BackSpartan Poker launches India’s first phygital rewards for the gaming industry
Amin Rozani, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Spartan Poker Group, shares insights about India’s gaming industry and his experience of organizing two major poker events – the India Poker Championship and India Online Poker Championship
PremiumThe much-awaited poker championships are back, and poker players could not be more excited. Amin Rozani, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Spartan Poker Group, speaks about his experience of organizing two major poker events – the India Poker Championship (IPC) and the upcoming mega-event India Online Poker Championship (IOPC). He also shared some insights about the overall online gaming landscape in India dominated by Poker, the safety of online gaming, and some major highlights of the much-awaited IPC Nepal 2022. Some edited excerpts:
Q. Poker has been gaining significant recognition as a true game of skill and strategy. What, according to you, are the top 3 skills needed to ace this game?
Rozani: Poker is indeed a game of skill and endurance. To win, Poker each participant gets many opportunities to show off their greatest moves, plans, and talents. While the understanding of the rules and movements of the game is crucial, what you do off the felt also affects your performance significantly. Here are a few skills a person must possess to ace the game:
- Discipline: Everyone understands that poker requires a lot of patience, and that patience requires a lot of discipline. Do not get carried away and place unnecessary bets when the situation does not call for it. The poker player who understands math and circumstances well will benefit greatly and take advantage of the game.
- Math: I cannot stress enough the importance of knowing basic math. Top poker players understand the odds of the game, including specific card pairings. Like other card games, Poker is primarily about expectations and information. Knowing the probability of hitting a flush or the river card would allow you to understand when to fold and call.
- Psychology: The ability to read your opponents and predict their next actions is one of the most important skills of all. You may deduce your opponent's card and strategy and an accurate prediction of these can offer you a huge advantage over your opponents.
To win at poker, players must employ many strategies to outwit and outplay their opponents, regardless of the hand they are dealt. Poker is thus frequently characterized as a skill game because it necessitates in-depth knowledge and strategies of the game.
Q. There is a lot of buzz about the India Poker Championship happening in Nepal this year. Can you tell us a little more about it – what are the stakes and who is participating?
Rozani: India’s biggest and most popular poker tournament presented by Spartan Poker, IPC, is coming back after a gap of two years. It has been operating on the offshore casinos of Panjim, Goa, since March 2010. But, this year, we are hosting the tournament for the first time in Casino Vegas by Big Daddy, Nepal. The seven-day IPC live event is held from May 17 to May 23, 2022.
With a prize pool of 3.5 crores GTD (Guaranteed), this year’s IPC is a Megastacks tournament with high buy-ins and stakes. The buy-ins start from 15K and go up to 100K in the Highroller tournament while the Main Event alone holds a GTD of 2 crores! The IPC this year has already witnessed close to 200 high rolling players from across India and 10+ celebrities from the film and TV industry, who will all play to win the championship and get titled as the “India Poker Champion".
Q. The past editions of IPC have seen an overwhelming response with hundreds of people coming together and competing for the title. What can poker enthusiasts expect this year from IPC?
Rozani: IPC is coming back with a bang in this edition and is set to be grander than any Indian poker event till date! This IPC is for the 1st time in its history and will set a precedent for mega poker tournaments in the country. At the event, we are hosting a wide range of entrepreneurs, investors, poker pros, and celebrities, along with many Indian and international artists and entertainers. This time around, the IPC is more than just a competition. It comes as a chance for poker enthusiasts to stay, play, and holiday in five-star luxury in Nepal.
Also, for the first time in the history of the Indian gaming industry, IPC winners will be awarded Phygital trophies!
Q. IPC and Spartan Poker are launching another first – Indian gaming’s first tryst with Phygital marketing. What does this mean for the winners? What makes NFTs a great choice for rewards for participants?
Rozani: The concept of Phygital trophies is the inclusion of a physical trophy with its digital NFT twin which unlike their physical counterparts can be carried anywhere in a digital wallet.
To answer the second part, NFTs or non-fungible tokens are becoming mainstream and can now be used as Twitter or Reddit profile pictures, with Facebook and Instagram following suit soon. NFTs are designed specifically for a purpose and are not replicable. It is a collectible that would have appreciating value and, therefore, the winner of an NFT feels important and exclusive.
NFTs are also a safer option for reward payouts because they use smart contracts on the blockchain to securely execute and trace transactions.
Q. At Spartan Poker, it must be a challenging task to organize two mega-events – IPC and IOPC - at such a grand scale consecutively. Can you offer us a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes?
Rozani: Organising events of this scale and back-to-back are indeed overwhelming and require a lot of time and effort. Thankfully, since we have been doing these events over the years and have our checklists in place. The biggest strength for me is my team and the passion with which they look towards executing these events. The time and energy, and the customer-centric approach that the team takes in putting these events together is the reason why India Poker Championship and India Online Poker Championship are the biggest and most successful poker events in the country.
Q. With the online space dotted with poker platforms, and many taking up the game professionally too, the one question on every traditional player’s mind when they enter the online space is how safe this new mode of play is. How can players select the right online poker platform where they can put their skills to fair play?
Rozani: It is easy to be bogged down by the thought of having to choose between multiple poker platforms on which to set base and enjoy the game. However, a player can narrow down the possibilities by checking some of the factors that all genuine and safe poker platforms employ.
The first to check for is a Random Number Generator (RNG) Certification, which correctly informs you that the only factor affecting your ability to play on that site is your skill level, as the cards dealt are purely random, and no amount of mathematics or probability expertise can predict what the next card will be. This ensures no scope for identifying trends or exploiting loopholes.
The next thing to look out for is a KYC Review. You can trust a poker platform that performs due diligence on the documents that it requests from players to keep your money safe. Any cash-out request will only be executed when the PAN card associated with the profile has been validated, and the cash-out will only be placed in the bank account associated with that PAN card. The platform would deduct TDS and pay the remaining amount to the player, while submitting the TDS to the government, thus maintaining complete transparency and legal diligence.
Responsible gaming platforms also create a robust and foolproof system to ensure that all the deposited money is systematically associated with the players’ accounts. Players should have their disposal via various payment gateways to facilitate quick transfer of funds to their poker wallet and all withdrawals should be routed through the bank account associated with the players. This integration between the gaming software and the accounts management system gives the player the confidence to deposit freely and withdraw whenever they wish to enjoy their well-deserved earnings. This will immediately set high standards for the platform, fostering player trust.
Q. Can you tell us more about the much-awaited IOPC?
Rozani: IOPC, which follows immediately after IPC, would be the biggest ever online poker series in India with a massive prize pool of 33 Crore GTD! For 18 days from June 2 to June 19, 2022, poker enthusiasts can enjoy unrivaled excitement and incredible value at the IOPC.
IOPC’s 13th edition is an upgrade over the past editions as it includes all the favorite features from the previous years as well as new tournaments, including the country’s largest 1 Crore leaderboard, with 30L GTD to the Player of the Series! Poker enthusiasts can play and win from 132 events featuring a total GTD of 33 Cr. In addition to the overall leaderboard, this edition brings with it a Daily leaderboard of 1L GTD!
What first started in 2015 with just 6.5 Lacs GTD, has grown to a 33 CR today! That shows the immense growth journey that the tournament has had thanks to the trust of the poker fraternity. More than 4000 players participated in the last edition, and the winner of the crown took home huge cash prizes. Spartan Poker also launched India’s First Gaming NFTs that were awarded to the winners along with the cash prizes.
This year, players can expect a further upgrade in the form of the biggest leaderboard in the country of 1 Cr GTD. The main event has 4 Cr GTD and a Diamond-studded Crown, in addition to which players will also get a chance to earn a new title every day!
To gain a ticket to the IOPC event, players will have to clear the Qualifiers (Satellite tournaments), which are being held from May 30 to June 19 on the Spartan Poker website, along with the streaming partner websites – Blitzpoker, PokerHigh, AIO Games, Pokerdaddy, and Myteampoker, with buy-ins beginning from a modest ₹ 55.
To find out more about the 2022 edition, you can log on to the event website at https://www.spartanpoker.com/iopc-june-2022.
Disclaimer: This article is produced by Quadrific Media Private Limited and it does not have journalistic/ editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/ subscribe to the contents of the article/advertisement and/or views expressed herein.
The reader is further advised that Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions. The readers are advised to be well versed with the extant laws as well as policy of different States dealing with gambling.
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