Rue de Simplon 25 CH 1006 L ausanne Switzerland Patrick Nally, President
T +44 (0) 1494 730519 F. +44 (0) 1494 680627 M. +44 (0) 7790 601779 pn@pokerfed.org
Ecuador Sports Ministry Lausanne, 9 December 2013 Dear José Francisco Cevallos Villavicencio The International Federation of Poker is the governing body for the ‘mind sport’ of poker. Established in 2009 under the Swiss Civil Code it is like many other International Sports Federation’s located in Lausanne, Switzerland. Currently IFP has over 50 member nations in 5 continents where 9 of these nations have classified poker as a game of skill and therefore a mind sport. These are Belarus, Bosnia, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, and Mexico. IFP has been given ‘observer status’ by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) and is working closely with SportAccord to become a full member. IFP currently has 51 full national members with a healthy list of other Nations working with us as they form their own local structures. We are making significant progress in China, India and other important territories. The recognition of Poker as a ‘Mind Sport’ grows daily and IFP’s introduction of Match Poker (based on the duplicate format) has significantly emphasized the skill aspect of Poker and has helped with the creation of strong International team competitions. SportAccord is the ultimate body that represents and recognizes sport at all levels regardless of what competition in which they participate, and many of our member nations are fully aware that SportAccord recognition will resolve their own ‘sporting’ recognition issues in their own Countries. IFP’s variant to regular Texas Hold’em poker is called Match Poker and is the type of poker we play and promote via our international events. This format of poker is based on the approach taken by duplicate bridge, where players compete against each other with the same ‘hands’, emphasizing the skill factor of Poker. Currently Match Poker is played in a team format. Our competitions comprise of nations playing Match Poker against other nations and qualify through to the IFP Nations Cup World Final from their region. As you can see IFP functions similar to other global governing bodies of sports and poker’s recognition as a game of skill and mind sport is growing everyday. To assist in the development of Poker as a Mind Sport we also collaborate closely with both Harvard and MIT Universities in Boston USA who through a Mind Sport Research Centre made Poker a pre requisite for legal studies. I kindly urge you to classify poker as a mind sport in Ecuador and if you have any questions or need more supporting evidence please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Kind regards
Patrick Nally President International Federation of Poker
International Federation of Poker (IFP)