As they prepare for their third event in their inaugural season, the Epic Poker League announced yesterday two new partnership deals that will expand its footprint in the highly competitive tournament poker circuit community.
Federated Sports & Gaming, the ownership behind the EPL, announced the two deals, one which will see their innovative Global Poker Index pushed into the mainstream through the newspaper USA Today and a second which will present more in-depth poker news and information through Big Lead Sports. USA Today reaches nearly four million readers a day through its print edition, while Big Lead Sports counts 20 million monthly unique visitors.
Moving poker into the mainstream is what FS&G and its executive chairman, former World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, had in mind with the signing of the deals for the EPL. “Our work with the USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Big Lead Sports will help drive poker deeper into the mainstream news cycle and further position the game right alongside other professional sports content,” Pollack commented during the announcement of the two deals.
Both of the new EPL partners also expressed their excitement with the deals. “More Americans are playing and watching poker than ever before, and this partnership will enable us to provide that avid, growing audience with the content they want,” said Tom Beusse, president of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group. “The USA TODAY Global Poker Index will give our readers access to new and relevant content that’s easy to track and understand. It will also help open up the game of poker to the casual fan as well.”
“Partnering with Epic Poker will enable us to offer our fans top-notch coverage and insights into everything happening in the world of poker,” Chris Russo, the chief executive officer of Big Lead Sports, added during the announcement. “Epic Poker’s pool of talented poker feature writers will be providing coverage of all the world-class players and tournaments and will complement the already growing archive of poker news content found on EpicPoker.com.”
The Global Poker Index, which was introduced at the end of June, has quickly become a benchmark ranking system to determine the top players in the world. Ranking players over their last three years of performance, the GPI uses an intricate grading system to rank the top 300 players in tournament poker. By using the three year window, the GPI ranks players on long term success rather than a quick “one strike” performance. The partnership with USA Today will help to promote the weekly GPI rankings and present new poker content for the newspaper.
Through Big Lead Sports, the EPL events will garner further coverage through the crack team that has been assembled by FS&G for its website, EpicPoker.com. The EPL website will become Big Lead Sports’ exclusive source of poker news and also feature an exclusive weekly blog from Annie Duke, the Commissioner of the EPL, as she offers her insights into the poker world and sports in general.
The deal is a watershed moment for the EPL and FS&G as they attempt to make the burgeoning tournament circuit successful. The five event schedule began back in August and featured a Pro/Am (where the final nine players earned a seat into the Main Event), a charity tournament and the $20,000 Main Event. Players who had earned their two, three or five year “player’s card” were the only ones eligible for the Main Event, along with the qualifiers from the Pro/Am.
The first Main Event, a Six Handed No Limit tournament, featured a stacked final table that included Hasan Habib, Huck Seed, Gavin Smith and Jason Mercier. David “Chino” Rheem was able to defeat Erik Seidel to win that inaugural tournament. The second event, an Eight Handed No Limit tournament in September, saw Seidel make another run at an EPL title, but he would fall short to such players as Fabrice Soulier, David Steicke and eventual champion Mike McDonald.
The first two tournaments have had their share of problems, however. The first EPL event drew in a respectable 137 players but, by the time the second tournament rolled around, only 97 players were in the field. There were also controversies regarding Rheem, who was accused of not paying off gaming debts to backers, which resulted in Rheem being put on probation by the EPL. At the second event, a player who had won a seat via the Pro/Am was either denied entry or withdrew (depending on which side you believe) from the Main Event because of a prior sexual deviancy conviction. Although there were several legal threats made on that issue, it seems to have now faded into the background.
The EPL will be stepping back into action with the third event of their five event schedule beginning on December 10, so the new alliances with USA Today and Big Lead Sports will get a quick test. The Main Event for the third tournament was expected to be a Heads Up tournament, but that has been changed to a “Mix-Max” mixed game tournament, per the Epic Poker website. There will also be the Pro/Am and charity tournaments offered along with three other side events for players.
