PartyPoker’s newest ambassador Karim Louis will represent PartyPoker at all their upcoming PartyPoker Tour live stops advocating for the Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign, that he spearheaded three years ago.
Louis, who is CEO of ECOSEC, a UK company that supplies environmentally friendly products to a variety of industries, started the Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign back in 2022. He hoped to get the poker industry to move away from single use plastics, specifically when it comes to the use of poker chip bags — something that he has been very successful at doing.
888poker where early adopters of the initiative and were the first top-tier poker operator to introduce ECOSEC’s biodegradable poker chip bags at their live stops.
Since then, the initiative has continued to grow in popularity and be adopted by other main-stream poker brands.
PokerStars followed shortly after 888poker introducing biodegradable bags at their events. Now almost three years on, Louis tells pokerfuse 95% of the UK market at using his poker chip bags at live poker events. Last year ECOSEC sponsored The Monster Stack at the Irish Poker Festival 2024 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin — which was a first for the company, but something ECOSEC strives to do in order to actively support live poker events.
Now PartyPoker is on board, right in time for their upcoming live tour that is making five stops around the UK. Louis will represent PartyPoker at their upcoming live stops and he represents the first ambassador signing for the company in many years. Louis will join the Staples brother (Jaime and Matt) as representatives for the brand, which has had its fair share of turmoil in recent years.
The first stop, where Louis will be patched up and playing at the tables as part of his ambassadorship, starts in London on April 19. The London stop will feature a £500 Main Event, £150 Mini-Main and a £1,000 high roller. Online qualifiers are underway on PartyPoker where players can qualify into events from £0.20p. PartyPoker will send 200 players to London via online routes.
The tour then moves on to Manchester in June and Glasgow in August — all of which will use ECOSEC’s biodegradable bags. Two more stops will happen as part of the PartyPoker tour, but dates and locations are yet to be announced.
“PartyPoker will be using casinos that already implement our bags, and for venues that don’t, the PartyPoker Ambassador role will put us in a strong position to bring them on board,” Louis told pokerfuse. But the Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign has its sights beyond UK or European poker tours.
“Our clients span Europe, Asia, and North America,” Louis went on to say. “So far, we’ve replaced half a million bags, and with growing adoption in North America, we aim to quadruple this number within two years.” Biodegradable bags at more US events may be something we see as the year progresses.
The eco-friendly bags will also be appearing at the Irish Poker Open (IPO) which is sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power. The IPO kicks off in Dublin on April 10 and is expected to break records and attract more people than ever before.
Brands Supporting Poker Against Plastic Pollution Campaign
- 888poker
- PokerStars
- PartyPoker
- Irish Poker Tour & Championship
- Grosvenor Casinos
- Dusk Till Dawn
- Aspers Casino
- City of Dreams Cyprus
- Holland Casinos
- Casino Malta
- Casinos Austria
- Irish Open
- Fivebet
- Dublin Poker Festival
- Norwegian Poker Championships
- Unibet
- Diamond Poker Series
- AK Poker Club
