GigaMedia Limited (Nasdaq: GIGM) announced today that the World Series of Poker, sponsored by GigaMedia’s Everest Poker, has successfully completed the first portion of the main event and will begin airing this week on ESPN. The broadcasts will ultimately reach in excess of 300 million households globally.
In its first year of sponsorship by Everest Poker, the 2008 World Series of Poker is the largest and richest in history with over 58,000 participants playing for a prize pool of over $180 million. Players from 118 different countries took part in the WSOP, up significantly from 87 different countries last year.
Ed Pownall, a spokesperson for Everest Poker, said: “Our logo was on every single table of the event and the inner rung of TV tables so the exposure we got was very good. In addition, our activity levels for July have been surprisingly strong by industry standards. To say this is all to do with our sponsorship of the WSOP might be an exaggeration, but the two are probably related in some way.”
In March 2008, Everest Poker and Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc, owner of the Rio and the WSOP, signed a multiyear agreement providing Everest Poker with satellite tournament rights as well as strategic brand placement at the WSOP. The agreement stipulated that Everest Poker’s logo would appear prominently on the “felt” on every table in the competition and, during the finals competition airing in November, on the inner rung of the WSOP feature table, a first for a WSOP sponsor.
