The World Poker Tour (WPT) will launch its third smash-hit TV season on March 2 on The Travel Channel, awarding a record-breaking $70+ million in prize money. Debuting 16 much-anticipated new shows featuring its high stakes, take no-prisoners brand of poker action, the WPT will air every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The WORLD POKER TOUR is the international tour of high-stakes tournaments that features professional poker pros, challenged by talented amateurs. In 2005, the WORLD POKER TOUR will be seen not only in millions of living rooms across America, but also in over 50 countries worldwide.
“We enter our Third Season with a legion of fans eagerly awaiting our new shows,” said Steve Lipscomb, Founder and President of WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE). “Viewers watch for the sheer dramatic entertainment of the WPT, but many also watch to improve their own game. That is a cornerstone of our success and we believe that this year we"ll teach some exciting new lessons to WPT viewers.”
The show enters its Third Season as a phenomenon that has captured a nation and galvanized a globe full of poker enthusiasts who tune in to watch the weekly minting of millionaires and to learn from the pros how to improve their own game. This season two new tournaments have been added to the tour, The Mirage Poker Showdown and the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship at Bellagio. Every week, viewers can expect the unexpected as amateurs take on pros, pros take on other pros, and fortunes rise, fall, and change hands in a matter of seconds. Anyone can win, and many times even the least likely candidates do. And it"s all seen from the vantage of the WPT"s revolutionary hole card cams.
The action will again be laced with expert commentary from the show"s hosts, now hailed as poker icons themselves – Shana Hiatt, Vince van Patten, and Mike Sexton, author of the forthcoming WPT:Shuffle Up and Deal (HarperCollins, anticipated March 2005.) Anheuser Busch will be making its sophomore appearance at WPT events this year. This season, Michelob AmberBock will serve as the WPT"s official sponsor, supporting the show with a national promotion in establishments that culminates in winners earning a seat at the WPT Invitational Tournament.
The WPT is the only major sports league whose goal is to make everyone a better player, while also setting the gold standard in entertainment. Viewers can log on to www.worldpokertour.com for even more ways to improve their game. The WORLD POKER TOUR airs Wednesday nights from 9-11p.m. ET/PT on the Travel Channel and is the highest rated series in the network"s history.
WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE) is a company engaged in the creation of internationally branded entertainment and consumer products driven by the development, production, and marketing of televised programming based on gaming themes. WPTE is the creator of the World Poker Tour®, a television show based on a series of high-stakes poker tournaments that airs on the Travel Channel in the United States and more than 50 markets globally. WPT Enterprises currently licenses its brand to companies in the business of poker equipment and instruction, apparel, publishing, electronic and wireless entertainment, DVD/home entertainment, casino games, and giftware. For show information, tools for improving poker play, and other WPT news, fans may log on to www.worldpokertour.com. The company is also engaged in the sale of corporate sponsorships. WPT Enterprises, Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: LACO).
