How The WSOP Broadcast Is Made

Bluff had an article on the making of the WSOP broadcasts a while back. It's 10 pages long, but here are a few highlights.

Jamie Horowitz is the Executive Producer in charge of ESPN's poker programming. He took over in 2006 after launching the National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC. 441 Productions has had the contract to produce the WSOP for the entire hole-card cam era. Matt Marantz (the guy with ideas for football broadcasts) founded the company and Dave Swartz was his first hire. They use about 40 cameras, though 18 of them are the hole-card cams on the two TV tables. 7 producers with cameramen and soundmen cover the floor in sections, looking for stories and taping all-ins. They have a staff of almost 80, 55 in Las Vegas and 22 in New York, who log and edit tapes sent overnight. After the end of the WSOP they spend two more months editing. On the tournament floor they run things from behind a curtain. A woman there logs every action on the TV tables with pen and paper. Someone else logs each conversation. Behind another curtain someone watches the hole-card cam feeds to make sure they're working properly. Norm and Lon are actually at the WSOP, apparently to find stories.

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