Insights From The Best: Lloyd Fontillas On APT x PokerBazzi

Insights from the best: Lloyd Fontillas on APT x PokerBaazi

WORDS BY MANTHRA KOLIYER

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) is one of the biggest poker properties in the world. They are known for conducting around 80 major and minor events across the Asia-Pacific region. APT recently hit headlines when they joined hands with Indian poker platform PokerBaazi. Gutshot caught up with Lloyd Fontillas, the Executive Tournament director at APT to know more about the collaboration, what’s in store for Indian poker industry in 2021 and more.

While there are so many gaming websites in India, why did APT specifically choose PokerBaazi?

After reaching out to a good friend and a supporter of APT in India, while picking a poker site

to work with, PokerBaazi was the first platform that he introduced me to. After a few online meetings with the owners and staff it was an easy decision. Not only are they easy to work with, but they also share the same vision for growth. The dates picked for the event gives us ample time to market the event properly, work on setting up multiple pre- event satellites to ensure a successful event, a great schedule, the daily and overall leaderboard prizes, and the guaranteed prize pool of the series. There is also an added bonus as they have a live room that hosts some successful events and gives us a venue to host an APT live event in the future.

How do you think APT managed to function and excel during the pandemic?

As much as the pandemic has been negative for live poker, for the APT it somewhat has been a blessing in disguise because we have always been known for strictly doing live events. Due to the pandemic we were approached to do an online event which transpired into two extremely successful events that lead us to the partnership with DuE “ To ThE panDEMic wE wERE appRoachED To Do an onLinE EvEnT which TRanSpiRED inTo Two ExTREME-

LY SuccESSFuL

EvEnTS ThaT LEaD uS To ThE paRTnER-

Ship wi Baazi. Th pokER“ PokerBaazi. Even once live poker fully comes back, APT online events will always be a part of the offerings throughout the years to come. It is clear to us that online and live events will work hand in hand from now on, increasing player numbers across the board. Bottomline, the future of APT is brighter than ever.

After this major collaboration, what does APT look forward to from the Indian market?

The collaboration is set to have a long term plan to increase the number of Indian players playing online and live. We have always had a good number of Indian players traveling to our live events and the vision is to see even more players traveling to live events because of PokerBaazi.

Can Indian poker players expect to get more opportunities and endorsements from overseas brands like APT in 2021?

I believe that we were the first live poker brand to host an online event dedicated to the Asian market and because of the success of the event a few major brands are already following. 2021 will see 100% more collaboration events with live and online operators happening in India and around the world.

Any plans of coming to India?

2012 was the last year we held an event in India. As soon as travelling opens up for players and our team, we will come to India. Gutshot will be the first to know about the live event in partnership with PokerBaazi which will happen before the end of 2021!

The APT India Online Series 2021 will be held from 15 to 26 January 2021, open for Indian players only.