Steve Lipscomb and a Fox Sports executive dropped some tantalizing hints about changes to the World Poker Tour in an article by Jeff Haney of the Las Vegas Sun. Lipscomb again stressed the suspense value of episodes of uncertain length. Haney also expanded the expected Sunday time slot to the 4-10 PM range. The most fascinating and promising parts of the article are towards the end, however:
Fox Sports has established itself as an innovator in the brief history of televised poker, showing live tournaments and...
The network will bring that risk-taking approach to its partnership with World Poker, said George Greenberg, FSN’s executive vice president of programming and production.
"With the World Poker Tour, there are so many ways to go with this using the technology of Fox Sports. If there’s a chance to do something, we’ll take the chance.
... I promise you, we’re going to activate this show.”
Lipscomb also hopes the FSN production of World Poker tournaments will yield fewer so-called “race” hands... and more analysis of the strategic aspects of tournament poker.
“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.”
See also WPT's Steve Lipscomb On The Fox Sports Deal and Fox Sports Net Picks Up World Poker Tour.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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>> Lipscomb also hopes the FSN production of World Poker tournaments will yield fewer so-called “race” hands... and more analysis of the strategic aspects of tournament poker.
ReplyDeleteI truly hope this is more than mere PR speech, because I'm kind of tired of the WPT as it is, with the same situations and the same commentary, down to the letter, by Sexton and van Patten!
January's Borgata Poker Classic will no longer be a WPT event. The WPT will make two shows out of September's Borgata Poker Open instead. Was it a great final table or is it a cost cutting move?
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