You\’d think practically living at the Palms with @Ziggy_Susan from Epic Poker League for the past, um … summer … that I might get a little inside info hook-up, but alas, I have to read about it in the \”Hollywood media\” upon retweet from @Mark_Gahagan. I\’m away for barely a week and outta-sight outta-mind, I guess?
Anyhow, so Epic Poker League … the one with a $1,500 Pro-Am that I won a seat into and will air in Heartland Poker syndication … continues to develop, and it looks more and more like a real poker contender, with the league now having locked down the \”pro\” part of their TV deal.
Major network CBS will be airing Epic\’s big $20k invitational events, with ousted WSOP film crew 441 Productions handling camera duties under the aegis of former NBC Sports exec David Neal. Longtime real-sports dude Pat O\’Brien will be the TV host, with Ali Nejad as his analyst sidekick.
In my mind, this is yet another part of \”the reconstruction\” of poker we are currently witnessing, and testament to what can be may have to be done without the help of traditional online poker sites that previously pushed poker on TV but now face criminal indictment.
Also in with this deal is additional TV coverage — live-minus-30 maybe, or is that just wishful thinking on my part — on a soon to be relaunched Discovery B-side channel called Velocity. It\’s supposed to be \”a turbocharged network for an upscale male audience\” now, according to the network … which, I dunno, haven\’t seen yet so not gonna diss — channel launches in October; real, fully legal advertisers to follow — but sounds kinda, um, Epic?