The Ålandic gaming company has a long history of involvement in Europe’s liveliest and most player-focused poker and gaming tournaments, and is excited about partnering with The Festival to bring their players the best live event experience - especially after a long period of enforced online-only activity has left everyone chomping at the bit to get back to the real-life tables.
In the words of Ola Brandborn, Paf’s head of poker:
“We know what you guys can do in the Battle Of Malta. The players want to travel now and they haven’t been able to do anything for more than a year, so there is - how do you say in English - a surge for live events. We are also planning our own live event in August, and this is a very good combination, these two live events.”
While Paf’s live events have mostly been focused on poker in the past - Ola himself has had several deep runs in EPT and WSOP events over the years - they are also enthusiastic about The Festival’s unique format, taking in casino game tournaments including blackjack, roulette and slots. Aware of the rapidly changing covid threat, Ola remains optimistic. “Hopefully we can have campaigns in the slots and the poker, if we can do that we can send quite a lot of players. If everything goes bad, I can have qualifiers to the slots tournament from Estonia; if everything goes well then we have them from all our countries.” Paf are currently planning to put players into all the events - roulette, blackjack, the works. And should the worst happen, all packages will be automatically rolled over to The Festival In Bratislava in September, meaning that players can qualify with confidence.
» The Festival in Tallinn Schedule
Fun is at the very core of our ethos at The Festival, and this extends away from the gaming tables too. Paf have always gone above and beyond to make their players feel valued, and their offering at The Festival will be no different. “For us, live events are a way to connect with our players. We have players that have been with us for 15 years that come and qualify every time, they were here before me and they’ll be here after I leave. If players want to party hard, then they can party hard; we don’t push them, but we try to do something, not just sell them a t-shirt and tell them good luck, we are there with personnel and take care of the players and so on.” We can’t wait to see what Paf are planning for their qualifiers at The Festival In Tallinn, on top of the full schedule of activities already in the pipeline.
Just before we sign off, Ola weighs in on our director, Franke von Zweigbergk. “I’ve known Franke for 15 years, and he’s always been a nice guy,” he chuckles, diplomatically declining to go into detail. “Him, and there are some other Swedish poker organisers, they always work together so well, and they have always been very, very good events with the players in focus, so I have no doubt that this will be well done as well, especially with your knowledge from the Battle Of Malta.”
Bring it on!
