Home / Poker News March 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – a Fresh Look at the Prospects of Legal Online Poker in the US
The Poker Grapevine – a Fresh Look at the Prospects of Legal Online Poker in the US
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2012-03-10 09:43
Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the WSOP, has recently granted an interview to one of the largest
online poker portals, in which he discussed the prospects of legal online poker in the US and its potential impact on the WSOP.
Despite the consistently massive player numbers and the immense amount of interest generated in the media as well as in poker circles world-over, according to Stewart, the
WSOP has only just begun to scratch the surface of its enormous potential. Stewart also said that this year’s Series would be bigger than last year’s as far as capacity and staging were concerned. The WSOP’s goal has always been drawing in new players, and the only way to do that is to create a spectacle of poker which has the potential to captivate those previously not particularly interested in the game.
There will apparently be several innovations in this year’s Series, a reflection of the organizers’ efforts to keep things fresh for returning players.
There have been various rumors out there concerning the November Nine. According to many of these, the November Nine would be scrapped and the Main Event would play down to its conclusion in July. Stewart dispelled all those rumors stating that the November Nine represented an unparalleled opportunity for WSOP to fully milk 16 weeks of prime-time TV coverage, leading up to the final table. Stewart said the scrapping of the November Nine not only didn’t make any sort of financial sense, it would quite possibly mean the loss of his job and the setting back of the entire poker industry.
Stewart also addressed the issue of legal online poker in the US saying that such a move would definitely represent a massive opportunity for the WSOP brand. Legal online poker would probably mean 15,000 player Main Events and a genuine explosion across the board for the WSOP.
