ESPN To Present World Series of Poker – Europe

Beginning
on Sunday, Feb. 1, ESPN will devote eight original hours of coverage to the
World Series of Poker
– Europe Main Event from the Casino at the Empire
in the heart of downtown London’s
theater district.

This
tournament was among the most grueling and exciting of all of the tournaments
played in the WSOP, and attracted a formidable field of 362 top players from
Europe, the United States,
and around the world. Play took place over a six-day period, with the initial
field divided into two starting days, and culminated in a final table which
took more than 19 hours to complete. At stake was the first-place prize of more
than $1.5 million and the highly coveted WSOP – Europe Main Event bracelet.

ESPN’s
coverage of the World Series of Poker – Europe
will begin on Feb.1 with the first four episodes beginning at 6 p.m. ET,
followed by an encore presentation of episodes 1 and 2 on ESPN2 at 10 p.m.,
co-hosted by Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.

“The
intimate look and feel of this tournament is different from other WSOP events
we produced in the United
States,” says Doug White, ESPN senior
director of programming and acquisitions. The cavernous Amazon Room at the Rio
in Las Vegas, which housed all of the tournaments held last summer, has given
way to a small club where players are seated at tables on two different levels;
off in a side room, under the stairs, behind the bar, near the roulette tables,
and in front of an ice cream shop.

Thanks to a
new innovation called the Mobile Hole Card Camera, for the first time ever,
ESPN will be able to show the hole cards from key hands at many of these outer
tables in addition to the feature table.

“We believe
the Mobile Hold Card Camera will provide fans a great understanding of the
overall story behind the tournament, and how the players advanced to the final
table,” says Jamie Horowitz, ESPN senior sports producer.