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As a shot in the arm for the Poker Industry, Big Stack launched India’s first-ever Poker University which has the potential to prove as the lifeline of the Industry. In attendance were all the stakeholders of the industry who mattered. The networks, pros and some investors.
The venture was started by Rai Sahib Singh Khurrana, Ritesh Tanu and Sunny Kochhar to improve India’s standing in the game globally. Rai while sharing his vision said, “I often wondered why anyone who wants to learn Poker in India, would not have any options here. There was a void here in India and we plan to fill it.” Providing a platform which serves as a breeding ground for new players, Big Stack announced its official launch on November 10, 2019. Giving a view of the motive of the company along with its course structure, the founders emphasized the impact of Poker on the lives of players. Sunny, the co-founder, said, “My initial thought was what if the Indian market is ripe enough to accept education around Poker. Over the next 10-15 days, we did our research and was confident that we need to float this as soon as possible. We started talking to our networks within the Poker community and was even more confident seeing the reactions and response that we got.” This was what made a fashion lifestyle brand into an Online poker university.
Rai also mentioned the importance of life skills in the game of poker. He added, Risk-taking, developing strategies to beat the competition, managing bankrolls and catching bluffs are some of the key skills learnt from Poker. Ritesh also outlined his vision to take it to B-Schools in India along the lines of Yale, Harvard, MIT and our very own IIM Kozhikode.
The coaches of Big Stack all followed their passion, leaving professions that were too cliché. The coaches Abhishek Goindi, Pratibha Arya and Prabhat Mukherjea, bid goodbye to the corporate world and started playing poker. Both Rai and Ritesh outlined that Poker is like any other sport. It requires hours of concentration, practice and observation along with a lot of mental and physical health. Rai declared, “That’s how Abhishek, Pratibha and Prabhat are where they are.”
Pratibha Arya, India’s only high stakes woman Poker Player, joined hands with Big Stack with a vision to increase the representation of women in the sport. India’s poker pro-Abhishek Goindi emphasised on the lack of guidance and freedom to poker players which he experienced when he was a newbie in the poker world. The course designer and coach Prabhat spoke about his enthusiasm on the launch of Big Stack that motivates him every day to teach new skills to the young poker players.
The event was attended by key stakeholders like entrepreneurs, veterans and pro’s from the Poker Industry. Rai predicted that “Besides the growth which this industry is already witnessing what we foresee is that Big Stack can help boost it further by at least 20% for the next 2 years and post this we can take this up further by 30-40% year on year.”
Bullish on their vision, Big Stack announced pre-bookings till the official launch on 10th November 2019. It seems it’s time for Big Stack to shape the industry being a new entrant in the Poker Ed-tech space.
