The fifth season of the World Poker Tour kicked off this week with none other than PocketFiver Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter finishing third at the Mirage Poker Showdown in his second WPT final table. The WPT has aired on The Travel Channel since the first season back in 2003, launching the poker craze and making The Travel Channel extremely popular. The Associated Press broke word on Thursday, April 5, 2007, that the WPT had entered into an agreement with GSN, The Network for Games, to air the sixth season of the show in early 2008. PocketFives.com sat down with Steve Lipscomb, President and CEO of WPTE, and Rich Cronin, President and CEO of GSN, to discuss the recent developments.
The WPT originally scheduled a press release about the decision to go out on Monday, April 9, but the AP broke the news upon seeing an SEC filing concerning the matter (The WPT is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the symbol WPTE). Lipscomb comments on the decision: “We launched the poker television phenomenon in 2003 on a small cable network. Since then, we have been looking for a place that is excited as we are about poker and its potential. The Travel Channel deserves credit for putting poker in prime time, which really helped us gain visibility. What we are announcing today is the next huge step in the growth of the poker industry. We can give poker a home on GSN on Monday nights [starting in 2008].”
GSN airs High Stakes Poker, currently in its third season, on Mondays at 9:00pm ET. The sixth season of the WPT will air on the same night. Cronin explains how acquiring the WPT fits in with GSN’s strategy: “The WPT is a huge brand with a gigantic following. When we re-branded ourselves in 2004 to become ‘GSN, The Network for Games,’ we felt casino programming would be essential to our brand. We started with the World Series of Blackjack and High Stakes Poker, but we’ve been eyeing the WPT ever since it launched and have wanted to have it on our channel for quite some time. It helps make us the top destination for poker.” Lipscomb explains the effect that the WPT had on the demand for The Travel Channel: “We’d be thrilled if GSN were available more on basic cable. We had that effect on The Travel Channel. They expanded as a result of the benefit that the WPT brought to the network.”
GSN now has the rights to 23 two-hour episodes of the sixth season of the WPT, which is about the same number that The Travel Channel has rights to this season. The hosts, look, and feel of the broadcast will remain the same (see set picture at right), but the potential, according to Lipscomb, will be much greater for the WPT brand: “We are expanding internationally and are always looking for the next great place to do tournaments. A great example of this is the Fallsview Casino [near Niagara Falls,] which is a great facility. Given the fact that GSN is in Canada, we’ll be able to leverage more of what we do there. We’ll continue to make the television show better. We are recording our 100th event at the upcoming WPT Championship on April 25th. I’ve always called this the ‘great American card game.’ My dream was to find a place to find a place as excited as I am to grow poker on television.”
In the meantime, you can catch each episode of the WPT on The Travel Channel Wednesdays at 9:00pm ET. The tournament series has made 69 millionaires and has given out over $300 million in cash. Lipscomb comments on the premiere episode of the fifth season: “People responded literally by saying ‘wow’ or ‘you did it again.’ We had all of our staff watch it together on Wednesday night. People were blown away. This season shows that we have hit that stride.”
In 2008, you’re definitely going to need to check your local listings for details, as the WPT moves to GSN on Monday nights. Thank you to Steve Lipscomb, Rich Cronin, and the Media Relations staffs at the WPT and GSN for their help coordinating this interview.
