ESPN On Hand For World Series Of Poker Europe

Eight Hours Of Super Bowl Counter-Programming Coverage Set For Feb. 1

Next month, ESPN will deal viewers into eight original hours of coverage of the World Series of Poker from across The Pond -- the Europe Main Event from the Casino at the Empire in London.

Featuring 362 top players from The Continent, the U.S. and around the globe, the competition took place over a six-day period, with the initial field divided into two starting days, and culminated in a final table that took more than 19 hours to complete. At stake: a 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 is scheduled to begin Feb. 1, also known as Super Sunday, at 6 p.m., followed by an encore presentation of the first two hours on ESPN2 at 10 p.m., co-hosted by Lon McEachern and Norman Chad. The remaining six hours will air in two-hour installments on Feb. 8, Feb. 15 and March 1, respectively, on ESPN2.

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, in a statement.