In February, ESPN and Poker Central announced that they were renewing their partnership to broadcast coverage of the 2018 World Series of Poker. They promised to air “start to finish everyday coverage” of the WSOP Main Event from July 2nd through July 14th. At the time, only ESPN’s television schedule was released, with the promise to unveil Poker Central’s portion at a later date. That later date has comes, as Poker Central has revealed its extensive live streaming schedule of the World Series of Poker.
The coverage will be streamed via Poker Central’s subscription service, PokerGO and will complement ESPN’s broadcast. That is, there will be no overlap between the broadcasters – PokerGO will take care of things that ESPN does not air.
“We’re eager to continue our live coverage of the WSOP on PokerGO for the second year running. Our expanded coverage schedule including a wide array of poker variants will give our viewers even more opportunities to follow all the action of the world’s most prestigious tournament series,” said Poker Central VP of Content Sam Simmons in a press release.
PokerGO Offers Something for Everyone
Poker Central’s coverage will be much more extensive than most people likely anticipated, showcasing sixteen different tournaments in addition to the Main Event and the Big One for One Drop. It hearkens back, in a way, to ESPN’s World Series of Poker episodes during the poker boom, when the sports network would show various events, introducing viewers to games that were not just No-Limit Hold’em, as well as interesting players that we might not have gotten to know if only the Main Event was aired. Of course, the big difference is Poker Central’s coverage will all be live (and on the internet, of course), as opposed to those past ESPN episodes, which were edited and packaged. ESPN will actually do that this year, as well, except those edited episodes will air later this year, after the World Series of Poker has ended.
Though the excess word count would be nice, we won’t post the entire World Series of Poker streaming schedule for the PokerGO service. Instead, here is the list of events that will be covered up until the Main Event:
$3K No-Limit Hold’em Shootout Final Table
$100K No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Final Table
$10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table
$1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table
$10K Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em
$1,500 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Final Table
$1,500 Eight Game Mix Final Table
$10K No-Limit Lowball Draw Final Table
$1,500 Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table
$10K H.O.R.S.E. Final Table
$1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table
$50K Poker Players Championship Final Table
$10K Seven Card Stud Final Table
$25K High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table
$10K Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Final Table
$10K PLO Championship Final Table
There is a very nice selection of games in there. In fact, after the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Final Table (June 9th), there is not a single tournament on that list that features solely No-Limit Hold’em.
ESPN and PokerGO will both broadcast the Main Event and Big One for One Drop, but not at the same time. One will pick up where the other stops.