A Look at the World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an international gathering of the world's professional poker players. This world championship poker event was initiated in the United States by lawyer and television producer Steven Lipscomb, who is currently the CEO of WPT Enterprises, the company that manages the World Poker Tour.
The WPT focuses on Texas Hold'em tournaments that have an international flavor played in the United States. It has resulted to the increase in table games in homes across the United States, in local poker rooms, and on the Internet. Its main sponsors are casinos and online poker websites.
The WPT debuted during the later part of 2002 and early portion of 2003 culminating with the WPT Championship held at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2003. The pilot season had a telecast on the Travel Channel in spring 2003 on US Cable TV. It debuted on February 2004 on NBC which was pitted against CBS telecast of the Super Bowl 38 pre-game. The Travel Channel handled the initial five seasons of the Tour before it transferred to GSN in 2008.
There were a lot of factors that contributed to the popularity of the World Poker Tour. First, it thrived on the philosophy that any person who had the capacity to pay the buy-in fee (which could range from $2,500 to $25,000) or win in a satellite tournament is eligible to compete. Another factor that made this world championship poker event popular was the innovation of the audience seeing the hole cards of the players.
Currently, the WPT is airing its sixth season and is still one of the top grossing television programs on cable. It is shown every Monday on the Game Show Network.
In July of 2006, the management of the World Poker Tour was sued by seven professional poker players, who alleged that the firm violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, California Cartwright Act, as well as intentional interference with contract. They claimed that the company's standard release form, needed for participating in WPTE events, violate competition and impedes with their contractual obligation with other firms.
The anti-competition allegations stems from the fact that the contract signed by WPTE with sponsoring casinos prevents these establishments from hosting other events not related to the WPTE. On the other hand, the claim of interference is grounded on the permanent rights to the player's likeness for any use WPTE desires. In April 2008, the firm reached a settlement with the five remaining players who sued them.
This year, the WPT will host a series of world championship poker events for women which they called WPT Ladies. The maiden season will include five events with buy-ins costing $300 to $1500. The Main Event will be shown on television.