreational player Alex Dreyfus, will be ranked 36,000th.

The first goal is to expose the famous players, then to create famous players who are perhaps not getting the attention they should. If you look at the top seven players in the GPI right now only Marvin Rettenmaier has a sponsor, and a good GPI ranking might help the other six.

Finally we aim to give hope to a player like myself who might be 3,000th in their home country to project themselves in the poker space. When you think of sports, there is the Champions League, the Premier League, the Championship, League One etc. The GPI 300 is the Champions League, the top 1,000 is the Premier League etc. If a recreational player like you or I improve their ranking they will be happy to show their friends and share it on Facebook.

"My goal is to go mainstream"

The GPI owns the Hendon Mob database

PokerStrategy.com: You have grown a lot in the last year, are you where you want to be?

Alex Dreyfus: I am spending a lot of energy and a lot of money making this happen. I'm not happy because we are far from where I want to be. In the poker world everyone more or less knows what the GPI is. My goal is to go mainstream.

Every Thursday in USA today we have the GPI rankings printed in the magazine, we will hopefully be announcing some deals with sports websites both in the US and Europe in a few weeks.

In the next four months I will be announcing that most land based casinos in Europe and the US will be using the GPI to produce their own local player of the year. So we will at least become the ranking authority. That's why we acquired the Hendon Mob; they have been collecting results for 12 years - you cannot compete with that. It would have taken me more years and more money than it cost to acquire the company.

PokerStrategy.com: Some people think that, rather than promoting poker like a sport and focusing on pro players, the growth of the game should centre around making the game more fun and social for recreational players. Where do you stand on this other side of the argument?

Alex Dreyfus: I don't think it is one or the other, all these things need to happen to grow poker. In our case we try to promote poker like a sport, not as a sport: to show it is not just a game of luck, and it is about performance. I see my duty as to promote live poker; we definitely can help promote online poker but I am not in the online poker space right now. For me the sports side is more for live poker right now, the fun/social thing is more for online right now.

PokerStrategy.com: Do you think we can really market the game as a sport to non-poker players?

Alex Dreyfus: If we have the support of the poker industry, this can happen, because the online poker rooms can sponsor what we put in mainstream magazines and newspapers. The mainstream media will not publish our content without compensation - it is still not mainstream enough to satisfy their audience.

In Europe we definitely need to reach new customers from the mainstream space, in the US it is not as important because they are a poker orientated company and now online poker is returning the poker rooms are not looking to advertise in sports magazines, right now they are only looking for poker players.

"Lots of people wonder what the business potential is"

Marvin is on top of the GPI

PokerStrategy.com: I see the potential for growth, but the one thing I have been struggling with is how you monetise the GPI and make it a business.

Alex Dreyfus: (laughs) I know a lot of people who wonder what we are doing and what the business potential is on this.

We are endorsed by the industry and the players, there is a need, everyone has acknowledged that. So how do we make money out of it?

First of all there is advertising: we are reaching nearly 4 million people every year on The Hendon Mob and GPI, so this is an audience we can monetise.

There are also the services we can offer the casinos. Let's say you go on a medium sized casino's website, 50% of the casinos don't even have the results of their own events. If they do have them, they have them in a PDF format. We own the Hendon Mob which is a data company, what we can do is aggregate this information and remarket it back to the casinos. Soon on the casino's website you will be able to have all the results of the casino, a leaderboard and Player of the Year powered by the GPI.

We also do marketing services. If you want to know how many players are likely to attend your event, if there is growth in your market, what buy-ins are popular etc. We are also a B2B company providing inside data for the poker room industry.

PokerStrategy.com: Thanks very much Alex, good luck with the GPI.

By Barry Carter l Barry Carter on Twitter

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