Land casino giant Harrah's Entertainment Inc. has hired a sports
television consulting firm to help the company negotiate a broadcast
agreement with sports TV group ESPN and develop new programming related
to the World Series of Poker tournament.
Pilson Communications Inc., a company run by former CBS Sports President
Neal Pilson, has an impressive track record, including successful
negotiation on a $2.4 billion network television agreement with Fox,
NBC and Turner to air NASCAR events and a structured $2 billion agreement
to air the Olympics on NBC. Other clients include Major League Baseball
and the Arena Football League.
"I think poker is perhaps the hottest sport on television
right now," Pilson said. "The ratings, I think,
have surprised both Harrah's and ESPN and the entire industry."
The World Series of Poker is also attracting demographic groups attractive
to advertisers, especially young men ages 18 to 24, he said.
Pilson declined to speculate on the kind of broadcast deal that might
emerge from the talks and whether it would yield more money for Harrah's.
He also declined to say whether other networks were interested in
airing the tournament.
"Harrah's has a terrific relationship with ESPN and we're
looking to work with them," he said. "I think
it's in ESPN's interest and ours to maximize coverage of the sport
but at the same time we don't want to dilute the basic presentation
of the World Series of Poker, which is the dominant brand in televised
poker today."
ESPN has aired the poker tournament, held at Binion's Horseshoe in
downtown Las Vegas, for the past seven years and has broadcast poker
on television since 1994. Harrah's took ownership of the tournament
last year, the same year of record turnout for the event as well as
ESPN's highest ratings for the tournament.
The existing broadcast contract with ESPN predates Harrah's purchase
of the poker tournament.
More than 2,500 players competed in the final no-limit Texas hold
'em championship game of the World
Series of Poker last year. Harrah's is expected to host 5,000
players for this year's tournament, which runs through July 15. Harrah's
recently created a separate World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit,
a series of five poker tournaments that will run prior to the final
championship event, to transform the month-long event into a year-round
sport. ESPN will also be taping the main events in the circuit, which
kicked off Friday in Atlantic City.