MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Global Poker Index (GPI) announced today that they have entered into a multi-year content partnership that currently expects USA TODAY Sports to host a competitive poker-themed destination page, featuring GPI assets and information, beginning about January 2016.
Owned by Mediarex Sports and Entertainment, the goal of the Global Poker Index is to “sportify poker,” which it does not only through its rankings of the world’s top players but also through its administration of leagues and competitions. Those will soon include the new Global Poker League, featuring teams competing around the world and livestreamed digitally by several GPI partners, including USA TODAY Sports.
“The Global Poker Index has done more than any other organization to unify poker and to see the possibilities that exist for creating a ‘big league’ atmosphere around play,” said Jason Ford, VP of Sports Marketing for the USA TODAY Sports Media Group. “We’re looking forward to working together to create a 24/7 digital poker destination, and to providing coverage for some of the groundbreaking events that GPI is launching.”
The Global Poker League, set to launch in Q1 of 2016, will be central to GPI’s ambitious plans to transform the world of poker. With 12 initial franchises, including teams in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco, the Global Poker League will increase the entertainment value of poker, with immersive events and engaging consumer content.
“We’re extremely pleased to be announcing this multi-year content partnership with USA TODAY Sports,” said Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of the Global Poker Index. “The partnership will provide an essential platform to showcase our innovative new events and to promote the players ranked in the Global Poker Index. It’s great to have the support and passion of an industry leader like USA TODAY Sports, whose team shares in our vision to ‘sportify’ poker. We’re looking forward to working closely with them over the coming years.”
Terms of the partnership agreement were not disclosed.
About Global Poker Index
Global Poker Index (GPI) is live Poker’s leading ranking authority - ranking more than 450,000 active players from 97+ countries across 250,000+ events - and serves as the official leaderboard ranking system of the World Series of Poker, Latin American Poker Tour and European Poker Tour among many others. GPI’s Hendon Mob Database (www.thehendonmob.com) has archived over a quarter million live poker tournaments and 1.4 Million+ individual results, continuing to do so via real-time data collection from over 1,440 partner venues. GPI’s mission to Sportify Poker drives its focus on platform, media and event innovations within the Poker world; the company currently runs an array of industry wide Poker initiatives including American Poker Awards & Conference, European Poker Awards & Conference and the Global Poker Masters.
About the USA TODAY Sports Media Group
The USA TODAY Sports Media Group encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY Sports and Gannett's more than 120 well-known local media brands. It also includes the sports photography wire service USA TODAY Sports Images; leading high school sports destination USA TODAY High School Sports; the social news hub For The Win, and the hundreds of sites within USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties such as TheBigLead.com and mixed martial arts site MMAJunkie.com, among others. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).
