It was announced this morning that the Epic Poker League, in the midst of their inaugural season of action, has secured international broadcast rights for their programming with the preeminent poker broadcaster in Europe, The Poker Channel.
The partnership between the EPL and The Poker Channel will allow the league’s 70 hours of recorded for television tournaments to be broadcast to approximately 30 million satellite and cable homes throughout the European continent. The EPL will make its debut in Europe on The Poker Channel beginning on January 15 (check local listings for exact times) over such networks as Sky in the United Kingdom, Martens in Germany and Canal Digital in Finland. In the United States, the EPL has already secured broadcast rights on the cable channel Velocity and on the regular airwaves on CBS.
Both sides are thrilled to bring the EPL events to a new audience overseas. “Expanding our television coverage into Europe is a step forward for building a global fan base for Epic Poker,” stated Katherine Kowal, the Vice President of League Operations and Programming for the ownership behind the EPL, Federated Sports & Gaming. “Poker Channel Europe, with quality distribution and broad reach, will help us introduce our content to a very important market and audience.”
“With the incredible success of Epic Poker League’s first three events and high quality production, they are a great partner for the Poker Channel,” echoed Chris White, the Director of Business Development for The Poker Channel’s owners, Gaming Media Group. “We’re proud to bring this unique format featuring the world’s best players to millions of Poker Channel viewers.”
Two of the three EPL tournaments have already been fully broadcast in the United States. The inaugural event, a $20,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, brought out 137 of the biggest players in the game. In the end, poker professional David “Chino” Rheem was able to vanquish veteran Erik Seidel to take down a $1 million first place prize. That final table also included such notable names as Jason Mercier, Hasan Habib, Gavin Smith and Huck Seed.
The second tournament, a $20,000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, was highly competitive despite only drawing a field of 97 players. Seidel became the first player to make two final tables on the burgeoning professional circuit, eventually finishing fourth, while “young gun” Mike McDonald emerged as the champion over David Steicke and Fabrice Soulier.
The third tournament, a $20,000 “Mix-Max” No Limit Hold’em event, has yet to hit the airwaves. In the best two of three heads up final (and the longest final table in the EPL’s young history), Chris Klodnicki eventually defeated Andrew Lichtenberger for the crown. Joe Tehan, Michael Mizrachi and Scott Clements also made the final table action.
The third EPL event is set for broadcast in the United States beginning in February. Velocity will have three hours of the early action on three consecutive Friday evenings in February (the 10th, 17th and the 24th), while CBS will broadcast an hour of the tournament on February 26.
The fourth tournament on the EPL schedule, which was supposed to have been played in February, has been postponed until later in the spring due to the plethora of tournaments internationally early in 2012, and the League Championship event, featuring the top 27 points earners from the first four tournaments, will occur after the rescheduled fourth event.
The Poker Channel’s addition of the EPL continues to make them the “worldwide leader” when it comes to televised poker events. Already broadcasting such programming as “High Stakes Poker,” the World Series of Poker, the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour, the Epic Poker League seems like a natural extension of their already popular poker offerings.
