ESPN will use its poker experience to televise the National Handicapping Championship in February 2005

ESPN to use poker broadcast experience to televise handicapping championship

The leading cable sports broadcaster ESPN has announced details of its new project to broadcast the National Handicapping Championship for the first time. The company said it is going to televise the Championship during February 2005 and to run the telecast between the World Series of Poker lead-in and Sports Center.

The television network has already gained a lot of experience with telecasting of gambling events such as the World Series of Poker. The poker telecasts, that have become popular over the past two years, will serve as a successful example of the new gambling show for punters, reported Thoroughbredtimes.com.

Michael Antinoro, executive producer of ESPN original entertainment, said: "We consider ourselves storytellers. Whether it's a game, a documentary, or highlights on Sports Center, we're out to tell a story. People who play poker are an eclectic group; they come from everywhere, and they all have a story. We take advantage of personalities."

Antinoro and Basil DeVito, senior television adviser for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, said that the strategy for poker telecasts is quite suitable for the National Handicapping Championship and it promises to provide similar popularity. DeVito said the broadcast will receive an excellent time slot, just as the poker shows do.

"Racing broadcasts have limited resources," DeVito said. "There's a finite amount of money, they're scheduled in the same late afternoon weekend time slot, and usually against another live sporting event. People said, 'Oh, poker's everywhere,' but it's just in a place where you can find it."

Experts tend to put poker's popularity down to the rise in popularity of "reality" shows such as Survivor and the Apprentice. The gaming network GSN is going to follow this trend and will launch a new reality series entitled American Dream Derby in which 12 contestants compete for $250,000 and a stable of horses. The winner will be known on February 21.

GSN Senior Vice President Ian Valentine said that American Dream Derby would focus heavily on the players rather than the horse racing like ESPN, which also pays more attention to players than to the game itself.

"To reach a wider audience, it had to be about people," Valentine said. "All reality shows, including poker, are about people - their struggles, goals, interaction with each other, etc. And do not underestimate the value of attractive women in your telecast, but you need credibility in your casting process. It was important to us to have people who not necessarily loved horse racing but loved horses."