Ever since “Black Friday” happened there have been dozens of rumours circulating that the various television stations in the United States of America would not want to associate themselves with the World Series of Poker due to seriousness of the charges being brought against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker/UB.
Sports giants, ESPN, acted quickly to dispel these rumours and announced they would be actually increasing their coverage and a the annual WSOP conference call, which took place late on Friday afternoon, revealed that the organisers of the WSOP plan to stream no less than 55 of the bracelet events on the internet, meaning for the first time in history every single one of the 58 bracelet events at the WSOP is going to receive some sort of video coverage.
Three of the people on the conference call were WSO Tournament Director Jack Effel, the WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart and Seth Palansky, the WSOP Communications Director. All three were keen to let listeners known of their plans to stream the final tables of 55 bracelet-awarding events, which will see a wide, overhead camera of the entire final table and a flop camera so viewers can clearly see the cards. Although there will be no commentary as such there will be some audio from the tournament announcer. It was also announced that due to gaming regulations in Las Vegas the broadcasts will be on a five-minute delay.
Although the coverage will be delayed and there will be no commentary as such, viewers will be able to get a feel for the excitement of the various final tables at the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker instead of having to wait several months for the heavily edited television highlights. We are proud to provide video of the culminating action to a worldwide audience in real time,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “This online initiative will complement our spectacular television package on ESPN and deliver even more of this year’s WSOP to fans who want the most immediate coverage possible.”
The 2011 World Series of Poker kicks off on May 31 with the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads-up event and ends some eight weeks later with the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship, otherwise known as the Main Event.
