SiGMA Poker Tour | Women in Poker, Live Events & Emerging iGaming Markets

(0:00 - 1:10) Surya: Poker teaches you that falling and failing is actually great. We are very focused on imagery of success and fake success, but we don't focus on losing. When it comes to the key regions that are emerging overall globally in terms of iGaming, which regions come to your mind? Ivonne: Africa. After the pandemic, live poker is having a new resurrection. This is where the players are being built. Surya: One thing which no one knows about you in the industry?

Ivonne: I used to have a radio show in Los Angeles and we talked a lot about topics and education. So we have lovely influencers joining the SPT Tour. You learn poker in 20 minutes, but take a lifetime to master it. Surya: Hello and welcome back to another episode of iGaming Real Talk and I have with me Ivonne from SiGMA here with me. Ivonne, welcome to the show. Ivonne: Thank you, Surya, for having me. I'm excited to talk about all our projects.

Surya: So, I mean, from what I've seen, you're Costa Rican. You lived in Malta for almost more than 20, 25 years at this time and you're also into poker for a very long time. You have founded Malta Poker Festival and you have also founded Costa Rican Poker Festival and now you're running the commercial operations for SiGMA Poker Tour. I think this is something that everyone knows. It's very public.

But what I wanted to ask you in this one to start off is to hear from you like one thing which no one knows about you in the industry. Ivonne: One thing nobody knows about me in the industry. I love boring stuff and people think because I'm a front woman, you know, the business and poker, I'm always in front, but people get the idea that my life is like a super action all the time. And actually I do enjoy a little boring night. It's my favorite.

So I would say people don't know much that part of me. (2:22 - 5:36) Surya: Okay. That's interesting. It's quite a long journey in terms of how you started to where you are right now. Ivonne: Yeah. Oh well, maybe people don't know that I used to have a radio show in Los Angeles and we talked a lot about sex topics and sex education. Me being a psychologist.

So, it was the traffic jam time at 7:00 a.m. and I had a radio show in LA, the time I lived there a long time ago before poker. Surya: Wow. So, that's quite interesting. And I think that explains the kind of charm you have when you speak and when you're on the camera because I think it comes from a very long time as well. Ivonne: Well, yes. I mean, yes, it comes from training behind the cameras and I've been a model and I had the radio show.

So, this is something I quite enjoy. Surya: Okay. So definitely. So how did a psychologist from Costa Rica and LA end up as one of the most known people in the poker world? Ivonne: Well, actually I came to Spain and did my master's degree and I then went back to Costa Rica to practice and I thought, oh my god, what a hard life. I mean, listening to problems all day. This doesn't seem conducive to the kind of life I wanted to build.

I mean, so coincidentally, I started working for sportsbook.com doing their affiliate poker tournaments and they got a lot of steam from affiliate poker tournaments that were a gift to affiliates. We turned them into million-dollar projects B2C. So that was and then I discovered poker and fell in love and since then that's what I do for a living. Poker as a player, as organizer, as front person, as commercial manager, all of it. I love it. Surya: Wow.

That's quite interesting to know. Like, I mean, did you apply to be in iGaming or was it just kind of very much random? Ivonne: It was such a coincidence. It was, yeah, very random. My mom is an interior designer. So, she was designing the office of the CEO of sportsbook.com. And he told her, I would love that you organize these tournaments, but my mom couldn't speak English. So, she told the CEO, Well, I have a daughter that just came from Spain and she speaks English.

Maybe she can do it. And when my mom told me, I told my mom, No, mom. I'm an academic. I don't want anything to do with iGaming. And then I did it and I loved it. Ivonne: But I am very happy I did my academic studies. I think that built a lot of the admin work I'm doing right now. I couldn't do it without university degree kind of education. So, I don't think anything is lost. We all take from what we learn. Surya: Yeah.

I was always questioning maybe like five years ago, like why did I do all the studies? Fortunately, I also did my master's in Spain in Costa del Sol. That was my first experience. But then eventually I understood after my first job at SiGMA, by the way, I understood, okay, you know, all that academia gave me the determination, the grit that is being useful right now in the work life as well. Ivonne: Definitely.

Now with AI, I'm so keen to learn about all this because it's life-changing. I mean, I'm so happy with my ChatGPT assistant doing a lot of the work I wouldn't like to do. Like, I write a lot of content so it helps a lot to condense your ideas, etc. (5:58 - 9:25) Surya: Okay. And what was your first, you know, thoughts when you understood the game of poker because it's not the same as any other game in our industry. It has a skill. It's a very fascinating game.

I tried my first poker game in Brazil in SPT Brazil. Yeah. And I was invited to it by some SiGMA team and then I was like, okay, I don't know anything about poker, but it feels fascinating. So I tried learning on the way on the flight. I was on the table. It was super fascinating game and I was like, wow, this is like chess. I had a feeling like this is like chess but much more. So, what is your experience and thoughts of poker?

Ivonne: I love it because it's very social as well. I mean, you're playing against your opponents, with your opponents. The game has the complexity that it requires player liquidity. When you're playing casino games such as slots, it's you versus the machine or you versus the house, the casino. But with poker, there's the element of the others and the psychology of the others. You can see sometimes, let's say a player will come and say, I'm so tired. I had such a hard day.

Well, you know, you can cook him later on and you can use these elements to play different or use certain strategies and so on. So, I love the game of poker and I think it helps you a lot to be driven in business and in life. It gives you elements. Poker teaches you that falling and failing is actually great if you can learn from those mistakes.

And I believe that we are very focused right now with social media as well in this imagery of success and fake success, but we don't focus on losing and actually it's important that we learn to be frustrated to lose. What matters is how we stand up back again and again and again and again because poker has this variance. Just Friday I was playing. I couldn't believe it. I got beaten with my queens three times. I mean, that's really bad luck.

But then as a poker player you know that the variance will eventually turn to your side. So, you just pick up and do it again next day. So I find that very, very fascinating about poker.

At some point in my life, I was the vice president of the Women's Poker Association in Las Vegas and we were working with a team called Poker Power and it basically talks how poker can empower you and that we women need an education like the poker education to be more aggressive business-wise and not be so conflicted to lose or to fail, but just jumping and taking those risks. And poker teaches you that. Poker teaches you to risk it and to learn from that.

And I believe that's something that especially women, we are taught a different behavioral skill set, more nourishing, you know, whereas men are taught more to be aggressive risk takers. So poker has taught me a bit to be a risk taker and be more aggressive with the life opportunities. I would say. Surya: That's beautiful in the way you explained.

I've never seen it that way but after so many years of organizing the poker events, I'm curious to understand what made you join SiGMA team now. I think it's been more than a year or so, almost. (9:40 - 11:08) Ivonne: Yeah. Two years actually. Last week it was my second year. Well, I've always known Eman from the iGaming industry and SiGMA and I've been quite a fan of the SiGMA company journey. I mean, what he's built is very impressive.

And I have a very talented group of colleagues that make me love what I do and give me the help and the team feeling. And it's a great company to be part of, very exciting company to be part of. So Eman always was interested in poker and we would meet and talk about it and finally he decided to appoint me to start the tour and now I have a bigger team and I have even Anna Kohi that is the head of the SiGMA Poker Tour, which she's great. She's very organized.

So having that kind of team is beautiful to be able to work on this because it's very intense. I mean, we're doing five tours a year in completely different locations. Imagine that this December we're going to Sri Lanka and this is groundbreaking because Thailand made poker forbidden after Thailand had made so much progress, they completely shut it down. So now in Colombo in Sri Lanka we will have a poker tournament.

So, we're hoping that a lot of that poker community from Thailand is going to join us. Surya: Oh, that's interesting. We'll jump to Sri Lanka in a bit, but I want to start where it all started, which is in Sao Paulo last year. I think it was wild. I mean, I saw a lot of things.

I was there as well and there was a lot of festive vibes and there was also this Divas event that you have mentioned and also there was a lot of very important impactful work done through SiGMA Foundation as well. A school was built in Favela and also a martial arts center for the youth that are at risk in terms of gambling and, you know, to show like a real path. So, a lot has happened in the inaugural version itself.

So looking back, what surprised you the most in terms of what you expected and what you got from that event? (11:59 - 14:13) Ivonne: Well, Brazil is quite an interesting market and what happens in Brazil is that the influencer market is quite mature. So we have lovely influencers joining the SPT Tour. Brazil is such a special, unique, joyful stop. Our partners make sure that it's very festive, as you said. It's very, very fun. People are relaxed. The game is exciting.

Sao Paulo is a beautiful location to have an SPT. And obviously, the Brazilian community is growing every second. I mean, when you play online in big operators, you see the thousands of Brazilian flags online. They're connected. They're playing. They're building the ecosystem. It's absolutely fantastic. And once they are on the live event, they are quite a rail, quite a cheerleading to the max to their friends and they enjoy the wins of others.

And the SiGMA Divas in Sao Paulo is an important tournament now in its second year. We have over 100 female runners. It's been good work. Surya: Ah, that's only for the women to kind of empower, as you mentioned previously, to also build that skill of business. Ivonne: Exactly. And also why do we have women-only events? Some men ask me, like, Don't you believe in equality?

And well, the thing is that the women-only events are made to make women confident to play the bigger games. Why do women not join a main event? Because if they've never played and there's only men sitting at the table, do you think they're going to join and learn? It's very difficult to make that jump to want to sit down and learn with an all-male population. But if you have this kind of environment where it's a fun event, we're teaching you how to play.

There's not really good or wrong answer. It's just let's learn, have fun. Then after an event like this, they can jump into the events with the mixed field. So that's why we have women's events to build that confidence in the game. Surya: Okay, that's quite interesting and encouraging for women to take it up as well as go in that kind of direction.

(14:18 - 16:02) Surya: So if we look at other regions that you have also done SPT, you've done it in Malta and also Manila as far as I understood. And how's the experience? Ivonne: Malta is our home turf. So having the SiGMA office here in Malta, our partner Portomaso Casino has been also my partner for 20 years here on the island. So we work really well with them. Operationally wise, working in Malta is great. The dealers are experienced.

They bring that confidence to the operation, to the table, to the players. So for me, Malta is home turf and a sure shot. It's going to be a great event no matter what in Malta poker and we'll continue to do so because that stop is really much more mature as well as we have a big iGaming community in Malta. So I think it's more easy in terms of running an event there. But how do you compare that to Asia, like in Manila, and how do you compare that to Brazil?

Ivonne: Manila also was an incredible success in my opinion because it was a very ambitious prize pool, guaranteed prize pool of $250,000 US, one quarter of a million dollars. Very ambitious and we made it happen. We had a proper festival with many events and PAGCOR, the local governmental entity, endorsed us. So, we were able to host this big festival and it was fantastic. People loved it. They can't wait to go back in 2027 and we can't wait to go back as well.

(16:02 - 19:11) Surya: Okay, that's great. And when it comes to the key regions that are emerging overall globally in terms of iGaming, which regions come to your mind at the moment? Ivonne: Africa. Africa. We're going to have in 2027 Cape Town. SiGMA Poker Tour Cape Town. And yes, it's very exciting as well to be doing these poker tours in jurisdictions that have been historically complicated.

I mean, Asia and Africa, there's been a lot of cancellations because of permits and jurisdiction issues. But with SiGMA, we are doing it with the endorsement of the local government entity such as MGA in Malta, such as PAGCOR in Manila. And we are getting great results. People are craving live poker after the pandemic. Live poker is having a new resurrection. You see it. Even if we make a tournament on Monday night, they're coming. The players are coming.

Players are loving it. There's a thirst for these kind of events and the beautiful thing about SiGMA Poker Tour is that it has this networking element in the industry. So if you play poker or if you want to learn and you join an SPT, you can even connect with affiliates. What better than the ground to play than the B2C arena where the real customers are, the players. That's where they are.

So, as operators, I would strongly recommend you get into the SiGMA Poker Tour because this is where the players are being built. And also, we have already started to have a fan base, people that are traveling to SPTs just to follow the tour. And this is something that excites me a lot.

Surya: That's cool because I remember even from my game in Brazil this year, I met this influencer who had, like, I think he had more than a million followers on Insta and he was next to me on the table. I didn't know who he was and we were just talking and we were networking and at the end of the event he posted a picture with me on his Instagram and then it kind of went mini viral. And I couldn't have had this experience to meet this gentleman if it was not for the event.

Like, how would I meet an influencer like that? He was also an influencer for WPT. Ivonne: This is a big shout out to Romeulo Dorea, SPT ambassador. He's amazing. I really enjoy working with him. He has a huge following. Everything he does goes viral. He's a fantastic player with great ethic, great passion for the game. So having people like that join your event, I mean, what else can we want? And Romeulo is fantastic.

We would love to have him in every stop and he's following all the stops. He's one of our main ambassadors and stay tuned because Romeulo can give us a surprise very soon. I feel that he's in to win something big this year. Surya: Cool. I'm looking forward to it as well. (19:15 - 21:34) Surya: And let's talk about SiGMA North America. So it's going to be the first SiGMA event in Mexico in September.

So why is SiGMA looking at Mexico and how is it important market in the industry right now and what do you think that attendees can expect from the event in general? Ivonne: Well, Latin America is a super interesting market but Latin America is made out of a mosaic of different cultures, different foods, different nationalities. You can't compare Central America to South America to North America. So we have a strong stop in Brazil, SiGMA Americas Brazil.

So it makes all the sense to organically do the North America in Mexico. And I am Latin American and I love Latin America. I'm so proud of it. The food, the people, the language. Surya: It's amazing. And also for general attendees who are thinking, should we attend SiGMA Mexico or not? What would you like to tell them? Ivonne: Definitely be the first ones. Be the first ones joining this emerging market. Mexico also is going to be full of affiliates.

We're going to have a lot of key players that are getting in the US market. Surya: I'm definitely looking forward to the one after which is in Sri Lanka, which is closer to me. So, I think it'll be the second time SiGMA is going to be in Sri Lanka. So, how's the show planning coming up and also the SPT? Ivonne: It's coming up really amazing and exciting to be there in this new location.

I can tell you that my forecast is that this will be the biggest tournament in the region in past 5 years. So we are working very hard. All the clubs that were closed are going to start opening to send players to this tournament, to the SPT. So it's a live satellite cross-pollination that is going to render incredible results. And Sri Lanka we have X amount of tables. X amount is capped. All tournaments are capped and I can tell you we're going to reach max capacity.

It's going to be very full. (21:34 - 23:46) Surya: Okay. Is it your first time organizing an event in this region? Ivonne: First time. First time organizing an event in this region. I couldn't be more excited. Surya: I wish everyone is able to find something that they can be so passionate about as the way you are passionate about the poker events because it is easily visible when you talk about it. And I think that's quite beautiful in that sense.

Ivonne: It's true what Doyle Brunson said. He said, You learn poker in 20 minutes, but take a lifetime to master it. Definitely. I learn new things all the time. Poker players are super deep divers. Deep divers into the hand. What happened? So, there's the whole analytical aspect of the game that I can't get bored as a player myself. I haven't gotten bored in 25 years.

There's always new things to learn, always new characters, always new operators in the market and new things to do, new features online to see, new variations of the game. And even the regulations, the TDA, Tournament Director Association in Las Vegas is constantly evolving, constantly adapting the rules as the times dictate. For example, streaming on the table, the rules with that. Should we stream? Should we not stream? And all these discussions are very exciting.

AI, the use of AI in player pools online and digitally is something also that I'm passionate to learn about because it can be a really good tool to segregate a little bit player pools and play only with amateurs so that the game is exciting. What happens with recreational players too is that they join too complicated games or online is a bit more of a different level than what they have. So they get bored because or ticked off or not stimulated because it's hard to win.

You enter these games because you want this dopamine feeling of winning. So if we segregate a little bit player pools between recreational, amateur, professional, then people will get that excitement when you win. (23:50 - 25:18) Surya: Do you think online poker is going down as a market? Because you know, from what I understand, this is a very social game. People want to see, people want to feel what the table looks like. Online poker does exist.

Ivonne: Online poker is here to stay. It builds a whole economy. It's a multi-million dollar industry and the strong players, the strong operators, even Bet, GG Poker, PokerStars, Betsson, they are all implementing always new changes, new features, new games to keep everyone entertained. I think that poker yet needs to see a 2.0 post money maker fever, which can be the solution, can be the streamers.

I think streaming poker, streaming online poker is really fun when you're playing. And nowadays things are a bit more expensive. So you are a little bit more mindful when you go out. I remember, I don't know if it's because I'm older, but now I'm more mindful. When I go out, I go out, but not every day. So in that sense, live poker can be expensive.

Go get dressed, go to the casino, buy-in, parking ticket, gas, petrol, etc. Online is great to play but you need the entertainment social aspect too. So perhaps if some operator comes up with the idea of streaming while playing, oof, it will be a new sort of a metaverse for poker. Would be great. (25:18 - 26:47) Surya: Yeah.

I mean, metaverse made some headlines when Facebook changed its company name to Meta, but I think it went nowhere and AI and blockchain, more like AI took over the whole scene on many areas, took over the NFT scene, took over the metaverse, took over the crypto and blockchain as well to certain extent. It's all AI now. It's kind of like owning the space. Ivonne: Definitely, but poker is there trying and resilient and surviving the times.

And I think we can expect a lot of innovation from operators. Surya: Okay, cool. And what's your, where are you planning to take this in terms of the bigger vision? Ivonne: I'm hoping that we will have one SPT per summit, so that wherever there's a summit there would be an SPT. And I'm hoping exactly what we're seeing, that players that go to an SPT keep following the tour because it's really fun. So, I'm yet to see a super leaderboard with all the events tied up together.

Bigger prize pools always draw more attention and significant prizes being built up. Also, I hope that the SiGMA Summit itself, it's a great way to cross-pollinate into the poker tour and that more people will join the summit and the poker tour and it will be more integrated every time. This is what we're trying to achieve. (26:47 - 28:37) Surya: And before I let you go, I have the last question. Of course, you've been in the industry for a very long time.

What is the one trend that has been still frustrating you all these years? Ivonne: One trend that frustrates me is the uber tight-knit players. When you go to a poker tournament and they are with the headphones and just not ready to socialize or to talk, and the game becomes quite boring and mechanic in some tours. I want people to have fun and relax. Surya: Okay, that's interesting. Well, is there anything you would like to share with our audience before we close off?

Ivonne: Well, definitely I want to share that if you're joining a SiGMA Summit, please join the SPT because you won't go back. I mean, you will love it and you will follow us in all the tours and have a great experience because we are running this very nicely, very professionally and we want everyone to try and taste it.

So I want to personally invite everyone to join SiGMA Summit and SPT and as an operator if you join the SiGMA Summit and get a booth you can get a ticket to the SPT. So there's no excuse not to join this fun. Surya: So yeah, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your plans as well as thoughts about SiGMA Poker Tour as well as poker in general. It's quite interesting for me and also for the audience. So thank you so much. Ivonne: Thank you, Surya.

I will see you in Sri Lanka. Surya: Absolutely. Ivonne: And I want to see everyone in our SPTs. Thank you very much. Surya: Thank you so much guys for watching. Do share your thoughts in the comments below. Do follow Ivonne as well as what's going on with the SPT and I will see you on the next show. So, thank you so much for watching.