Poker Writer
The World Series of Poker returned to ESPN for the first time since 2019. While it was cool to see the world’s biggest poker tournament back on mainstream TV, the results fell a little short of expectations.
The return to ESPN was announced in March, as was the new format, with the final table scheduled for a 2 1/2-week delay.
Excitement peaked in the wake of the announcement. Many celebrated the change from PokerGO to ESPN. They had visions of the poker boom era, when the WSOP was a popular fixture on TV in the summer. But the return left viewers a little bit wanting.
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Hard to Access ESPN Poker Coverage
One of the main issues that poker fans had with the ESPN coverage this year was how hard it was to access in comparison to PokerGO. It remained buried behind a paywall, simply migrating to different branding, ESPN+. Users on Reddit complained that they never thought they would ever miss PokerGO.
It is unfortunate that this change was sold to the people as removing the paywall from the WSOP, when it did no such thing for the tournament that most people care about.
The main event was completely behind a paywall for the main stretch of coverage. It was also difficult to access for fans outside of the U.S., where ESPN+ is not available.
That changed for the WSOP main event final table, broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2.
No Buzz For WSOP Final Table
Despite all the issues with the coverage leading up to the main event, the real benefit to moving to ESPN was meant to be the main event finally being on mainstream TV again. But the ratings for the canned episodes leading up to the final table didn’t wow, ranking 119th.
The disappointing ratings put poker more in the realm of some niche ESPN content, such as the cherry-pit-spitting championship. Poker fans assumed that the WSOP would produce more popular content than that. But ratings among general audiences showed that they think of poker more in line with those “ESPN the Ocho” events than as something to take seriously.
The ratings for the live final table on Aug. 3-5 have not yet become public. But perhaps equally as important in this day and age is the social media coverage. And the lack of it from ESPN left much to be desired.
Perusing the ESPN and SportsCenter X accounts on the nights of the final table, neither one made a single post about the WSOP final table. Nothing promoting it to audiences to watch, or anything about the 22-year-old winner, Lucas Jumalon. One of the assumed benefits of going to ESPN was access to more social media attention through accounts with tens of millions of followers. ESPN could have sent out a post to millions who are unaware of the WSOP.
The WSOP X account got a lot of impressions as it tagged ESPN multiple times. Just one boost from the ESPN account could have gone a long way. ESPN did not oblige.
During the nights of the final table, I kept a close eye on X, searched the WSOP to see if it was trending with any big sports accounts, and monitored whether it was escaping the poker bubble. I did not see very much of that at all. Most of all, the chatter of the final table came from poker accounts. I didn’t see any sports accounts commenting on the WSOP out of curiosity, and therefore, it didn’t seem to really hit mainstream audiences in the ways many in the poker world were hoping.
The only crossover with the mainstream was the NBA’s Draymond Green doing the shuffle-up-and-deal on the penultimate night of the final table, then hopping into the commentary booth for a while. That lukewarm effort seems unlikely to have moved the needle even remotely, leaving a disappointed industry audience to wonder if anything material was really accomplished with the change of broadcasters.
Photo Credit: Alicia Skillman / WSOP
