New Player of the Year Race Announced for Poker

New Player of the Year Race Announced for Poker

Annual award to be based on USA Today Global Poker Index^tm

Los Angeles, Calif. (February 8, 2012) Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G) in conjunction with PokerNews.com announced today the launch of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year Award (GPI PoY), which will honor the world’s best live tournament poker players. This award will be presented annually to the poker player who has the strongest performance over the course of a calendar year in live tournaments worldwide.

“We are thrilled to be able to apply the precision and quality of the USA Today GPI formula to a Player of the Year race,” said Annie Duke, Executive Vice President of FS+G and Commissioner of the Epic Poker League, “The 2012 GPI PoY will showcase the single player at the apex of the game.”

“PokerNews is excited to be an integral part of launching the GPI PoY, and making it the official Player of the Year formula for the PokerNews network”, said Matthew Parvis COO of PokerNews.com. “We’re sure that the race to the top will include the world’s best poker players and will be extremely compelling to follow from year to year.”

The standings of the top 1,000 players vying for the GPI PoY title will be published every Tuesday on PokerNews.com, EpicPoker.com and GlobalPokerIndex.com. Fans and players worldwide will be able to track all the action along with weekly updates and monthly summaries as they follow the race to awarding 2012’s best player.

The GPI PoY formula is derived from the USA Today Global Poker Index, recognized as the definitive live tournament poker ranking system.  While the USA Today Global Poker Index tracks performance over a 36-month rolling window with heavier weight given to more recent results, the GPI PoY tracks performance in professional-level live poker tournaments during a single calendar year. The 2012 GPI PoY will be awarded to the player with the best performance between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012.

“Honoring top achievers with a precise and credible Player of the Year race will definitely advance perceptions about poker”, said bracelet holder Vanessa Selbst,  “Applying the rigorous and objective analysis of the Global Poker Index to this type of award is a significant move forward for the poker community.”

Josh Warner, designer of the Epic Poker League Champion rings and Lifetime Member rings, will create a custom 18K gold GPI PoY ring to be awarded annually to the GPI Player of the Year.

About Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G)

FS+G is a leading poker entertainment company that serves players and fans through nationally televised events, interactive digital programming and social media gaming.
The company is breaking new ground in poker with the launch of the Epic Poker League – an exclusive tournament series designed to serve more than 200 of the world’s top live tournament players, as determined by a set of objective, analytically rigorous qualifying criteria. In its first year, the Epic Poker League is staging four $20,000 rake-free Main Events for its members and awarding to its champion a $1 million cash prize.

Through its ownership of Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), FS+G also serves poker players and fans across the United States. Built on a grass-root strategy of “Real People, Unreal Money,” HPT provides poker enthusiasts across the country with a televised tournament experience that prides itself on affordable buy-ins. HPT has hosted more than 90,000 entrants, awarded more than $32 million in prize money, produced more than 190 hours of television content, and staged nearly 100 events since 2005.

FS+G has developed and made available for poker players and fans everywhere the Global Poker Index™ (GPI™), a patent pending system to rank and track the weekly performance of the world’s top 300 live tournament poker players. The GPI is distributed weekly through www.globalpokerindex.com, published in both the print and online editions of USA TODAY, and through EpicPoker.com. Epic Poker is the exclusive source of poker news and information to Big Lead Sports the leading U.S. online sports property with more than 20 million monthly unique visitors (http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/category/poker). For additional updates and features from Epic Poker, visit the Facebook page; follow along on Twitter @EpicPoker and play Epic Poker online, anytime, anywhere with the new Facebook game available now.
FS+G has offices in Los Angeles, Fargo, N.D., and Washington D.C. For tournament schedules and information please visit www.federatedinc.com, www.epicpoker.com, www.HPTpoker.com and www.globalpokerindex.com.

About PokerNews

PokerNews.com is the world’s leading poker website. Among other things, visitors will find a daily dose of articles with the latest poker news; live reporting from tournaments, exclusive videos and so much more.

-###-