PPT Foxwoods...Will it happen?

[Gotmilk]

I'm only planning on going to Foxwoods to play the PPT event. Does anyone who knows more than me know if it's actually going to happen? Is it safe to buy a plane ticket?

[loveminuszero]

if you're invited to the ppt you've surely got the contacts to find out?

[Alex Jacob]

as far as i know they need a tv deal first which they don't have and might not get.

[Temp Hutter]

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I'm only planning on going to Foxwoods to play the PPT event. Does anyone who knows more than me know if it's actually going to happen? Is it safe to buy a plane ticket?

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I would not buy the ticket if that is the only reason you are going to go. I doubt it is ever going to happen.

[olivert]

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I'm only planning on going to Foxwoods to play the PPT event. Does anyone who knows more than me know if it's actually going to happen? Is it safe to buy a plane ticket?

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There is plenty of time to wait for WPTE to try to get a TV deal of some kind (revenue sharing, time buy) in order to get PPT Season 2 on TV in the US.

One would expect WPTE to announce another postponement by the 1st week of October if WPTE can't get a deal done by then.

The cheapest plane tickets have a 21-day advance purchase period.

I would think that they would go ahead with the PPT events. Surely, they will get a TV deal. I know that CBS and NBC would love to get more poker on their network.

[olivert]

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I would think that they would go ahead with the PPT events. Surely, they will get a TV deal. I know that CBS and NBC would love to get more poker on their network.

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You must have missed everything I have written on this subject for the past 9 months.

The poker shows on CBS are TIME BUYS.

That means the show producers pays CBS for air time, not the other way around.

Most of the time, a time buy deal is not a problem for producers such as HSOR, as HSOR is capable of selling its own sponsorships to online poker "schools" in order to cover the cost of air time and production, and in some cases, the prize money.

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NBC owns its own poker series, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. NBC does NOT ever have to pay a rights fee for NBC Heads Up.

NBC has a deal with poker TV and event producer HSOR (Henry Orenstein's company) in which HSOR organizes the NBC Heads-Up tourney in exchange for NBC putting up a $500,000 prize pool and the air time on Super Bowl Sunday to air the Poker SuperStars Championship, which is an invitation-only event featuring the 8 quarterfinalists of Poker SuperStars on FSN.

Bottom line: NBC does NOT pay rights fees for poker either because it doesn't have to.



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The U.S. poker TV business has evolved rapidly to an "all (time) buy" business according to one journalist who is associated with a particular network that has been feasting on time buy TV money. Some of the online poker schools are now spending over $500,000 a week on their own TV shows, including time buy fees, production costs, and prize money.

Heck, not even Harrah's can get any CASH from ESPN anymore, not even for the WSOP Main Event. Harrah's now gets ad invetory from ESPN, which Harrah's has to sell in the form of integrated sponsorships and product placements, and share revenue with ESPN.

ESPN's new WSOP TV deal with Harrah's for the WSOP is what I would call the "heist of the decade". ESPN riaks ZERO CASH to get 24 hours of TV that averages over 1 million households for each episode.

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WPTE is in a completely different situation. Because WPTE is now an online poker company in the U.K, and parts of Europe, and because WPTE no longer allows other poker "schools" to air their ads during WPTE telecssts overseas, WPTE can't sell title or presenting sponsorships to other online poker "schools" in order to cover the cost of TV time, production, and prize money.

That's the reason why the PPT has had so much trouble getting on TV. No U.S. TV network wants to pay cash for the PPV when a handful online poker "schools" are willing to overpay significantly for TV time in order to change the economics of televised poker.

My opinion ONLY: I expect WPTE to file an antitrust lawsuit
against a major U.S. TV network (likely FSN), an events promoter (likely HollyBrook Regency), and marketing arms of several online poker "schools" (notably TiltWare) for allegedly "conspiring" to "fix" the rights fee of TV poker episodes at less than zero.