The International Federation of Poker’s (IFP) Match Poker form of the game has been handed a major boost in China through a new partnership between the Alibaba Sports division of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and the Oceans Sports & Entertainment agency.

The strategic partnership brings together the two organisations with the aim of developing and marketing sports in China and has already identified Match Poker, the digital, non-gambling, team-based variant, as a “priority project”.

Match Poker is a new e-sport version of poker where competitors play for points instead of cash prizes. Cards are replaced by hands dealt to smartphones, while all gameplay is conducted digitally and both individual and team performances, as well as match and league information, is recorded and stored centrally.

The IFP has said that Match Poker will generate revenue through pay-per-play, subscriptions, sponsorship and media rights. The organisation expects to attract two million players within five years.

“The alliance between Oceans and Alibaba sport creates one of the most powerful forces in sports marketing anywhere in the world,” IFP president Patrick Nally said. “I am delighted that their energies, attention and resources will be focused on launching and promoting Match Poker and that they share my belief in its massive worldwide potential.”

Oceans is a long-term supporter of Match Poker and has worked with the IFP for some time on developing the technology to drive the sport.

Shoto Zhu, chief executive of Oceans, added:  “The strategic alliance with Alibaba Sports is a game-changer for Oceans Sports and Entertainment as it harnesses our specialist marketing skills and know-how with the media and e-commerce might of Alibaba Sports.

“It will enable us to promote sports opportunities effectively and decisively in China and beyond. Both Oceans and Alibaba are excited about its potential in the age of e-sport and it is a priority project for the alliance.”

http://www.sportbusiness.com/sport-news/ifp-handed-match-poker-boost-chinese-alliance

We are extremely pleased to welcome Belgium to the IFP Family as our 52nd member nation!

Federation Belge de Poker is a non-profit organisation and was established in 2014.

The federation’s mission and purpose is:

– To promote and defend the game of poker in all its variants.

– Develop tools for all players to play poker on their means.

– Ensure the safety of players in addiction by developing, using and maintaining tools.

– Be the reference and the intermediary in poker between the authorities, players, poker event organizers and media.

– Ensure compliance with regulations and legislation specific to poker.

– To promote poker as a cerebral sport.

– Promoting the quality and the transmission of data between its members and other parties, among other supporting administratively and legally the event organizers,

– Study, encourage and achieve everything that can contribute to the legal development of the activities of the organizers of poker-related activities.

We would like to officially welcome the Belgian Poker Federation to the IFP Family and we are excited to grow this great mind sport even more in Belgium!

More info here – https://matchpokerfed.org/member-nation/belgium/

The second stage of the Belarus Poker Tour – the first and only poker series in the country – is now a thing of the past. Organized by the Belarus Sport Poker Federation (IFP member from 2009) the event is becoming one of the hottest poker tournaments for the former USSR countries. It has grown by 30% from the first stage which was held a few months ago and now has a rather wide reach including players from Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Israel, Moldova etc. Due to close relations with Pokerstars.net the Belarus Poker Tour tournament team hopes to make the series better and better until they can get the flagship status in the region. The next steps are not just holding the next stage but also organizing full live video streaming, online satellites for the wide net of the neighbour states, reaching a new record by increasing the players quantity up to the next 30%.

Here are some numbers, facts and link about the 2nd stage of the Belarus Poker Tour:

  1. More than 1500 entries for 8 events and a few live satellites.
  2. Total prize pool is about 2 300 000 000 BYR J (150 000 USD)
  3. Video coverage for Main and Highrollers event’s final tables
  4. The sportiest poker series in the region being held outside the casinos and consisting only from freeze-outs with no re-buys, re-entries etc.
  5. The organizer’s official website: pokerfederation.by (only Russian language yet)
  6. The links to video content of the series:http://youtu.be/dmPAfMLQSWMhttp://www.pokerfederation.by/node/582

    http://www.pokerfederation.by/node/580 (in Russian)

 

IFP is extremely proud of our Austrian member nation, the Austrian Poker Sport Association, and would like to congratulate them on their new partnership with Winamax.fr!

An official release from the Austrian Federation:

The Austrian Poker Sport Association is proud to announce Winamax.fr as our new online gaming partner for all future training and ranking tournaments.

Two poker institutions joining forces – the APSA has, since its inception 2006, promoted poker as a mind game and organized national championships, maintained the Austrian poker ranking, dispatched the Austrian national poker team as well as taught poker courses to beginners and advanced players.

Winamax.fr is the premier French poker site and belongs to the largest and most popular sites worldwide. In 2013 it was awarded the title of ‘World´s Best Online Operator of the Year’.

Over two million satisfied customers enjoy the premier software, great tournaments and award-winning customer service.

Through a series of online freeroll torunements the APSA and Winamax.fr will determine this year’s most valuable player who will be awarded a ticket the the Winamax Poker Open.

“The collaboration with Winamax.fr allows us to further improve our extensive poker package and provide our players with great freeroll tournaments. We are very much looking forward to this collaboration and are sure that a bright future awaits the APSA with Winamax at its side.” says Martin Sturc, President of the APSA.

 

 

 

On 18-20 of March 2016, the Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation (LSPF) have started their new season with an opening tournament in Vilnius, at sports poker club ‘Du Karaliai’ (‘Two Kings’).

After the legislation changes toward gambling, including internet poker in Lithuania, for the first time in sports poker history the federation started the year without any major sponsorship – as previous sponsor UNIBET could not continue their activities in Lithuania. The responsibility to host this event was taken by the biggest sports poker club ‘Du Karaliai’, and it succeeded – the tournament was held just a week before Easter and it attracted 207 players from all over Lithuania!

After two days of fighting it out on the felt, 22 players advanced to the final day, and after four hours of intense poker play, 9 players formed the final table. During the final table two new records were set: its never happened since 2010 (the first federation tournament), that two women made it to the top 3. And the second one – the winner, Matas Levanas, a young player from Vilnius, has won his third LSPF tournament – in 2014 he became the Champion of Poker in Lithuania, the next year, he won the same event in Vilnius (he also won Player of The Year), and 2016 again – the walls of sports poker club Du Karaliai were nice to him. Matas once again proved – poker is a mind sport and a game of skill!

During the tournament, one of the country’s biggest Internet poker providers – OLYBET has announced their sponsorship intentions for next three years.