Mediarex Sports & Entertainment CEO Alexandre Dreyfus this month is launching the Global Poker League, an "ambitious 12-team organization designed to attract younger players to Texas Hold 'Em," according to Paresh Dave of the L.A. TIMES. Dreyfus "hopes to reinvigorate a poker industry that he calls too static and too old, moving it beyond the serious, slow-paced World Series of Poker." His version is "fast and aggressive, pitting teams of three players against each other." Timed matches at small studios in Burbank and Berlin will "begin airing on the Web in March." The championship will "stream from a huge venue this summer with -- if all goes according to plan -- a big paying audience cheering in person." His inspiration is the "booming competition scene" for video games. The GPL is backed by about $5M "from Chinese venture capitalists, poker players and media executives," and Dreyfus has a goal of reaching $300M in "media, merchandise and ticketing revenue" by about '20. GPL matches "won't feature tables of individual players, but rather two three-player teams, plus two alternates on each bench." The game will "involve one deck and three simultaneous duels." Dreyfus "plans to impose a chess-like clock, limiting the time that teams have to make moves." He said that games "should be four times faster" than typical games. WSOP Exec Dir Ty Stewart said he is "rooting for new companies" to help grow poker (L.A. TIMES, 2/12).
