ESPN announced Monday that it will broadcast eight original hours of the World Series of Poker-Europe main event. The event took place in the Casino at the Empire in the heart of downtown London's theater district and attracted 362 of the world's best players.
Play took place over a six-day period 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 debut on February 1 with the first four episodes beginning at 6 p.m. ET. There will be an encore presentation of the first two episodes on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. The shows will be 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," said 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," said Jamie Horowitz, ESPN senior sports producer.
Viewers can follow the action on ESPN2 from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. February 1st, 8th and 15th. The final two episodes will air on March 1st at 10 and 11 p.m.