WPT puts Poker on Asia TV

WPT Enterprises Inc. (WPTE) announced September 5th that it has secured a pair of broadcasting deals to bring the World Poker Tour (WPT) television shows to Southeast Asia. These agreements bring the number of territories in which WPT shows now air to an amazing 154.

The World Poker Tour's first season will be aired on Macau Cable in Macau and feature the second season on MediaCorp, the largest broadcaster in Singapore.

The deal in Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, is important due to its status as a large gambling center.

"With the long history of gaming in Macau and the recent licenses issued to a number of international gaming giants who will build or run major new casinos, this area is only going to get hotter," Gary MacKinney, WPTE executive director of international distribution, said in a released statement.

Regionally, WPTE has an ongoing relationship, established in 2004 with Solar Entertainment, to air the U.S. version of the show. Additionally, WPTE has an agreement to license and air on its network local staged WPT events with the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation.

With the WPT now in its fifth season, WPTE has launched a second series on the Travel Channel, the Professional Poker Tour (tm), (PPT) which focuses on the play of poker's leading stars. WPTE announced that it had made the initial international sale of its PPT to Canada's City TV. The premier PPT season is currently airing on the Travel Channel in the United States.

Other recent deals include the first WPTE broadcasting commitment in Spain where Fox will air WPT's Season I. In addition to the PPT, Canada's City TV will air the recently completed WPT Season IV.

"WPTE's continued international broadcast expansion has fueled the worldwide poker phenomenon and has given us first position in the increasingly larger global poker marketplace," said Steve Lipscomb, CEO and founder of WPTE. "The demand for our programming has been gratifying and the speed of growth exhilarating."
Los Angeles-based WPT Enterprises Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE) is the parent of the World Poker Tour and is a majority owned subsidiary of Minnesota-based Lakes Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq: LACO) whose principal shareholder is Lyle Berman.