Omaha Productions Goes All-In as World Series of Poker Main Event Returns to ESPN

With 50+ cameras, three trucks, 60+ EVS channels, RFID hole-card workflows, and quick-turn edits in the cloud, the production is built for poker diehards and casual fans alike

For a generation of sports fans, the World Series of Poker Main Event on ESPN turned No-Limit Texas Hold'em from a casino-table curiosity into a legitimate phenomenon. Young millennials devoured the programming that filled lazy summers, then organized their own games with friends that stretched deep into the night, often ending only when the last two players agreed to split the pot because, well, it was 2 a.m. and this was somebody's parents' house.

Chris Moneymaker's 2003 Main Event win became a cultural flashpoint, and ESPN's edited episodes gave poker something it never expected but desperately needed for mainstream adoption: a television product with characters, stakes, and a story.

For the first time since 2021, the WSOP Main Event is back on ESPN platforms. This year, Omaha Productions is leading production from Las Vegas, delivering more than 100 hours of live coverage across ESPN platforms - including a live final table on ESPN and ESPN2 Aug. 3-5 - and packaged episodes for ESPN linear networks.

The World Series of Poker has returned to ESPN this summer. The event is taking place at the neighboring Paris and Horseshoe Casinos in Las Vegas. (Photos: Omaha Productions)The return to ESPN is the result of a significant push by WSOP CEO Ty Stewart and the WSOP team, who have invested in the event, the brand, and the presentation around this year's Main Event. That investment includes a redesigned WSOP Main Event Final Table Arena inside Paris Las Vegas, a new broadcast environment built to give poker's biggest stage a more modern, big-event feel.

It's exciting to bring attention back to a game that a lot of people love, says Dan Gati, head of content, Omaha Productions, who is producing the coverage. Live poker is as popular as it has ever been, and bringing this game back to the masses, both through live coverage on ESPN and through primetime edited episodes on ESPN, is great to see.

For Omaha Productions, the assignment is both a return and an expansion. Gati has been part of WSOP coverage since 2011, when the event first went live on ESPN, through its years of edited episodes on CBS Sports Network, and now into its return to ESPN. Omaha, co-founded by Peyton Manning and Jamie Horowitz, brings its personality-driven sports-storytelling brand into a demanding live-event environment.

This is the most amount of Main Event coverage ever, says Gati. We're starting on Day 1 and going all the way through the end. It will be over 100 hours of live poker on all the ESPN platforms. It will also be distributed to over 400 million homes globally. Huge credit to Ty Stewart and the WSOP team for helping to grow the game in this way.

The scale reflects that ambition. Omaha Productions has three production trucks onsite, covering three feature tables and the broader field of play inside Paris Las Vegas, where the majority of Main Event action is staged. The Main Event itself spans both Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas, but the production resources are centered primarily in Paris.

Inside the production trucks, Gati is joined by director Dave Gelineau, technical director Mike Brewerton, tape producer Zach Ralston, and technical producer Pierce Williams. The look and feel of the event presentation, meanwhile, is supported by lighting and set design by Justin Garrone and Mark Dowling. The new Final Table Arena spans approximately 25,000 sq. ft. and features expanded LED displays, lighting installations, additional seating and rail areas, and five feature tables that can be used throughout the summer to showcase marquee events and storylines.

Across the operation, the show is supported by more than 50 cameras and more than 60 EVS channels. Three feature tables are equipped to track hole cards, allowing the production team and commentators to tell the strategic story of hands in real time. The camera complement also includes a Technocrane covering a large portion of the room, a jib assigned to another area, and a Steadicam, which moves between the feature tables and the larger tournament field. A sizable RF footprint allows the production team to cover a broad area within Paris as stories develop.

I think people are shocked when they walk around the TV compound and see what it actually takes to produce a big poker event, says Gati. It is a massive operation.

For the 2026 WSOP, the organization unveiled a new Final Table built to bring a level of excitement as well as added broadcast capabilities to enhance the live production for streaming and ESPN.One nostalgic element returning to the production is the hole-card camera. The small under-table camera was one of the key innovations that made poker work as a television product, giving viewers access to information that had previously been hidden. This year, Omaha is bringing hole cams back on one table, although they will be used only for edited shows, not live coverage.

The reason is not technical as much as regulatory and competitive. In live poker, hole-card information must be protected carefully, and showing a player physically peeking at cards creates obvious concerns if that image were to be available broadly during live play. Over the past decade-plus, RFID technology has largely replaced the hole cam as the practical engine driving live poker coverage.

This is the first year in quite a while that we're bringing back hole cams for one of the tables, says Gati. Those will be used only in the edited shows simply because you can't have the player peek at his hole cards and have everybody see it. That is a gaming issue. So the hole cam became more of a beauty shot as opposed to something that was necessary for th

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