SVG Sit-Down: World Poker Tour CEO Adam Pliska on World Championship in Vegas and the Evolution of Live Poker Coverage The action will be live-streamed 12 hours a day for two weeks By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Monday, December 4, 2023 - 2:53 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
This month's World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas will provide a marathon of live-streaming content for poker fans across the globe. On Dec. 7, WPT and its streaming-production partner ShareHand will kick off 14 days of live coverage from Vegas with each day running as long as 12 hours.
World Poker Tour's Adam Pliska: This is when we get to prove that we are serious about growing this franchise so it keeps getting better every year.
Live-streamed content will appear on both the World Poker Tour YouTube and Twitch channels, in addition to plenty of live and postproduced content on WPT's growing list of linear, smart-TV, and streaming partners. WPT developed a comprehensive live-stream schedule to bring global viewers as much unique content as possible during the entire WPT World Championship festival. Coverage will include no shortage of cash-game and final-table streams, including the crowning of the ultimate winner of the $40 million guaranteed World Championship.
SVG sat down with World Poker Tour CEO Adam Pliska to discuss how this firehose of live-streaming content is being produced at the Wynn, the evolution of the WPT since its founding in 2002, how the consumption of live poker has changed over the years, and his key goals over the coming weeks in Vegas.
How has WPT evolved since its founding in 2002?
If you go back to when World Poker Tour started 20 years ago, it was an anomaly to get poker on TV at all. [WPT founder] Steve Lipscomb went knocking on the door of many networks, insisting that it would work in primetime, but almost everyone said no - partly because they didn't think the ratings were there and partly because it was almost scandalous to see poker on TV back then. When Travel Channel took the bet and was willing to put two hours on-air, that was a huge shift.
Very quickly, it captured the imagination of the sports world, and it blew up massively. Online sites who put their name around the World Poker Tour saw their audience grow tenfold, and suddenly Travel Channel saw its advertising revenue skyrocket.
However, whenever anything is successful, the industry is going to copy that model, so [the market] got flooded for a while. At one point, we had something like 20 competitors online or on network television. There was a lot of dilution there, and not everybody was dedicated to the same level of production quality that we were. But we continued to create quality poker, and, as a result, we survived while a lot of others did not. Eventually, poker evolved from a phenomenon to an actual sport that had its own fanbase, culture, and following.
And how have you seen poker shift from a linear-TV model to more streaming consumption in recent years?
Before COVID, linear television was our main consumption model. We went from Travel Channel to Fox Sports Net, which eventually became Bally Sports, which was very fitting for poker. When COVID happened, the entire industry saw this massive break with people cutting the cord and going online. We embraced that, and now World Poker Tour is on 91 [platforms], and the online networks are growing at a rapid pace to the point where they are now larger than our linear distribution. [The WPT World Championship] is a great example of how streaming gives us the flexibility and distribution to bring content to more fans than ever before.
How has the way that poker is covered and produced changed over the years?
Poker [programming] has evolved a lot. Twenty years ago, everyone was focused on high-stakes games, where people were playing for massive amounts of money. You can certainly still see that high-stakes excitement, but, in addition to that, we are providing constant real-time coverage on YouTube and Twitch. Streaming is terrific because, whether you're a professional or an amateur player, you want all the data available to you. You don't want to get just the highlights; you don't want just an hour-long show that has been cut down. You want everything. And we've seen that based on the audience growth [for streaming].
What are some key highlights that poker fans should keep an eye out for over the next couple of weeks?
You're going to see some of the most exciting poker in the world at every level. You'll see some of the biggest stars in the game, but you'll also see unknowns since [a player's success] early on can help propel them into playing in the big event later [in the tournament].
In terms of streaming, we will have a large offering from all of the major events: the World Championship, Prime Championship, Ladies Championship, and our Big One for One Drop [$1 million buy-in tournament] - plus plenty of high-stakes cash games and some special celebrity events.
But, obviously, as we head towards the last few days [of the event], the WPT World Championship [Dec. 16-21] is going to dominate our coverage. With $40 million guaranteed, we will have live streaming from Day 2 all the way through Day 6, culminating in the televised finale on Dec. 21, when a champion will be crowned.
Can you provide details on WPT's presence onsite at the Wynn, and how the live-streaming coverage will be produced?
We've grown quite a lot over the years, so our television production and distribution are now overseen in-house. In terms of the live-streaming [production], we partner with a group called ShareHand, who has done a phenomenal job providing professional, beautiful coverage. They work with us throughout the year and do a great job.
Our productio
North America Stories
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
AI will help build the energy it needs.
That's the case U.S. Energy Secreta...
07/05/2026
Back to All News
Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix Present the Trailer of ...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
SVG Sit-Down: World Poker Tour CEO Adam Pliska on World Championship in Vegas and the Evolution of Live Poker Coverage The action will be live-streamed 12 hours a day for two weeks By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
