ESPN TO DEVOTE MULTI-PLATFORM
COVERAGE IN U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD INCLUDING LIVE COVERAGE ON ESPN360.COM
Four Bracelet Events Set for
September 19th to October 2nd in London
LAS VEGAS – July 1, 2008 – The second annual
World Series of Poker Europesm
presented by Betfair.com has solidified its tournament schedule,
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., owner and operator of the world's most prestigious
poker tournaments announced today.
The 2008
World Series of Poker Europe Presented by Betfair.com (the WSOPE) will feature
four bracelet tournaments, including a new addition, the £1,500 No-Limit
Hold'em event that will open the tournament.
The complete event schedule is as follows:
September 19th,
2008 - Event #1
- £1,500 – No-Limit Hold'em Day 1A (3-day event/2 opening days)
September 22nd,
2008 - Event #2
- £2,500 – H.O.R.S.E. (3-day event)
September 24th,
2008 - Event #3
- £5,000 – Pot Limit Omaha (3-day event)
September 27th,
2008 - Event #4
- £10,000 – World Championship No-Limit Hold'em
(5-day event/two opening days)
All the above tournaments will be
sanctioned gold bracelet events. Five
additional non-bracelet events will also be scheduled during the tournament.
Visit www.wsope2008.com for more
details.
The WSOPE will be held from
September 19th to October 2nd, 2008 in London,
England. This year's tournament will
again be hosted by London Clubs International (LCI) at their London
locations.
Players can pre-register for the
WSOPE at any LCI venue in the UK and all Harrah's venues in Las Vegas. Alternatively they can try and qualify online
exclusively at Betfair Poker. www.betfairpoker.com
For the first time, and subject to
the execution of a definitive agreement, ESPN, the exclusive World Series of
Poker telecaster, is scheduled to air eight original hours of coverage of the
World Series of Poker Europe in the United States and distribute the tournament
globally. ESPN360.com, ESPN's signature
broadband sports network, is scheduled to provide live coverage in the U.S.,
Europe, Mexico and Brazil.
Harrah's Entertainment will
distribute the World Series of Poker Europe programming in non-ESPN markets,
which in 2007 totaled over 100 million households including U.K. host
broadcaster Sky Sports.
"We have enhanced the schedule to
build on our initial success and provide a richer experience for players," said
World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. "If this year's World Series of Poker event
in Las Vegas is any indication, the level of tournament play is increasing
worldwide and we expect the second annual WSOPE to be hotly
contested."
During the WSOP in Las Vegas,
players can pre-register for WSOP Europe at the tournament cage as well as lock
in poker player hotel rates via www.worldseriesofpoker.com. In addition, $1,570 Mega Satellites for the
WSOP Europe Main Event will be held July 10th and
11th at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
"We
are extremely excited to be working alongside Harrah's and the World Series of
Poker brand for a second year, said Betfair.com CEO David Yu. "Betfair Poker is now the only place players
can qualify online for the tournament – this exclusivity shows how confident we
are that WSOPE 2008 will be even bigger and better than before."
"London
Clubs offers five unique casino experiences in the heart of London including The
Rendezvous, The Casino at the Empire (in world famous Leicester Square), The
Sportsman, Fifty and the Golden Nugget, "said Michael Silberling, COO,
London Clubs International. ""We look
forward to hosting the second annual WSOP Europe."
WSOPE in London complements the WSOP
held annually in Las Vegas. The inaugural 2007 event featured 623 entrants
compete for £1,305,215 over three tournaments including the Main Event that saw
Norway's Annette Obrestad best a
field that included Doyle Brunson,
Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan to win the largest amount
ever for a female, £1 million – or U.S. $2,013,102.
ABOUT WSOPE
Launched in 2007 by Harrah's
Entertainment, owner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the WSOPE is the first
tournament extension of the world's richest and most prestigious gaming
event. WSOPE is held in London, England
annually at London Clubs International (LCI) properties and awards the same
coveted gold bracelets that the WSOP awards annually in Las Vegas. In 2007, WSOPE awarded three gold bracelets,
the first bracelets ever awarded outside the United States. A total of 623 entrants competed for
£1,305,215 in prize money over three different events: H.O.R.S.E, Pot Limit
Omaha and No-Limit Texas Hold'em. Germany's Thomas Bihl became the first-ever
bracelet winner of the WSOPE, while Norway's Annette Obrestad took home the
£1,000,000 first place prize in the Main Event.
Italy's Dario Alioto won the Pot Limit Omaha tournament, meaning
Europeans won all three events of the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe
Presented by Betfair.com. Please visit
www.wsope2008.com
for more information.
ABOUT HARRAH'S ENTERTAINMENT
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is the
world's largest provider of branded casino entertainment. Since its beginning in
Reno, Nevada, more than 70 years ago, Harrah's has grown through development of
new properties, expansions and acquisitions, and now owns or manages casinos on
four continents. The Company's properties operate primarily under the Harrah's®,
Caesars® and Horseshoe® brand names; Harrah's also owns the London Clubs
International family of casinos and the World Series of Poker®. Harrah's
Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers
through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed
distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. For more
information, please visit www.harrahs.com.
ABOUT BETFAIR.COM
Betfair is the world's leading online
betting exchange, a concept it pioneered in June, 2000. The Exchange enables customers to choose
their own odds and bet against each other.
Betfair.com is a registered bookmaker in the UK and also licensed in
Australia, Austria and Malta.
Betfair.com has since established a significant gaming portfolio based in
Malta and is the proud sponsor of the World Series of Poker Europe. For more
information, visit www.betfairpoker.com.
ABOUT ESPN360.COM
ESPN360.com is ESPN's signature 24/7
broadband sports network, and the online home for live sports – delivering more
than 2,500 live global sports events a year. The service is available at no
additional charge to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from
an affiliated service provider, and is currently available in nearly 24 million
homes nationwide. It has nearly tripled
its distribution in the past 18 months, and is available via more than 20
Internet service providers around the country including AT&T, Verizon, RCN,
Insight, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications
and many more. It is also available at
no cost to approximately 18 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based
military personnel via computers connected to on-campus educational and military
networks (those with ".edu" or ".mil" domain). In Brazil, ESPN360 (www.espn.com.br/360) is currently available to
sports fans via Terra. In Mexico, ESPN360 is currently available via TelMex's
Prodigy Media Infinitum Service. In continental Europe, ESPN360 is currently available to millions of broadband users in over 40
countries.
ABOUT THE WSOP
The World
Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event
in the world. Featuring a comprehensive
slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker's longest
running tournament in the world, dating back to 1970. In 2007, the event attracted more than 54,000 entrants from 87 different
countries to the Rio All-Suite Hotel
and Casino in Las Vegas and awarded just under $160 million in prize
money as players competed for game's
most coveted trophy, a WSOP bracelet.
Harrah's License Company, LLC., an affiliate of Harrah's
Entertainment, Inc., has owned and operated the WSOP since 2004 and over the last four years, fostered an
increase in player participation by nearly 300-percent.
In addition, the WSOP has experienced groundbreaking alliances in
broadcasting, digital media and corporate sponsorships, while successfully
expanding the brand internationally with the advent in 2007 of the World Series
of Poker Europe. For more information on the World Series of Poker, please visit
our website at www.worldseriesofpoker.com.