Celebrity Gambler – Chess prodigy Alexandra Botez is GGPoker’s brand ambassador
By Thadeus Geodfrey
In March, GGPoker and Alexandra Botez, chess prodigy turned content creator, announced a new partnership. This partnership will see the American become the seventh celebrity to become the brand ambassador of the leading online poker room operator.
Over the recent past, GGPoker has increased its engagement with poker fans worldwide. The Road to Vegas series is one such program, offering players the chance to earn seats at the main event of WSOP, the World Series of Poker.
GGPoker is currently the top choice for online poker players, even when we set strict benchmarks. It is a reliable poker room brand known for its ability to host large tournaments and high traffic volume. Its association with WSOP champions, including Canada’s very own Daniel Negreanu, also adds to its credibility since no champion would tag their name to a non-reputable site. Although many online casinos are available to players, only some new Canadian online casino offers can match the fame of this platform.
That aside, the elephant in the room is, of course, why her? Why pick Botez, a chess player and chess-related content creator but not a seasoned poker player? What unique qualities does Botez bring to the table that the best online casinos Canada offers would dim fit to partner with her?
Who is Alexandra Botez, and why GGPoker picked her?
Yes, Botez is widely known for chess, but not poker. However, she presents more than her personality. As a chess player, she won several championship titles and still holds the title of Woman FIDE Master.
Botez’s titles aside, most people, especially the younger demographic, know for her content creation, with her YouTube and Twitch channels, BotezLive, being a reliable source of chess-related content. Both channels have over 1 million subscribers. We live in a world where such an engaging social media following is golden. It’s what has caught the attention of GGPoker, who are undoubtedly interested in leveraging her expanding chess community to attract a new demographic to their platform.
Additionally, Botez is familiar with poker. She has previously participated in tournaments and shows, such as the Hustler Casino Live Streams and the Mystery Cash Challenge. Her impressive talents and success in both chess and poker have contributed to her recognition as a Brand Ambassador for GGPoker.
Alexandra Botez is already on her feet as the brand ambassador. She has initiated the Spin & Gold ELO Challenge, for which she will host and commentate on the chess-content creators’ poker tournament on GGPoker. All chess content creators worldwide will compete for a $50,000 prize in a month-long competition beginning May on GGPoker’s platform, known to be the best among the Canadian minimum deposit casinos provide.
The Spin & Gold ELO Challenge
The participants will play GGPoker’s Spin & Gold poker games, and each player will be assigned an ELO rating to rank their relative skill levels. The individual with the highest ELO rank by May 30 will be declared the winner and awarded the $50,000 prize.
The tournament is an experiment by GGPoker to find out if there are any crossover skills between chess and poker as Alexandra Botez believes. On her part, Botez expressed her excitement for joining GGPoker and her eagerness to introduce chess enthusiasts worldwide to the thrill of poker. She holds that skills and traits that make good chess players could translate well into poker, and she anticipates a dynamic and competitive environment. Botez is confident that many chess players will soon make their way up the poker ranks in the coming years.
The tournament has already attracted chess players, among them Raffael Chess from Brazil, Dina Belenk from the USA, Jan Gustafsson from Germany, Eric Hansen, Aman Hambleton from Canada (Chessbrahs), Jose Pepitoperu from Mexico, and Nemo Zhou from Canada.
According to GGPoker, among the best Canadian low-deposit casinos, the players will play Spin & Gold to ensure a maximum timeframe, resulting in short, sharp games. Spin & Gold is a quick format poker that automatically increases blinds.
Alexandra Botez Statistics
Alexandra Botez is a highly accomplished chess player, having won the Canadian National Girls Championship five times and competed in the Chess Olympiad three times. She is also one of the top 10 female players in Canada. Additionally, Botez is a celebrated creator of chess-related content, with her platform, BotezLive, a leading source for all things chess. Here are personal and professional details:
| Real Name | Alexandra Valeria Botez |
| Nick Name | Botez Gambit |
| Born | 1995 |
| Birthday | September 24 |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Spouse | None |
| Children | None |
| Career | Chess player, Content Creator & social media influencer |
| Channel | BotezLive – Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram |
| Years Active | 2016–present |
| YouTube Info | 1.46 Million subscribers 666 videos 590 million views |
| Twitch Info | 1.3 Million followers |
| Claim to Fame | Chess, content creation, & influencer |
| Leisure Activities | Social Events, Playing Chess, & Chess Masters |
| Biggest Casino Name | GGPoker |
Alexandra Botez’s Checkmate Achievements
Alexandra Botez is different from your average chess player. Her life and all she has are thanks to this game. At the age of 15, she won a life-changing national chess tournament. This tournament dubbed the 2011 Kasparov Chess Foundation All-Girls Championships, was held in Chicago and ran for three days in a hotel banquet hall. The grand prize was a full-ride chess scholarship for four years at the University of Texas at Dallas. Botez dominated the tournament throughout, easing through to the final ahead of 234 participants, and only needed a draw in the last game to land the championship undefeated.
But the 2011 championship wasn’t her first nor her only US title. Botez won the US Girls Nationals at 15 years old and represented Oregon State in the SPF Girls’ Invitational. She was hardly nine when she first won her first national title. Botez introduced herself nationally when she became the Canadian children’s national champion in 2004. Afterwards, she went on to join the National Canadian Team in 2010 and added four more Canadian youth national titles to her accolades.
She’s not just all play; she also prioritized her studies. Though she had a full-ride chess scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas, she forego the free scholarship and chose Stanford University to study International Relations with a focus. At Stanford, she was the president of the Stanford University Chess Club, the second female to hold that seat after Cindy Tsai in 2005.
In 2016, while still at Stanford, Alexandra Botez began streaming chess-related content on Twitch through her channel BotezLive. Her love for the game and because she was already a household name in the Chess community, she was a guest commentator in the most popular team chess championship, the 2018 and 2019 PRO Chess League Finals. She worked with IM Daniel Rensch, IM Anna Rudolf, and GM Robert Hess, setting the stage for her commentator career.
At only hardly 18 years old, Botez had already achieved the Woman FIDE Master title norm. Alexandra Botez’s stats stand out. She’s ranked in the top 10 Canadian female chess players with a peak FIDE rating of 2,092 for standard chess and 2059 blitz in April 2021.
The culture of streaming and Influencing
Alexandra never wanted to become a professional chess player. However, she loved playing chess as it was a tradition in her Romanian family. She says she’s an all-or-nothing personality and doesn’t want to compete unless it’s her only goal. What scared her was that only the top 20 chess players in the world could make a living out of it. She believed she had to do more than play, giving up her opportunity to pursue competitive chess at the University of Texas to go to her dream university, Stanford, in her determined pursuit to excel at something. But life meant she and chess were to be; a decade later, chess found her again, this time as a live streamer and commentator, through the channel she created in 2016.
Joined by her younger sister, Andrea, during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020, BotezLive’s channel gained popularity on Twitch and YouTube. It had over 2,700,000 combined followers. The sisters often collaborate with other chess streamers, such as GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Qiyu Zhou. Although they mainly stream chess content on their Twitch channel, they avoid using the “Chess” category of the platform.
With a massive following, she needed content – and more than just content; she needed creative, engaging content to keep her fans riled and keep them viewing. That year, Botez spent an average of 8 hours on camera every day of the week, accumulating 250 hours per month. Sometimes, she would play chess against strangers in New York City’s Union Square Park and covered chess tournaments worldwide. It was at this time that her sister’s collaboration came in handy.
With over 1 million followers, her channel set new records for streaming viewership of the game and secured valuable brand partnerships. Other players with higher rankings have attempted to replicate her success, but in chess streaming, gaining followers isn’t possible through impressive ratings or strategic moves alone. Botez chose to forgo a professional career, which provided her with the time and experience needed to become a top streamer. By turning down a chess scholarship, she has more than made up for it with an income that rivals many top-ranked players.
Andrea co-hosted BotezLive streams. One of her videos, inviting fans to build a chessboard in Minecraft, broke a viewership record on Twitch.
In December 2021, their hard work paid off as both sisters joined the e-sports team, Team Envy, becoming the first female chess streamers to do so.
The streaming has made Botez a popular figure, and BotezLive is now among the top authentic voices in the chess community. Many have compared her to Beth Harmon, the fictional character and protagonist of The Queen’s Gambit. We can’t wait to see what she can do for the online casino Canada real money gaming and the online casino industry as a whole.
Closing Thoughts: Beyond the Brand Ambassador
Alexandra Botez is a prominent figure in the world of chess, and now her entry into online gaming through poker is a big thing. She has raised the chess profile and has earned recognition from enthusiasts and content creators for her efforts. She has leveraged her large following on Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram to keep her audience growing and educate people about the game. This exposure and education have led to significant changes, particularly with more girls showing interest in chess.
So, her recent partnership with GGPoker is a positive step in the right direction for the poker community. Her unique background as a chess prodigy turned content creator brings fresh perspectives to the poker community. Botez’s first assignment, bridging the gap between the worlds of chess and poker, sounds exciting and will spark a lot of interest among both communities, leading to increased collaboration between players from these distinct disciplines. She’s already influencing poker, only a few days into this partnership, and the industry will remember her many for years to come.
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