In fact, if you look at the World Series of Poker main event final table ratings broadcast by ESPN last week, major poker tournaments can attract as many viewers as regular-season NBA or Major League Baseball games. The possible conclusion on Sunday was 1.9 points, up 36 percent from 1.4 for the final showdown in 2007, with ESPN officials announcing a “breakthrough day report” on the final table coverage of the main event last Tuesday night. The figure also represents an average of 1.905 million households and 2.364 million viewers in a minute. That’s an increase of 43 percent (1.329 million) at home and 45 percent (1.63 million) at viewers.
The impressive ratings were particularly important for both ESPN and WSOP, due to the controversial decision earlier this year to delay the actual playback of the final table of the main event. Instead of completing a $10,000 buy-in tournament in July and then re-streaming the entire event in the fall, Harraz and WSOP decided to play the final table of nine players out of 6,844 fields and then rest for 117 days, which was built on the scene in Las Vegas last Sunday and Monday with more than 15 hours of action inside the Penn & Teller Theater.
“The last table show was the funniest two hours of poker we’ve produced this year,” ESPN chief producer Jamie Horowitz told Casino City on Monday. “ESPN is fortunate that the Matt Maranz and Dave Swartz-led production team produced poker in two days, which usually takes more than a month.”
“It was a poker production, a poker experience,” Horowitz added. “Dave, Matt, and I learned the art of short-turnaround television production at NBC while covering Sam Flood’s (NBC) Olympic track and field events. Sam’s rule was simple – record the story. And that’s what our team did.”
Denmark’s Peter Eastgate was crowned the main event champion on Wednesday morning at 2:30 a.m. The entire final time took 15 hours and 39 minutes, making it the longest-running main event final in WSOP history. At the age of 22, Eastgate became the youngest person to win a main event, breaking Phil Hellmuth’s record. Hellmuth was 24 when he won in 1989. 메이저 토토사이트
“It wasn’t just about Peter Eastgate winning,” Horowitz said. “It looked like Dennis Phillip’s fans and what made it the most interesting night of last-table poker was trying to get a professional title and all the little stories we were going to elaborate on.
