Ivey Poker Expands Again, Absorbs Leggo Poker
The new IveyPoker online poker training site has grown again, this time by scooping up a major rival, Leggo Poker, and adding Leggo’s own prominent team of player-instructors into the IveyPoker fold. According to a release (below), the Leggo Poker teachers and existing content will serve as the base for a new subscription-based teaching service called Ivey League.
Leggo Poker’s existing lineup was one of the largest and most impressive in the business, headed by Aaron “aejones” Jones, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger and Dan “KingDan” Smith. Here’s the complete LeggoPoker lineup, which we’ll list to illustrate a point:
- Aaron “aejones” Jones
- Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger
- Dan “KingDan” Smith
- Cole “CTS” South
- Ben “Sauce123″ Sulsky
- Adam Seaquest
- Alex Carter
- Tony Dunst
- Sonny Kamberi
- Greg Shahade
- Danny Isaacson
- Ron Wirkkala
- Simon Dahms
- Dan Flower
- Frank Calo
- Tim Matthews
- Dan Myers
- Dan Smith
- Richard Lyndaker
- David Yan
- Jared “RikaKazak” Bartlett
- Denny Man
- Vincent Wille
- Mirza Muhovic
That’s 23 players, all told, and that’s added to a lineup of 29 existing players that had already included South, Lichtenberger, Smith and Jones, for a total of at least 49 unique players and coaches now collected under the new IveyPoker label. Given that those four former Leggo pros were likely the biggest draws on that site, this week’s consolidation/acquisition was pretty easy to see.
Add all those players to the existing announced Ivey Poker lineup, which includes Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Jennifer Harman, James Dempsey, Mike Leah and many others, and all of a sudden this has become as prominent a training site as any, at least in terms of its lineup. It’ll probably be a while until its depth of content matches the scope of the pros who will be wearing the IveyPoker label, but they’re going to rank right up there with CardRunners, PokerVT, BlueFire Poker, GrinderSchool, any of them.
What’s behind this push? For a lot of these pros, joining the poker-training game is about the only way to make a few extra bucks from the poker scene, now that most of the endorsement opportunities for players have dried up. And because poker training videos can only be absorbed and understood one at a time, it means that there’s going to be a necessary battle for supremacy.
Online training poker sites are the type of niche where only three or four or five training sites are likely to do very well, getting the lion’s share of the press, the recognition and the word-of-mouth referrals. Understanding that IveyPoker is very late to the game, they’re now playing catchup and making as big a splash as they can.
That’s why we’re seeing all the signings and announcements. Sooner or later there’s going to be a “weeding out” among training sites, and now’s the time to battle for position.
Here’s the text of that release. There’s likely to be more information released on this new Ivey League concept in the days ahead.
February 6, 2013, Las Vegas, NV – IveyPoker today announced the acquisition of LeggoPoker, a community-based website focused on teaching poker strategy through instructional videos from professional experts. Founded by Phil Ivey, IveyPoker offers a suite of innovative poker products and services designed to both entertain and educate poker players of all levels. The acquisition of LeggoPoker will serve as the foundation for a new IveyPoker product offering called Ivey League – a subscription-based poker teaching site featuring training videos and content from Team Ivey, a network of the world’s best professional poker players.
Building off of LeggoPoker’s well established and reputable poker training site, Ivey League will be the most effective way to improve one’s poker game by offering detailed, individualized instruction from world-class coaches who are invested in making better poker players. LeggoPoker’s team of highly skilled instructors, including Aaron Jones, Dan Smith, and Andrew Lichtenberger, will expand to include members of Team Ivey.
“In my opinion, LeggoPoker is one of the best teaching sites on the market,” said Phil Ivey. “They are a great match with IveyPoker and together we will offer a top-notch educational poker destination in Ivey League.”
Ivey League is the next logical step for players after they’ve received initial instruction from the IveyPoker app, the highly anticipated and soon to be launched free-to-play social and mobile poker game. Designed by Phil Ivey, the IveyPoker app offers a unique poker experience designed to both entertain and educate.
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