The gambling industry has seen a number of initiatives to “sportify” poker but the question still remains if any of the attempts will succeed.  We’ve heard from Alex Dreyfus of the Global Poker League on his plans to grow poker’s popularity worldwide and now Patrick Nally of Match Poker is entering a similar arena.

Match Poker is a “team sport” based on Texas Hold’em, but in this case, team members are split onto different tables, with one player from each team placed in the different seat positions.  Tables are dealt the same cards via mobile devices, meaning every player in seat one has the same cards and the same goes for seats two, three and so on.  After every hand, the chip count for each team is tallied and points are allocated, the stack is re-set and the next hand begins.  The team with the most points at the end is the winner, making Match Poker a true game of skill as the elements of chance are eliminated.

Poker as a spectator sport is a concept yet to be proven, but Nally who has years of experience in sports marketing believes the opportunity for Match Poker is huge.  To find out why he feels so strongly, I spoke with Nally about Match Poker and brought up some issues likely crossing the minds of skeptical poker enthusiasts.

Becky Liggero: Thank you for joining me today, Patrick.  People say the poker industry as we know it is dying…why do you think the future is so bright for Match Poker?