Epic Poker League to be Given 20 Hours of Coverage on American Television

The Epic Poker League is a brand new professional poker league introduced by Federal Sports and Gaming. The Epic Poker League will start on August 9 up to August 12 in Vegas with Palms Casino as its chosen venue. The event has recently acquired a deal with CBS and Discover Communications for a total of 20 hours worth of coverage for the US television. CBS will be airing 7 hours worth of footage while Discover Communication’s new HD cable network Velocity will be airing the 13 and the coverage will be aired to approximately 40 million households in total.

ESPN’s coverage on the WSOP was a success and with more and more people looking for some poker action, the Federal Sports and Gaming hopes to fill the gap the poker fans experience as the US Department of Justice cracks down online poker sites.

Time Buy for CBS

Time Buy basically means that the company behind the event will pay for the airtime. Wall Street believes that the deal between the event and CBS is a ‘Time Buy’. This means that the Federal Sports and Gaming is actually paying CBS for airing the Epic Poker League. This is a pretty safe move for CBS and in turn, the event will be given the recognition it is aiming for. The ‘Time Buy’ deal was actually a pretty popular move of poker events over the past few years but there are poker sites that had issues with the US Department of Justice such as Full Tilt Poker which ultimately led to the suspension of its gaming license and presently, there are fewer and fewer time buy deals around.

Promotional Barter with Velocity

The deal between the Federal Sports and Gaming and Discovery Communication’s Velocity Network however is different. Wall Street reports that neither side paid for the broadcast. This is actually a win-win situation which gives the new Velocity Network a hot and fresh event to show and it gives the Epic Poker League its desired airtime. Promotional barter is basically a mutual agreement on both sides which will actually benefit them.
The Epic Poker League will be featuring quite the number of big names of the world of professional poker. The list includes Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Phil Ivey, Roland de Wolfe, Sam Trickett, Phil Hellmuth, and more. The event will undoubtedly become a pretty exciting one and the coverage from the two networks will give US poker fans some action to look forward to.

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