World Poker Tour makes new deal with Fox Sports Net
23rd July, 2008
No longer will viewers of the World Poker Tour shut off early, knowing who the winner is going to be when there’s only eight minutes left of the program and a top pro has a huge chip lead heads up.
Now the WPT will be working under much more flexible terms with their new deal with Fox Sports Net for 26 one-hour episodes that will be shown weekly on the popular network
“We’ve been a two-hour format, in which you pretty much know when it’s coming to an end,” said Steve Lipscomb, founder of the World Poker Tour. “So that was one of the things we struggled with and tried to tell that story the best way we could. With the one-hour shows, in the middle of a heads-up match, it may look like it’s over but there’s a great comeback on the way. You won’t know in the last 10 minutes what’s going to happen.”
With its new deal now finalized, the WPT is expected to have an entirely new look and feel compared to previous seasons, and will have many additions to it that can only come from FSN.
“Take a look at our poker programming and what we’ve done with it,” said George Greenberg, executive vice president of FSN. “We’ve shown live poker, which people thought was insanity. But to us, it’s a sporting event and a challenge. With the World Poker Tour, there are so many ways to go with this using technology of Fox Sports. If there’s a chance to do something, we’ll take the chance.”
WPT’s move to FSN will give the poker series the benefit of being exposed to such large and diverse audiences, while still being free to explore new avenues in the world of poker broadcasting.
“Because of the nature of the audience at FSN as well as the edginess of the network, I believe we have the freedom to express some of the more interesting, gritty and sexy sides of poker,” Lipscomb said. “What we can do together is help the perception of poker as a sport, to completely legitimize it. It will look more and more like a sport, and that’s a great thing.”
The weekly WPT episodes will air on Sundays on FSN.
By Michael
