The Global Poker Index’s (GPI) takeover of the live poker tournament world is in full swing. The latest deal the player ranking site has made is with the European Poker Tour (EPT), as the EPT will now expand its use of the GPI’s ranking formula to determine its Player of the Year (POY).
Interestingly, the European Poker Tour will have three different Player of the Year awards for the season that is just now starting, Season 11. The different POY leader boards will be based on the buy-ins of the EPT tournaments. EPT Player of the Year Gold will be determined by a players’ results in EPT Main Events and High Roller Events. Player of the Year Silver will count tournaments with buy-ins of $4,000 and lower, while Player of the Year Bronze will count tournaments with buy-ins of $600 and lower. Only open events, that is, tournaments in which anyone is allowed to participate (no invitationals, Seniors events, or Ladies events), are factored into the Player of the Year awards.
Alexandre Dreyfus, President of the Global Poker Index, said of the partnership, “We are pleased to continue our relationship with the EPT. I’m happy that the EPT and Global Poker Index continue to work together to establish industry standards. We share a vision and commitment to promote poker as a global and unified sport to a mainstream audience.”
“The European Poker Tour caters to an incredible spectrum of players of all skill levels and bankrolls, and we believe the Player of the Year should reflect that,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly. “Each stop of the EPT is a huge poker festival and this change allows us to recognize this diversity.”
EPT Season 11 began this past weekend in Barcelona; Olivier Busquet just won the EPT Barcelona High Roller Event and the Main Event begins Thursday.
This is the fifth deal announced by the Global Poker Index in the past month. The GPI previously announced that it is teaming up with the Ivey League to promote its players and the game of poker, that it will provide content for PokerPlayer magazine, and that it will now provide the rankings system for both the World Poker Tour and the Aria casino in Las Vegas.
The GPI aims to rank the world’s best live tournament players using a detailed formula. It counts tournaments played within the last 36 months with each six month period having more weight the more recent it is. The formula also gives more weight to tournaments with higher buy-ins and more players, though these factors are capped so as not to allow an immense tournament or something like a super high roller event skew the rankings too much.
