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PokerStars India Signs Former Indian Cricket Captain MS Dhoni as it’s New Brand Ambassador

In another high profile celebrity tie-up, PokerStars India less than an hour ago announced the former captain of the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, aka MS Dhoni (cover image), as it’s new brand ambassador! The ace cricketer is replacing Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the face of the India-facing poker site.

This marks Dhoni’s second endorsement in the space; he has been serving as the brand ambassador of fantasy sports giant Dream 11 since March 2018.

The latest development comes as part of an aggressive promotion strategy adopted by PokerStars India that has invested heavily in gaining market share. Currently ranked fourth in player traffic amongst Indian poker sites, the brand has made several significant investments towards mass marketing, including signing on as an associate sponsor for Season 13 of the superhit reality TV show Bigg Boss on Colors (VIACOM). PokerStars India was also the presenting sponsor for Season 1 of GPL India.

Talking about this latest collaboration, Ankur Dewani, CEO, Sachiko Gaming, told PokerGuru, “We continually review and create partnerships that we believe resonate with our audiences. We want to present new exciting ways for our players to interact with us, and one such development is the signing of former Indian cricket captain and world-renowned sportsman MS Dhoni as an ambassador for PokerStars.in.”

“We have been working on this partnership for some time and believe that the signing of MS Dhoni brings something brand new to poker. We have a lot planned for the future, so watch this space. In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly welcome MS Dhoni aboard,” Dewani added.

Dhoni, who is one of the most successful cricket captains this country has ever produced, has a keen fan following amongst millions of Indians. Known as one of the best finishers in the business, Dhoni has with this tie-up joined the ranks of many other A-listers like Minissha Lamba (Adda52 celebrity team pro), Arjun Rampal (PokerHigh Ambassador), Sunny Leone (former PokerBaazi brand ambassador), Vijendra Singh (former PokerBaazi brand ambassador) and Rannvijay Singh (former Spartan Poker brand ambassador) as the face of an India-facing online poker site.

PokerStars India already has two poker pros representing the site, Muskan Sethi and streaming ambassador Sharad Rao. Poker veteran Aditya Agarwal parted ways with the brand in December last year after a five-year-long collaboration.

As in the past, we will have to wait for the TV and other digital commercials featuring Dhoni, but one thing is for sure, this is one innings that will undoubtedly go a long way in promoting poker in the country!

GPL India Season 1 to Premiere on Colors Infinity & Colors Infinity HD on March 9

Last year India saw its first-ever long-run poker league, i.e. Global Poker League (GPL) set foot in the country. In association with PokerStars India, GPL India Season 1 kicked off what turned out to be the largest online qualification process for a poker league in the country. What followed over the next few months was an exciting rollout of poker action that eventually awarded five players of the winning GPL India team with PSPC Platinum Passes – an all expenses paid trip to play at the prestigious 2019 PokerStars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas. Though the proceedings of GPL India were kept pretty much under wraps, the Indian TV watching audience and poker zealots will soon be privy to the exciting thrills and spills from GPL India Season 1.

For the first time, the league is premiering on national television. On Friday, GPL India announced that its first season would be premiering on Colors Infinity and Colors Infinity HD next week. Starting March 9, the GPL India episodes will be telecast from 7-8 PM every Saturday. On every scheduled date, two episodes will be aired right till the series finale on April 6.

Talking about the upcoming broadcast on TV, series producer & Socios.com Chief Strategy Officer, Max Rabinovitch, said, “This is without a doubt our most ambitious expansion of Global Poker League competition. We couldn’t have found the qualifier pool we did without PokerStars India, and the community enthusiasm to participate has been really astounding. It makes me confident that poker really is the next mind sport set to blow up in India.”

CEO of PokerStars India, Ankur Dewani echoed the same when he said, “Season 1 of GPL India has been nothing short of thrilling. I’m proud to know that the foundation of this game changing league expansion was made possible on our platform.”

Industry experts agree that by sportifying poker and packaging it in a team-based format, poker leagues are playing a significant role in changing public perception for the mind sport in the country. As the third league to be introduced in India, GPL India has undoubtedly played its part in offering a competitive platform for Indian poker.

GPL India Season 1– The Teams

Six-city teams- Kolkata Creators, Pune Alphas, Mumbai Jetsetters, Delhi Diehards, Bengaluru Hackers and Chennai Sharks participated in GPL India Season 1. From June 25 onwards, online qualifiers for each of these teams were held on PokerStars India. These online qualifiers followed a uniform, ‘freeroll’ satellite format and ran on PokerStars India client. Once the six-week-long online qualification got over, names of qualifying players were announced. These lucky qualifiers got the chance to get mentored and play alongside some of the best poker pros in the country.

-> Team Kolkata Creators – captained by India`s first Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal

-> Team Pune Alphas – captained by PokerBaazi pro and poker coach Abhishek Rathod

-> Team Chennai Sharks – captained by Vikram Kumar

-> Delhi Diehards – captained by President of India, First Ladies Award winner and Team PokerStars pro Muskan Sethi

-> Mumbai Jetsetters- captained by Kavin Shah

-> Bengaluru Hackers – captained by Vidwath Shetty

 

GPL India Season 1 TV Premiere – What to Expect

Exciting poker action, television player interviews, talks with team captains and much more. The episodes have captured the buzz and spirit that kept the bootcamp alive, the spirited competition that each team displayed and the intense action on the felts.

So come March 9, GPL India will be making its grand premiere on Colors Infinity & Colors Infinity HD; poker lovers don’t miss it!

Top 5 Interviews That Rocked 2018

Poker in India has been through a rough year ensnared in a web of legal ambiguity and restraint. However, not all that happened was bad. In fact, a lot of incidents that took place on and off the felts contributed immensely towards the growth and development of the mind sport in the country.

In this feature, we will take a look back at all the people whose stories went a long way in taking the poker narrative forward.

One of the most inspiring stories of the year has been that of Nikhil Segel who was one of the eight Indians to win a Platinum Pass to the 2019 PokerStars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC). Segel participated in the #MyUltimateSweat challenge designed by Team PokerStars pro Jamie Staples and decided to accomplish three goals over a period of three months. Overcoming mental roadblocks, Segel successfully achieved his goals and became the second Indian to win the PSPC Pass.

The 49th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) witnessed the biggest-ever Indian contingent in attendance. While seasoned pros like PokerStars Ambassador Aditya Agarwal, Paawan Bansal, Nipun Java and Raghav Bansal kept us glued to our seats with their poker expertise, the budding young blood announced their presence on the world stage in style. Among the rising stars, one particular talent well and truly stole the show – Nishant Sharma as he became the first Indian to crack into the top 50 of the most prestigious tournament in the world i.e. $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em MAIN EVENT – World Championship.

While players worked their magic on the felts to reinvigorate poker’s presence in the country, the people who work behind-the-scenes also played an important role in furthering the mind sport’s progress and popularity among the masses.

PokerStars’ launch in India has been one of the biggest talking points in the domestic circuit and CEO of Sachiko Gaming Pvt. Ltd (PokerStars India), Ankur Dewani was a crucial part of the process that provided a platform to the existing talent to display their prowess through live and online events.

Where global giant PokerStars made inroads into the Indian market, local poker start-up 9stacks wasn’t far behind. Following a successful Series A funding round which saw the company raise ₹28 Crores (approximately $4 Million), CEO Sudhir Kamath discussed the brand’s fund-utilization plans which would certainly help steer poker towards a better future.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t just the big brands that created waves across the Indian poker sector. Kolkata-based PokerLion, the brainchild of Navneet Makharia, presented proof of the unparalleled growth of the nation’s poker community.

PSPC Platinum Pass Winner Nikhil Segel – Talks About His Goals For Team PokerStars Pro Jamie Staples’ #MyUltimateSweat Challenge & How He Achieved It

47-year old architect based in New Delhi, Nikhil Segel has had an incredible year and his journey to winning Jamie Staples‘ #MyUltimateSweat challenge is a saga of his unmatchable grit and determination.

Nikhil Segel
Nikhil Segel

Segel’s goals for the challenge were to quit smoking, lose weight and reduce his high blood sugar levels. In his interview to PokerGuru, the recreational poker player had stated that he was going through a bad patch when he chanced upon Staples’ challenge.

“Since PokerStars got fenced in India, I wasn’t surfing PokerStars.com and so I had no information about this challenge. Suddenly I saw Jamie’s video and it was like a Eureka moment because I was going through a bad patch and I was really spiralling down in terms of my smoking, my health, my weight. I saw it as an opportunity to have enough reasons to get things back on track. So, I then immediately made a quick video and said I’m in.”

Participating in the challenge, Segel not only turned his life around. He helped numerous others as well.

“Motivating others became a secret challenge which I told Jamie [Staples] about, and no one else knew about it. #MyUltimateSweatChallenge was Twitter-driven and I have found Twitter to be a very lonely place, so I realized that there would be a lot of lack of motivation and I realized that like me, other participants will also lack motivation. So, I added all the 149 contestants who entered Jamie’s challenge along with five to six judges and Twitter initially blocked me! I decided that I am going to comment, like, share the tweets shared by other participants and motivate them.”

It wasn’t easy, but Segel came through with flying colours, punching his ticket to the PSPC! His awe-inspiring story put poker in a positive light which too much like Segel himself was going through a ‘bad patch’.

Read the complete interview here.

India’s Best WSOP 2018 Main Event Finisher Nishant Sharma – Talks About His Experience at The Grandest Stage of Poker

Nishant Sharma‘s WSOP 2018 journey began with winning a free trip to Vegas via the 9stacks #LFGVegas contest. Sharma aka ‘DoJingBULLETS’ had already made a name for himself on the online felts by taking down Adda52’s Crazy Leaderboard-III, Godfather 2.0 and Whale, and his debut on the live felts of the Sin City was equally impressive.

Nishant Sharma
Nishant Sharma

The Mumbai-based pro eclipsed all previous records with his 34th place finish in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em MAIN EVENT – World Championship and banked a payday of $230,475 (₹1.57 Crores).

In an interview with PokerGuru, Sharma spoke about his strategy for the Main Event, “just wanted to play low ball game and not to take any high variance spot and it worked out perfectly for me.”

However, this wasn’t Sharma’s only big score at the series. He followed up his magnificent run in the Main Event with a 19th place finish (for $20,336 – ₹13.95 Lakhs) in The Closer – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels) – $1 Million Guarantee.

Talking about his second big score at the series, Sharma said, “I played The Closer where I finished 19th which could have been better if I wouldn’t have taken the high variance spot but that’s okay, we always learn and will get them next time.”

Sharma’s dazzling performance at the series motivated many young players in the domestic circuit to break out of their shells and venture out onto the international scene.

Read the complete interview here.

PokerStars India CEO Ankur Dewani – Talks About The Brand Entering India & Its Association With GPL India

2018 marked online poker conglomerate PokerStars’ debut foray into the Indian market. With a population of more than 1.3 Billion people, India was a natural choice for the brand to establish its presence in, however the process was not easy.

Ankur Dewani
Ankur Dewani

Originally scheduled to launch in 2017, the release was delayed as the brand was unable to find a local partner for a joint venture in running the local operations. Eventually, the site was launched in April 2018 in association with the Sugal & Damani Group, which is the largest state government lottery operator in India.

Commenting on the steady growth of poker in India, CEO of Sachiko Gaming Pvt. Ltd (PokerStars India), Ankur Dewani had said, “We are very excited to have finally brought PokerStars to India. It’s heartening to see the growth of Poker, and it is 100% thanks to early adopters, enthusiasts and those that have discovered a passion for the game. Obviously, it’s been well supported by the industry operators and hopefully PokerStars India will be the next growth catalyst for the game.”

An avid poker player himself, Dewani understood the needs of his fellow players and the requirement of the industry as a whole.

“We always want to make sure we provide the best possible experience, so we wanted to focus on getting things right for players!”

Discussing PokerStars India’s association with GPL India, Dewani elaborated, “our objective is to provide a free to play platform for enthusiasts across the country…..The aim is to make poker accessible, mainstream and to include the widest audience, hence free to play with a long schedule giving everyone enough opportunity to participate and back their favourite city, mentor, or just for a shot the massive PSPC prize pool.”

Dewani’s vision for the company and poker community is truly commendable, “We want to grow the game by making it available to all. We want people to enjoy the sport like it is enjoyed all over the world, alongside other much-loved mind sports and games of skill. I’d love to see poker growing three, four, five times over but our focus is on doing things right for the customer. If new players enjoy the game and experience, then word of mouth will spread. We’ll focus on doing what’s right and hopefully the community will grow along with us.”

Read the complete interview here.

9stacks CEO Sudhir Kamath – Talks About The Company’s Achievements & Future Plans

One of the biggest stories to emerge last year has been one of online poker start-up 9stacks. The Delhi-based start-up that was launched in April 2017 closed out a successful Series-A funding round led by WaterBridge Ventures in September 2018 which was a milestone for the brand.

Sudhir Kamath
Sudhir Kamath

CEO Sudhir Kamath discussed the requirements for successfully acquiring VC investments, “A successful angel round requires a high-potential market and a strong management team.”

Kamath also pointed out the factors that the company focused on to achieve this milestone, “In the first year of operations, our biggest challenge was to establish player’s trust and get known in the market. We experimented with the product and marketing strategies, but always had policies that made the experience safe and reliable for the user.”

He specified the areas in which the company is looking to invest its accumulated funds which includes marketing, product development, industry consolidation, and other real money games to help steer the company towards a booming future.

Read the complete interview here.

PokerLion Founder Navneet Makharia – Talks About Prospective Plans & Ventures

2018 saw a mushrooming of poker sites on the Indian gaming map and one such newcomer was Ability Games Group owned and operated site, PokerLion. Contrived by founder and director Navneet Makharia, PokerLion strived to offer players not only ‘the ultimate gaming experience’ but to also remove the stigma that the society has labelled against the skill-based game of poker.

Navneet Makharia
Navneet Makharia

Explaining how the idea of operating an Indian Poker website came into being, Makharia stated “The fact that I knew poker before venturing into playing on virtual portals helped me understand the games on these websites, and the hardships that new players had to face. These issues made me mull over a possible solution and I decided to create an error-free online poker game website for Indians.”

With the intention of eradicating the negative opinion that poker has been draped in, Makharia discussed his strategy for accomplishing his ideal.

“Poker is a game of skill and not luck, and this is what I tell everyone I meet….Unfortunately, poker is largely considered taboo in most Indian states. Assam, Odisha and Telangana were the first to prohibit poker and then it was banned in Gujarat. We are eager to remove this taboo and popularise the game just like the other common sports in India and for this, encouraging people is crucial. We are working on this plan and lining up numerous promotional offers so that more people can find out that poker involves more skill than luck.”

Read the complete interview here.

Industry Talk: PokerStars India CEO Ankur Dewani on Company’s Plans & Association With GPL India

From being an avid poker player to the newly appointed CEO of Sachiko Gaming Pvt. Ltd (PokerStars India), Ankur Dewani (cover image) is in the thick of things within the Indian poker community. Being a poker enthusiast himself, who had participated in several live and online tournaments collecting total live earnings of $16,621 and a ranking of 194th on the India All Time Money List, Dewani has both the recreational and professional poker players best interests at heart.

Talking about India’s current poker scenario, the young CEO believes that although poker in India is in a nascent stage, it is on the rise. He explains how PokerStars India is trying to not only inspire the youth interested in the mind sport but also striving to provide a platform to the existing talent to display their prowess through live and online events.

He gives us a preview of all the exciting offerings that have been lined up by PokerStars India which includes the launch of the 5 Card Omaha variant and ₹25 Lakhs GTD Sunday Special and the assurance that the number of flagship events will be increased. He further shares his opinion on the disparity that exists in the supply and demand of online poker sites that may benefit players but does not benefit the industry. He also shares his views on how GPL India will help promote the game among the youth of the country by encouraging them to participate and allowing them a chance to meet their poker idols.

He also talks about the need for the state governments to support the poker industry for it to prosper. Here are excerpts from our conversation with him.

Hello Ankur, thank you for speaking with PokerGuru. Congratulations on the grand launch of PokerStars India. How do you look at Indian poker market and PokerStars brand’s presence in the country?

We are very excited to have finally brought PokerStars to India. It’s heartening to see the growth of Poker, and it is 100% thanks to early adopters, enthusiasts and those that have discovered a passion for the game. Obviously, it’s been well supported by the industry operators and hopefully PokerStars India will be the next growth catalyst for the game.

There has been comments from many in the Indian poker community that the PokerStars India launch was disappointing. You started off very aggressive with a ₹10 Lakhs welcome freeroll, huge guaranteed events and high value deposit codes but somehow the promotions seemed to have slowed down recently. What is the reason for the same?

I want to preface this by saying I am a poker player first, and fully understand the expectations. We launched with a very generous deposit offer, that is still ongoing, and the biggest freeroll ever in Indian poker history. We had a record breaking 3,387 registrations, which is a big win for Poker.

We always want to make sure we provide the best possible experience, so we wanted to focus on getting things right for players! With that taken care of, we are redoubling our efforts and concentrating on bringing exciting promotions and activities, such as our partnership with the GPL.

What can the Indian poker players expect from PokerStars India this Summer and even later this year?

We have a bunch of exciting initiatives lined up!

Following on from your previous question I’m glad to announce that starting tomorrow we’re ramping up our weekly schedule and introducing some very high value deposit offers. Our Sunday Special will change from ₹12 Lakhs GTD to ₹25 Lakhs GTD becoming the biggest weekly Sunday main across the board. Additionally, there will be a few other featured tournaments on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, totalling to over ₹1.2 Crore GTD every week.

We try to listen to what players are saying and have responded to requests to provide similar events to the ₹10 Lakhs welcome freeroll, which incidentally had the biggest field in the country. Players want the excitement of competing against a large field, and to emulate the experience, we have introduced a Saturday Eliminator that has a ₹500 buy-in with a ₹5 Lakhs GTD (1000x) Progressive Knockout. To make it even juicier, players who deposit over ₹2,500 in a week can enter for free using one of our new deposit codes. These will run until August! More to follow but it’s too soon to comment and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

You recently roped in Muskan Sethi as brand ambassador of PokerStars India. What will be her role? Are you planning on adding more Team Pros to your rooster this year?

Muskan has been working really hard at her game, and her dedication, love for the sport and PokerStars brand has shone through over the last few years. She’s not only one of the first few female poker players in India, but her energy and drive to promote the game is what is most exciting for us. Not to mention her recent accolades and recognition by the President of India! Our role is to simply enable her and provide a platform to create awareness and create educational content to help those looking to learn more about the sport. But more about this will be revealed in the weeks to come.

Team Pros are a key part of our ecosystem and we absolutely plan on adding more Stars to the roster, albeit possibly in a slightly different format.

PokerStars.com continuously introduces new formats and variants of the game like the recently introduced Showtime Holdem. Can the same be expected from PokerStars India?

Absolutely, in fact we have just launched our 5 Card Omaha variant just last week! There’s a lot more planned and we will make sure Indian players get to experience the latest and best in poker innovation.

Tell us about PokerStars India`s association with GPL India.

We’re very excited to partner with GPL and our objective is to provide a free to play platform for enthusiasts across the country. Starting from June 25th, anyone can participate in GPL’s Online Qualifiers to vie for a spot in or simply play with some of the most respected players in Indian Poker.

The winning team will receive ₹1 crore (5 packages worth ₹20 lac each) and be eligible to participate in the PokerStars Players Championship that will be held in January 2019. The championship has a prize pool of over ₹65 crores! This is a life changing opportunity for anyone and I wish I could’ve participated!

Please share your views on GPL India format. What are your predictions/expectations from Season 1 of GPL India?

The aim is to make poker accessible, mainstream and to include the widest audience, hence free to play with a long schedule giving everyone enough opportunity to participate and back their favorite city, mentor, or just for a shot the massive PSPC prize pool.

In terms of expectations, we want to add as many new names and faces to poker as possible, but this is just our first year and it’s hard to gauge what numbers it will attract.

I am going to refrain from making any predictions, whilst I want my home city Mumbai to win, with such skillful mentors all around I’d be a fool to discount any team!

Many claim that India is one of the next high potential poker market. What are your views here?

India is surely one of the final frontiers for poker and there is no doubt in my mind that our poker boom hasn’t started yet. It’s still a very niche sport played by a small number of people (in the grander scheme of things).

Our goal setting up PokerStars India was to think of ways to help make poker accessible and mainstream. By 2020, we want to be able to have added at least 8-10x new poker players to the community.

After the online poker boom, we have seen a decline in live events being hosted in the country and turnout figures as well. Online sites offer way more guarantees and are hosted much more frequently. Do you think online poker will make live poker redundant in a country like India, given the taxes and traveling overheads?

Live tournaments play a vital role in the discovery or retention of the game. Whilst online may work for many because of convenience and frequency of high value tournaments, the overall experience of a live event is impossible to replicate. Live poker is more about an experience rather than the availability of a game.

There are cost implications and various factors to consider, but we need to start separating the two rather than comparing them as both offer different things. Travelling for a tournament isn’t just about profitability, it is a great way to socialize and stay in touch with the community, exchange thoughts on strategy and so on. New players get to meet some of their idols, attend unforgettable player parties, and who doesn’t like a holiday!

There are a lot of new poker sites that are opening every week in India. Do you feel there is room for new entrants to grow in the current environment?

In my honest opinion, there’s surely an imbalance in the supply versus demand at the moment. Over the last few years at least 20 or more sites have mushroomed (most didn’t survive) and all seem to be fighting for the same market share, as a result giving away tons and tons of value in guarantees and reload offers to the same set of players.Whilst this benefits the players, I’m not convinced that’s the right approach. It would be better if we used those resources to create more awareness about poker and help grow the community instead.

Unless sites can provide something which is a massive differentiator, I am not sure how so many sites can survive.

What are your views on the overall poker ecosystem in the country? What according to you lacks currently and what can be done about the same?

The poker ecosystem in India is young so it’s a time for growing, nurturing and learning. What’s important is to ensure that that the conditions are right on the industry side and that means making sure that players are well protected. PokerStars India offers responsible gaming, player protection and fraud detection mechanisms to help ensure the integrity of games and the safety of players

Regulation is an absolute must, of course. We, at PokerStars India, adhere to best practices and having regulation in place means that other approved operators will also have to be accountable when it comes to player protection and adhering to advertising codes and standards. Personally, I’d like to see support from local government bodies for live poker events, but it’s still early days.

What is your vision for PokerStars India in say 2 years from now?

We want to grow the game by making it available to all. We want people to enjoy the sport like it is enjoyed all over the world, alongside other much-loved mind sports and games of skill. I’d love to see poker growing three, four, five times over but our focus is on doing things right for the customer. If new players enjoy the game and experience, then word of mouth will spread. We’ll focus on doing what’s right and hopefully the community will grow along with us.

Any parting words or anything you would like to add?

Get involved – the GPL starts in a couple of weeks and is a great way to start off a poker career and support your city.

Dewani signs off!

Online Rankings

i Top Ranked Poker Players in India
Member Won
Member Won
Member Won
₹1,29,29,197
₹1,25,88,313
₹1,21,00,140
₹1,20,22,333
5.Vinay B Vinay B
₹1,15,16,843
6.M L M L
₹1,14,45,592
₹1,09,13,473
₹1,05,83,948
₹99,75,577
₹99,60,672
Member Profit
Member Profit
Member Profit
₹55,77,649
₹50,59,154
₹47,48,174
₹46,35,740
₹44,93,503
₹43,56,316
₹43,24,686
₹42,41,254
₹41,92,614
₹41,05,805
Member Points
Member Points
Member Points
43,040
36,048
28,827
4.N K N K
28,769
26,548
25,649
24,726
24,446
9.M L M L
23,604
23,352

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