Betclic Everest Group has refused to allow their sponsored pros, Benjamin Pollak and Fabrice Soulier, to play in the upcoming Global Poker Masters due to clashes over the use of their logo.

Fabrice Soulier and Benjamin Pollak will not compete at the 2015 Global Poker Masters (GPM).

The first-rate Frenchmen have been told by their sponsor, Betclic Everest Group, that they cannot be involved in the tournament, due to be held March 21/22 as part of the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Malta, due to restrictions placed on the wearing of sponsorship logos.

The news reached the ears of the poker community after Dreyfus spoke about the conflict in a blog post posted on the French poker website ClubPoker.net. In that blog post a clearly frustrated Dreyfus indicates that perhaps Betclic Everest should be given an award for ‘absurdity’ at the next France Poker Awards.

“Once we announced the players that would represent #TeamFrance it appeared that some players may have contract issues. I have spoke to the poker management team of EverestPoker.fr to ask if they were keen for their players to represent France in this event and they declined.” Dreyfus told CalvinAyre.

The difference of opinion has come about because Dreyfus is keen to keep the stream free of gaming sponsorships in a bid to lure non-gaming sponsors into the business. It’s all part of the master plan to ‘Sportify’ poker – a plan that Betclic Everest doesn’t seem to be on board with.

The entrepreneur said he was ‘shocked’ at the attitude of Everest, and all further communication with the online gambling outfit had failed to produce a different outcome.