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Zokay Entertainment announced today that it has acquired the Global Poker Index (GPI) from Pinnacle Entertainment. The GPI is a patent pending system that ranks the weekly performance of the world’s top 300 live tournament poker players. Since its launch in June of 2011, the entire poker community has embraced the GPI and considers it to be the most respected and well recognized independent ranking system for live tournament poker players worldwide
“The GPI is the best poker ranking system in the world, and we plan to make it even better,” said Alex Dreyfus, CEO of Zokay Entertainment. “A ranking system of this caliber is needed in the poker industry to bring it in line with other competitive contests of skill and sports industries. The GPI provides a ranking system on par with those you would find in golf or tennis.”
Dreyfus plans to expand the Global Poker Index in order to promote poker worldwide as a true contest of skill not just a game of chance. Further development of the Global Poker Index will include a new exclusive National focus where every country or region with a significant group of highly skilled poker players will be ranked against themselves.National rankings will include at least seventeen individual countries and a regional focus on Asia to begin with.
“I could not be more excited that the Global Poker Index is now part of the Zokay family,” said Eric Faulkner, who co-created the GPI with poker pro Annie Duke. “The new and innovative extensions of the GPI will further solidify the GPI as the global standard in live tournament poker rankings and garner an immense amount of regional excitement.”
Plans for early 2013 include launching the GPI Awards, celebrating a variety of accomplishments in the live tournament poker world, building on the already popular GPI Player of the Year award. The GPI Awards will honor poker players through categories such as Poker’s Rising Star. The GPI Awards will also allow the top GPI-ranked poker players to honor the poker world directly by nominating and voting on awards such as the Best Tournament Director,Best Event, and Best Venue.
In addition to the GPI Awards, VIP treatment will be extended to the top ranked GPI players through the new GPI VIP club. Benefits of the VIP club will include a variety of membership perks and discounts useful for the GPI 300 Elite globally and locally. VIP club membership will also include one on one access to a dedicated VIP representative.
The GPI is distributed weekly through the USA Today Sports print edition, on USAToday.com, on PokerNews.com, and on www.GlobalPokerIndex.com, the official home of the GPI. The GPI can be followed on Twitter at @GlobalPokerIndxand on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GlobalPokerIndex.
About Zokay Entertainment
Zokay Entertainment is the latest venture of French Internet entrepreneur Alexandre Dreyfus. Dreyfus has been a founding member of several successful startup businesses in Europe over the last 17 years including. Winamax, ChiliPoker.com and Chiligaming whose technology was recently sold to Bally Technologies in Las Vegas. Headquartered in Malta, Zokay Entertainment plans to expand its footprint into many other poker and gaming related ventures, starting with the Global Poker Index. Zokay Entertainment can be found online at www.zokay.com.
