In what is believed to be the first poker tourney television broadcast in India, season 2 of the Poker Sports League will be presented following the award of exclusive media rights to DSport, a subsidiary of Discovery Communications.
A statement by the PSL this week said that the choice of broadcast partner was made after careful evaluation involving multiple bids, and that the tournament will be initially covered in English.
“DSport’s wide coverage of international sporting properties made it the natural choice,” said Amit Burman, co-founder PSL and Dabur India Vice-Chairman.
“PSL’s biggest challenge has been to overcome preconceived notions and change people’s perception with regards to poker. Hence, our positioning has been clear from the very start and this will further get established by getting the league broadcasted on a sports channel.”
TS Panesar, head of DSport business, said, “Poker is broadcast on sports channels across the globe since 1978. In India, this will be a first and considering that PSL is the world’s first franchise-based poker league, we are excited to partner with them.”
The league has received a major commitment of 150 crore (about $24 million) spread over the next eight years and has 12 franchises.
For Season 2, PSL has franchised 12 teams with each team committing close to 15 crore ($2.4 million) over the next eight years. Season 2 has announced a prize pool of US$ 490,000.
The teams will consist of a total of 10 players each, comprising one mentor/ playing captain, two pro-players, two from free live qualifiers, three from free online qualifiers and two wild-card entries.
The online qualifiers commenced in December on Delta Corp’s Adda52.com site and will continue to run through April 23 this year.