In news breaking on Tuesday, the World Poker Tour (WPT) announced that cable station Fox Sports Net, which carries the tournament series’ seventh season, will also air Season VIII. The brand new installment is expected to begin filming during the middle of this year. When it will hit airwaves has not yet been determined.
The seventh season of the WPT heads to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles this week for the L.A. Poker Classic. The $10,000 buy-in event kicks off on Saturday and a winner will be determined five days later. Each player receives 20,000 in chips and the blinds begin at 25/50. Levels last 90 minutes each and are followed by 10 or 15 minute breaks (depending upon the day of play). During the final six-handed table, which will be filmed in front of Fox Sports Net cameras, blind levels last an hour each. Rounding out the Season VII WPT schedule are events at Bay 101 (March 16-20), Foxwoods (April 3-8), and Bellagio (April 18-25). The latter tournament serves as the Season VII WPT Championship and boasts a buy-in of $25,000.
WPT programming airs on Sunday nights on Fox Sports Net. Fans are urged to check their local listings for more information, as the network also airs a variety of collegiate athletic events and other local programming that vary in time and frequency by market. WPT Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer Steve Lipscomb commented in a press release distributed on Tuesday, “Fox Sports Net and News Corporation have far exceeded our partnership expectations and we are thrilled to continue growing our strategic relationship. Airing our eighth season on the nation’s prime sports network truly underscores the force behind the WPT brand and poker as a televised sport.”
Fox Sports Net is composed of 16 regional television stations that reach over 80 million homes throughout the United States. It acquired the rights to Season VII of the WPT after GSN, which owns the rights to the sixth season, declined to pick up its exclusive option. The first five WPT seasons aired on The Travel Channel. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten have called the action since the beginning, with the show’s hostess taking on a rotating role after the departure of Shana Hiatt. Fox Sports Net Executive Vice President George Greenberg added, “The World Poker Tour has a loyal and passionate fan base that has made it one of the most popular programs on FSN. We’re thrilled to be airing Season VIII and look forward to another great year of WPT championship poker.”
As part of the newly-forged arrangement, 26 episodes will once again make up Season VIII. Fox Sports Net will have exclusive rights to air these throughout the United States. Currently, the cable station shows WPT programming one hour at a time. Whether the same will hold true during Season VIII remains to be seen. In addition to WPT tournaments, Fox Sports Net also shows ClubWPT events, with players drawn from the company’s subscription-based online poker site.
World Poker Tour Enterprises, WPT’s parent company, is traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the symbol “WPTE.” At the close of trading on Tuesday, shares fell $0.01 to $0.43. Accordingly, its market cap is $8.81 million. WPTE has traded in a range over the past 52 weeks of $0.15 to $2.00. Recently, the company announced that FullTiltPoker.net had become the title sponsor for Season VII. As part of the arrangement, the educational training site receives on-felt advertising as well as a large number of on-screen graphical displays.
WPTE also released its fourth quarter earnings for 2008 on Tuesday. Revenues fell by one-half during the final quarter of 2008 in comparison to the same period in 2007 to $2.6 million (down from $5.1 million). Company officials explained that the drop was due to “a change in the release pattern of the WPT television series and lower international television and product licensing revenues.” As an example, the first four episodes of Season VI aired in December of 2007, while the first four episodes of Season VII did not hit television sets until January of 2009. Hence, less revenue was recorded at the end of 2008.
WPTE recorded a net loss of $3.3 million during the fourth quarter of 2008 in comparison to a $1.8 million net loss during the fourth quarter of 2007.