With much noise being made in India around the classification of Poker as a ‘Game of Skill’ or ‘Game of Chance’ as Real Money Gaming has come under the radar for its ‘gambling’ element in certain cases, there are leagues like Poker Sports League which are trying to make a difference and are growing stronger and more innovative, year after year.
Started by a Goa-based Poker enthusiast himself, PSL today has been making news in the Poker space globally not just because it is ‘poker’ but because of the way it is seeping into gaming enthusiasts’ mindspace and rewriting the definitions of the sport itself.
Speaking exclusively to Marketing Mind, Pranav Bagai, CEO and Founder, Poker Sports League (part of Mind Sports League) emphasised that in his views, Poker is a Game of Skill, with a ‘Chance’ element to it because like any other sports, there are Poker players who are good at it and who believe in studying and understanding the card game.
“Poker is a flash game which involves three cards and once they’re all distributed, nothing changes. And while, there is an element of chance in poker, upon studying the game well, the players who level up to pro level will also be ahead only 70- 80% of the time but never 100% of the time because the cards keep changing. Hence, it’s very important for poker pros to reduce the variance and so, they may put in a lot of volume. As against a newbie with beginner’s luck, who’ll probably win 10 times, hypothetically, a Poker pro player will probably end up beating you 950 times out of 1000 which makes it only 0.5%. Hence, poker is a predominantly skill game, but with chance also existing in comparatively small amounts,” he said.
What Makes PSL A ‘Stand Out’ Offering For All Poker Enthusiasts
According to Bagai, who has spent most of his professional career being involved in all things Poker, the standout factor behind Poker Sports League is that unlike other Poker leagues that take place throughout the world, PSL since its inception gives a chance to each and everyone to be a part of the league unlike other leagues where only the best poker masters in the country, region or world get an opportunity to showcase their talent.
“What happens in PSL is that out of the six-members team, the best professionals, coaches or players of the country (in terms of both merit and performance) add up to three people and the remaining three are people who’re trying their hands or are enthusiastic about playing poker. And since this time around we have seven teams battling it out to be the winner of PSL Season 6, making it a potpourri of 42 individuals competing to win the coveted title,” he said.
Apart from this, the other proposition which makes PSL unique, in his viewpoint, is that throughout the league, there is no money involved across all stages of the league, implying that there is no wagering, staking, gambling, or any other real money gaming element.
“For a period of 50 days, starting June 16, each and everyone who wants to be a part of PSL can be a part of the league completely free of cost by logging on to Pocket52, our title sponsor, and participating in the qualifiers taking place every day at 8 pm. If an individual finds himself or herself in the top 42 players of the qualifiers, irrespective of the number of matches played (maximum eight), he or she gets a guaranteed spot into one of the PSL teams,” he said.
Furthermore, PSL’s Bagai also mentioned that to aligning with all of the above standout propositions, the league has also kept its communication not centered on money or prize pool but getting an opportunity to play and learn from the best players in the country, getting an all-expense-free paid trip to Goa for the finale, and even featuring on JioCinema- be it in an online or live setting.
“In addition, what seems the most interesting thing to me in the Poker space is that if one looks at the top 50 players in India, at least 70% of them realise that they are good enough in the sport to pursue Poker as a career after qualifying for free for PSL. In fact, Gaurav Sood who has maintained a four-years streak of being India’s number one poker player also got into the sport from PSL. He played a qualifier in Season 1 of PSL, got trained from the best and then became the best himself in the country,” he pointed out.
How PSL Has Evolved On A YoY Basis To Become What It Is In Its Sixth Edition
Having commenced six years back, PSL has today emerged as the world’s “largest” league, as per its Founder and CEO- Bagai, as it amassed a whopping 12.5 million views on JioCinema in its previous edition, making PSL the ‘highest’ viewed poker event globally.
For the league to grow further and be comparatively more successful, there are two phases- qualifier and viewership that count for the League’s founder, and hence, the company apart from the standard SMS and email database, is engaging with about 500 micro-influencers, leveraging meme marketing, running college ambassador programs in about 30 colleges, etc. in different phases of PSL Season 6 to engage with the younger audiences.
“This time we’re also doing Hindi commentary on JioCinema as well, so as to reach out to a much wider audience as well as pushing out a lot of short-form content as against last time, when it was only long-form. So, we’re looking at about 25-30 million views at least, despite being the world’s largest league in terms of viewership and participation, both. In PSL Season 4, we had about 1,200 people try for 36 spots and in Season 5, the numbers grew 5x with 9,547 people trying out for 36 spots. And right now, we’ve already seen the numbers crossing the 20,000 mark for 42 spots,” he said.
Commenting on this year’s theme, he explained that unlike last year wherein PSL had a space theme (Space) for the first time, this year, the league has taken a deep dive into poker, highlighting the good or top players as sharks and the newer or comparatively less strong players being addressed as fish, so as to replicate the poker phrase- ‘Sharks eat fish.’ Apart from this, the league will also have a whale to represent a very big fish who keeps losing continuously but doesn’t backout.
“We also chose an underwater theme because there are a lot of things we could do on our social media, including animation, cartoonisation of sharks and fish, using water elements, submarines, ships, etc. so as to establish a strong correlation to the theme- taking a deep dive into poker,” he said.
What’s In It For Brand And Advertisers, Irrespective Of The ‘Gaming’ Proponent
As against PSL Season 5 where the company had spent somewhere upwards of Rs 2.5 crore on amplifying the tournament, Bagai mentioned that this time around, the overall promotional expense towards PSL Season 6 has gone up by 50% YoY.
“With the extra spends, we are now reaching out to a larger poker audience, which has led to a 100% increase in participation and will also translate to a 100% increase in viewership,” he said.
Furthermore, he also mentioned that at the team level too, PSL Season 6 is currently seeing a huge jump in promotional spending with some teams spending 10x more than what teams have spent in previous seasons.
That being said, with gaming being one of the most enticing properties for brands to reach the GenZ audiences in India, Bagai emphasised that while there was a lot of interest from gaming/poker brands in previous seasons, the league in its Season 6 has seen significant interest from non gaming brands.
“This in itself is a testament to the fact that the challenge of perception of poker being perceived in a negative light by a lot of brands is definitely changing and improving,” he said.
Highlighting this change of perception, he also stated that as the general ecosystem realises that Poker is a game of skill, discipline and probabilities, more and more brands will get interested in partnering with leagues like the PSL itself in the coming future.
“Perception change takes some time, but we are definitely seeing a positive trend here,” he mentioned.
For this year’s edition of PSL, i.e.- PSL Season 6, he said that the brands which have come on board as sponsors of the league include JioCinema (Streaming partner), Pocket52 (Title sponsor), Novotel (Hospitality Partner), Hustle Energy (Energy partner), Raw Juices (Beverage partner), Wingreen Farms (Snacking partner), etc.
Also Read: JioCinema & PokerBaazi Team Up To Stream ‘Poker Masterclass’ Reality Show on OTT
