Adda52 to Launch an Indian Poker Sports League

Last April, the Indian state of Nagaland signed a landmark act into law formally recognizing poker as a game of skill. In so doing, it brought its opinion in line with that of the states of West Bengal and Karnataka and as a result the country’s online poker market is currently on track to enjoying a mini boom.
At the end of 2016, Nagaland subsequently issued its first two iGaming licenses to K365 and Pokabunga, and now the country’s biggest online poker site, Adda52, has announced that it would soon be launching India’s first ever poker sports league. Emulating the format of the Global Poker League (GPL), the new competition will pit 12 teams from 12 regions against one another over a number of live, as well as online matches.
The Poker Sports League (PSL) is expected to provide more information as to its running by the end of this month, but in the meantime some details have come to light. Each 9 person team, for instance, will consists of both professional poker players and celebrities, in addition to qualifiers. Furthermore, team members will subsequently be competing for their share of a prize pool worth $490,000, whilst also being paid a fixed wage on top.
If successful, the PSL has the potential to spread enthusiasm for the game to more parts of the vast sub-continent, and help develop further an online industry which according to some estimates is already worth around $120 million per year. That said, with just three states currently viewing poker as a game of skill, a lot still has yet to be done to turn the country’s other 26 states away from seeing poker as just another gambling game. Nevertheless, the rewards could be great if the league garners popular support amongst the country’s residents, and the PSL may ultimately help change the legal opinion of other skill-based card games in the country, such as rummy.