A New Era of the Asian Poker Tour was launched with a rebrand in 2023, and it's been riding a wave of growth with record-breaking tournaments — most recently a 2,547-entry Main Event that wrapped up a monster series in Taipei.
The tour will stop at Incheon and Jeju before it culminates back in Taipei at the first-ever APT Championship. It will carry a $10K buy-in and a $5M guarantee, putting it among the big tournaments around the world.
Fred Leung, the Chief Executive Officer of the APT, joined the company in August of 2022 with a vision to put the tour on the global map. Strong growth in the New Era has charted a path to bigger things, perhaps even the top tier of the poker world, if Leung sees his vision through.
We talked with Leung about the tour's growth, the upcoming APT Championship, and how he plans to put the APT Championship on the same level as the world's top tournaments.
What has been your proudest achievement in the 2.5 years you've served as the CEO of the APT?
It is definitely the player response to the New Era of the Asian Poker Tour. The tour had never held a tournament with 1,000 entries prior to the rebrand launch in May 2023. Since then, the APT has surpassed the four-figure mark 21 times and this has largely become an expectation for the modern-day APT poker festival.
Hosting live events is not a perfect science and while there are indicators as to whether an event will be successful or not, you don’t really know until you get there. To actually see things unfold as we hoped has been very gratifying.
The tour continues to set records every year, with more growth expected throughout 2025. What are the big contributing factors to this success and how can you continue to set records into the future?
When I interviewed for the role, I presented a multi-year plan to the Board of Directors. Ever since, we’ve been following that roadmap and pivoting as needed along the way.
The actual execution of those plans is something I do in tandem with Neil Johnson. There’s a terrific yin-yang dynamic between us and I couldn’t imagine accomplishing anything we’ve done without him. Without disclosing exactly how, I’d say we’ve made many strategic decisions – along with a very active ownership group – that have not necessarily been for immediate financial returns but, instead, to realize the future vision of where we want to be. We also look for ambitious and capable partners to work with. The APT rebrand launched in Taipei with David Tai and his CTP team. It was no surprise to anyone that we chose them to host the inaugural APT Championship given our collaborative success thus far.
The season is set up to increase the prestige of the APT Championship in November. How have players responded to the Player of the Series competition? Will there be other ways to grab a seat as the season finale nears?
The APT Championship is something that’s been in the pipeline since 2022 as part of the multi-year plan. We had to first build a strong foundation of our standard offering before launching something of this magnitude. The Player of the Series is just one of many paths to the APTC Main Event. There will be several ways to qualify at the next stops in Incheon and Jeju – as we are literally sending major APT champions to the Championship. But we will also be revealing more opportunities throughout the year.
The season finale's $10K buy-in and $5 million guarantee put it on the world map with more focus than in the past. Where would you like to see the APT Championship ranked among the world's top tournaments in five years?
In three years, the objective is to have the APT Championship establish itself as the top tournament in the Asia-Pacific region. I’d imagine the third year is where we will see a sharp increase in participation as players become accustomed to planning for the APTC on a global level.
There are still so many growth opportunities in this region that I firmly believe the 5–10-year outlook may see the APTC compete with the likes of the WSOP. And yes, I know how that sounds. It’s something I believe in wholeheartedly.
Images courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour.
