#265 - Live Broadcast of the WSOP Final Table?

In my previous post about my day with Ty Stewart, Harrah’s No. 2 at the WSOP (”Last Hand at the Empire, Part III”), I mentioned an idea under consideration involving the live broadcast of the final table of next year’s WSOP Main Event, with hole cards. I called the idea a “blockbuster” and think it would be great for poker. But it’s a controversial idea and there’s apparently been a lot of discussion about it in forums since my post.

Ty e-mailed me and said “[I] don’t know if I loved seeing that out there.” That was enough for me to revisit the matter and mention some of my discussions with him.

I understand Stewart’s mixed feelings. The matter is controversial and still under consideration. Because, as I pointed out in the earlier parts of “Last Hand at the Empire,” getting such unfettered access to him was a marvelous thing. The fact that he’s not sure I should air EVERYTHING that went on suggests (a) he really, sincerely gave me total access; and (b) you’re getting all the information I got from being that close to the decision center of the WSOP.

Ty and I have been communicating about the piece when I’ve needed clarification of something, but he hasn’t been allowed to censor anything I’ve written or even see what I’ve been writing until it’s been posted. I mention these things as a compliment to Ty, Jeffrey Pollack, and Harrah’s WSOP organization. They are open and (in my view) honest, even when it doesn’t suit all their interests. I can’t really square this openness with their decision to make people pay for media access to the World Series of Poker, but they don’t seem to be trying to hide the story or control it.

And I understand why the idea of a live final-table broadcast is controversial. Televising poker live adds a significant amount of complexity to the proceedings. Ty mentioned to me that he’s not in favor of separating fans from the action - the live webcasts of some final tables from the 2007 WSOP was a new experience and one from which Harrah’s learned many things - and therefore would sequester the entire room. Players, fans, and attending media would all be squestered and communication devices would be removed. (I’m not sure why media would want to be present if they couldn’t communicate, especially because they’d be seeing LESS than if they watched it on TV, but I understand how everyone has to be locked down.)

Another complexity involves broadcast time. Stewart told me in an e-mail that he does “not believe that ESPN will dedicate more than a three hour window to the stunt” or “that a mainstream audience will have interest watching for a period longer than that anyway.” This might lead someone to conclude that they’d need to jack up the blinds and antes super-high to force the action into a watchable time period.

He assured me that Harrah’s had no such thing in mind. Everyone in the process is trying to develop a formula of starting play before the broadcast hits the air, “flash editing” to catch up, and going live for the final stages in a reasonable broadcast window. Stewart didn’t come out and say, “We’ll never under any circumstances alter the blind structure for TV” - though maybe he’ll read this and tell me just that - but it sounds like the goal is to arrange the broadcast to fit around the natural Main Event endgame, and not the other way around.

[If they make the blinds and antes higher for TV, as the WPT has done and been criticized for (and I think modified), they deserve to have scorn heaped on them. But I'm taking Stewart at his word that they aren't going to do that. And let's face it, if they DID do that, it would be easy to put this broadcast together. They're clearly not going the easy route.]

Stewart also wanted to point out that Harrah’s would not make any additional revenue; they have a long term deal with ESPN. He wants to do it to reinvigorate TV poker, for which the ratings have slipped over the past few years. He also believes the players would have the most to gain, as the exposure and publicity created for the champion should be even greater.

We’ve all got opinions about Harrah’s motivations and I’ve shared mine: gradually shifting from seeing Harrah’s as rapacious jackals to seeing them as fun-loving capitalists, out to make money on a product they are truly passionate about. I’m not so naive as to ignore all the ways Harrah’s can make more money INDIRECTLY from this. If the Main Event Final Table becomes as big as, say, American Idol, they’ll sell more logo merchandise, get more future entries, negotiate more lucrative media contracts in the future, find sponsors willing to pay more to be associated with the event in the future, etc.

But that’s all gravy from making the World Series of Poker a better product. Maybe live-broadcasting the final table makes the WSOP a better product and maybe it doesn’t. (I think it does, but the subject is open for debate.) Making the WSOP more popular and exciting to a bigger audience, however, is in the interest of everyone involved in poker, so if they can make money doing that, more power to them.