The SBC Leaders Podcast is back and this time Sue Schneider was joined by Steven Lipscomb, Founder of the World Poker Tour (WPT), and its President and CEO, Adam Pliska, to discuss the inception of the WPT and its legacy.
Reflecting on the early stages of the WPT, which was founded in 2002, Lipscomb spoke about the desire to harness the popularity of poker and elevate it to the attention of a mainstream audience.
“The idea was to capitalise on a gigantic poker audience and make this into a sport as opposed to what it had been, which was a niche gambling thing. So very quickly we were in business on television in 2003 and the world immediately changed,” explained Lipscomb.
Lipscomb also paid homage to Lyle Berman, Chairman and CEO of Lakes Entertainment, who helped to provide the capital to get the project off the ground.
Although poker is now a recognised TV product, – the WPT itself is shown on 91 networks worldwide- it wasn’t a simple process to configure the filming and production to ensure that the WPT’s early efforts worked for TV.
Lipscomb thought back to the “arduous” eight-month process it took to edit the first WPT show alongside Editor David Egan, and a particularly complicated process was ensuring that viewers were able to view the cards each player was holding through hole card cameras.
He said: “[Egan] had to rewire the Avid software and programme it to do something that it couldn’t do at the time so that the graphic comes out and shows what the cards are and if someone folds it goes away.
“It was the first time in poker history that you could sit in a bar and follow what was going on without anybody talking at all. That’s the seminal thing for me and it is what people do all over the world when they make a poker show today.”
From its beginnings, the WPT has grown and now holds events around the world in the lead-up to the WPT World Championship at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas.
Recorded ahead of the event, which was won by Scott Stewart who earned $2,563,900, Pliska reflected on the landmark growth of the WPT and its current status.
“I have a picture on my desk of signing the first million-dollar deal and we thought that was such a big event early on,” he recalled.
“The WPT World Championship has just started at the Wynn. Last year we did the largest guaranteed prize pool of $40m and this year we are doing the largest freeroll in history, We’ve got 2,000 seats and we are going to be handing out $5m.”
Concluding the episode, Pliska also spoke about the competition the WPT faces to grab the attention of viewers, both from within Poker and the wider entertainment industry.
“The real competitor we have is the real estate in people’s minds. Think about from 20 years ago [to now], how easy it is to sit in your house and have multiple options and anything and everything is vying for your time,” he explained.
“So it’s our job to make sure that people [think the WPT] could be fun. And then we know that when they do that they will have the connection because this wonderful game connects people.”
