{"id":1363,"date":"2024-11-19T09:23:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T10:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2024-11-21T14:16:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T14:16:03","slug":"david-lappin-its-official-mom-and-dad-im-a-mind-sportsman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/11\/19\/david-lappin-its-official-mom-and-dad-im-a-mind-sportsman\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lappin: It\u2019s Official Mom and Dad, I\u2019m a (Mind) Sportsman"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Officially recognized<\/h2>\n

For 18 years, I\u2019ve tried to argue to friends and family that I am an athlete. As I\u2019ve put on weight through my 30s and now 40s, that\u2019s been a harder sell. I\u2019m not the physical specimen that I was in my salad days, by which I mean that period of my 20s when kebabs automatically came with some salad and my metabolism was more forgiving.<\/p>\n

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poker is now an officially recognized mind sport<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well, as of last Saturday, following a meeting and a vote by the members of the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA), poker is now an officially recognized mind sport. The game has finally joined chess, bridge, mahjong and Go as a mental sport that requires skill, strategy and concentration.  <\/p>\n

What are the consequences of this decision? First up, my parents and siblings will be force-fed humble pie this Christmas as I lord over them my status as a sportsman. My friends will also be made to apologize for all the times that they ridiculed me when I compared myself to my cousin who was at the time the Irish cricket captain.<\/p>\n

Unprecedented and definitive <\/h2>\n

This categorization is important for poker, which exists in the overlap of skill game and gambling. The latter is what gets accentuated so credit to the World Poker Federation (WPF), a trans-continental network of 49 national poker federations, which lobbied and campaigned for this ruling. After IMSA\u2019s announcement, the WPF President Igor Trafane released a statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Poker Federation was built on the belief that, by joining forces, we can amplify our impact and protect the game we love\u2026 We have achieved something today that is both unprecedented and definitive [and] our mission now is to build the foundation that every major sport already has: standardized regulations, professional pathways, player protections, and international competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Each person in this photo represents an entire community that has fought for years to have poker recognized as a mind sport. This victory belongs to all of us.<\/p>\n

Together, we\u2019ve made history. pic.twitter.com\/k1COym9pjs<\/a><\/p>\n

— WPF – World Poker Federation (@wpf_Poker) November 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

To celebrate the historic ruling, the WPF threw a party in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, where the BSOP Millions festival is currently taking place. Guests of honour included poker professionals Andr\u00e9 Akkari, Rafael Moraes and Lauri\u00ea Tournier as well as Real Madrid\u2019s Marcelo, tennis player Bruno Soares, MMA fighter Anderson Berinja, boxer Lila Furtado, and Brazil\u2019s women\u2019s national team captain Tamires.<\/p>\n

Significant inroads<\/h2>\n

To some, this IMSA decision might seem like just a formal rubber-stamping but it should not be underestimated what this means for our industry. For people working on both the live and online product, it will provide growth opportunities as the perception of poker is improved. <\/p>\n

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inroads will hopefully be made in product development and with regulators<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Significant inroads will hopefully be made in product development and with regulators who have suffocated the market over the past decade. It is certainly easier now to imagine better co-operation between governments, operators, national federations, and the regulatory bodies in different territories around the globe. For example, in October, the Colombian poker federation received an approval from the country\u2019s Ministry of Sport, which now recognizes poker as a sport. <\/p>\n

The implication of that recognition is that poker may now be included in future incentive and investment programs. The WPF is confident that this is just the first of many similar rulings, which poker\u2019s new status can bring about. Partnerships and sponsorships should also be more forthcoming in the future as the game has shedded an impediment.<\/p>\n

Shameless braggadocio <\/h2>\n

This is a watershed moment for poker and something for which the industry has fought for over a decade. In 2014, Pokerstars signed Jennifer Shahade as their \u2018mind-sports ambassador.\u2019 tasking her with the job of reframing poker in the eyes of the public. I attended the UK & Ireland Poker Tour Isle of Man that year where she hosted a chess\/poker hybrid event and have been impressed by various initiatives by her and Pokerstars down the years. <\/p>\n

At Unibet, where I have been a brand ambassador for eight years, it has always been part of the remit to accentuate the skill and strategy aspects of poker, differentiating it from the other verticals offered by the company. My colleague in that role, Dara O\u2019Kearney, was an international ultra-runner and an excellent chess and bridge player before he found poker in his 40s.  <\/p>\n

This decision is a victory for everyone who pushed for poker\u2019s elevation, its evolution from the backroom activities of Texas road gamblers to an engaging, televisable, intellectual pursuit. Players will benefit from poker\u2019s increased legitimacy as it moves out of the shadow of degeneracy and towards the light of gamesmithery. Indeed, the consequences of this IMSA decision should extend well beyond shameless braggadocio at the Lappin household this holiday season.<\/p>\n

The post David Lappin: It\u2019s Official Mom and Dad, I\u2019m a (Mind) Sportsman<\/a> appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officially recognized For 18 years, I\u2019ve tried to argue to friends and family that I am an athlete. As I\u2019ve put on weight through my 30s and now 40s, that\u2019s been a harder sell. I\u2019m not the physical specimen that I was in my salad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1364,"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions\/1364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buckinghamshire-removals.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}