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FMBX News
Posted: Nov 23, 2011
innovision produces Mind Sports festival for Dentsu and West Nally
Mind Sport Partners, a new venture created by Japanese advertising giants Dentsu and West Nally, a London based consultancy founded by Patrick Nally whose work is widely regarded as seminal to the global sports marketing industry, announced two global International Federation Poker (IFP) tournaments, The Duplicate Poker Nations Cup and The Table, both events formed part of the Festival of Mind Sports which launched last Thursday, November 17th, at County Hall.
Mind Sport Partners’ mission is to create and enhance commercial and social value across the range of mind sports represented by its clients. The individual sports are Chess, Bridge, Go, Draughts, Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) and Duplicate Poker.
The events took place from Thursday 17th November through to Sunday 20th November.
The IFP’s inaugural Duplicate Poker Nations Cup featured 12 representative teams from the member federations of the IFP including; The USA, United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Japan,Ireland, Denmark and the first digital nation; Zynga.
The initial phase took place in 22 capsules on the EDF Energy London Eye over the first two days of the festival; 12 Poker capsules, eight hospitality and two capsules each for Bridge, Chess, Chinese Chess, Drafts and Go.
Duplicate Poker is the pure mind sport version of poker, a sport played by millions across the globe. Players compete against each other based on skill, without any fluctuation in chance.
The International Federation of Poker’s World Championship, The Table, saw 130 of the world’s leading players competing for a US$500,000 prize fund in a no buy-in Texas Hold’em competition at County Hall on 19th and 20th November.
“Mind sports are played by over one billion people worldwide and that number is set to rise exponentially with the spread of digital media which will enable new competitions, leagues and federations to be established,” Nally said. “They are real sports which demand many of the characteristics and qualities of physical sports including self-discipline, competition, training, stamina and fair-play. Mind sports also share universal values with other sports and with the Olympic Movement. If physical activity is a fundamental necessity for human beings, the same can be said for mental activity which is an indispensible complement.”
innovision took full responsibility for all production elements across County Hall and the EDF Energy London Eye for this unique festival. The bold decision was made to step out of the ‘casino’ for this first ever Festival of Mind Sports. The agency was responsible for all event production, including; catering, logistics and branding. The final of this festival saw the nine
finalists play on a state of the art LED poker table imported directly from Japan. In total 84 Poker players, 50 Mind Sport competitions, over 150 VIP guests attended and 1,764 decks of cards were used with the Friday and Sunday Poker streamed live over www.pokerfed.org.
The last two days of the tournament saw celebrity poker players invited to join including; Shane Warne, Steve Davis, Teddy Sheringham and Zac Goldsmith MP.
Jonty Perry, head of operations for Mind Sports Partners, said “This was a world first for us and Dentsu. We chose innovision for two reasons; firstly their broad depth of experience in managing and delivering hugely complex events and secondly because of their long standing relationship with the EDF Energy London Eye. innovision rose to the challenge for this highly demanding four day event and we look forward to working with innovision on future Mind Sports and Poker events.”
innovision Project Director Henry McDonald said; “This is the second innovative event in the space of five weeks that we have produced using the EDF Energy London Eye – Red Bull Music Academy being the other. Loading professional Mind Sports tables, TV crews and of course players and VIP guests into a rotating venue presents us with a unique set of challenges all of which have been managed effectively. Thursday’s night’s sequence of press events, launch party and competition on the EDF Energy London Eye was truly spectacular.
The following 3 days were well received by the players, the live audience and the online community through the live streaming of both the Duplicate Poker Nations Cup and ‘The Table’.”
