Television networks have new poker programmes
TV poker on primetime
In the wake of Black Friday poker seems to have become more popular than ever as television networks schedule more and more primetime poker programming
Since online poker was banned in the United States television channels can’t seem to get enough of the live events. Online poker was all but removed from the United States on April 15th in what has become known as Black Friday. On that day the US Department of Justice (DOJ) swooped down on the top three online poker sites in the world, freezing their URL’s and their bank accounts and forcing them to the negotiating table where they were effectively ordered to refund US players the money that was in their site accounts and to leave the United States market. Although all three agreed to the terms, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker failed to pay their players back their money.
One unintended consequence of all of this prohibition of online poker seems to be that there is increased interest in the live game. Now that pro players aren’t able to play or receive their sponsorship money from the big sites the only option remaining to them is live games. Although the ban has meant that there is less traffic online it should provide a boon to the live tournaments that were already doing well on television. The smart money says that more live tournament circuits will be starting up in the United States to provide a way for the pros who can’t gamble online anymore to continue making a living.
The most famous poker series in the world is the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the television rights are exclusively retained by ESPN who upgraded their coverage in the wake of Black Friday to include the final table of every single event on a half hour delay. They aren’t the only ones who have announced upgraded coverage of poker events as Fox upgrade their coverage of the World Poker Tour (WPT). The latest poker competition to receive television rights is the Epic Poker League (EPL) from CBS who are hungry to compete with their rivals. The deal is to screen 20 hours of poker in prime time slots. All of this attention on poker has reportedly irked the DoJ who have done everything possible to try to remove poker from the mainstream. It appears that by ejecting online poker from the US they have created more demand than previously existed.
