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World Poker Tour
Settles Lawsuit With
Players
WPT
Enterprises, Inc,
which operates The
World Poker Tour,
settled a suit
involving seven big
name poker
professionals
related to a
player release form
used by the World
Poker Tour
Chris
Ferguson, Andrew
Bloch, Annie Duke,
Phil Gordon, and
Howard Lederer –
were listed as being
party to the final
settlement of the
suit; two others,
Greg Raymer and Joe
Hachem, were
originally parties
to the action but
dropped their
involvement before
the settlement.
The
lawsuit essentially
alleged that the
release form would
cause these players
to violated
endorsement deals
and rights to
images.
The
WPT came back
dropping bombs in a
scorned-lover-kind-of-way
press release.
It got ugly.
Says WPT CEO Steve
Lipscomb:
"WPTE continues to
deny any liability
or wrongdoing, but
wants to settle its
differences with the
players so that the
tour can focus on
its continued growth
rather than
litigation...We are
glad to put this
dispute behind us,
and we look forward
to working with all
players to grow the
sport of poker."
The World Poker Tour
is a collection of
Texas hold 'em poker
tournaments held
internationally, but
mainly in the United
States. The
television show has
led to a boom in the
table game across
American homes, in
local casino poker
rooms and online.
The key sponsors of
the tour are casinos
and online poker
sites.
The
tour had its debut
season in the latter
part of 2002 and
early part of 2003,
climaxing with the
WPT Championship in
April 2003 at the
Bellagio Casino in
Las Vegas, Nevada.
The first season
aired on the Travel
Channel on American
cable television in
the spring of 2003
to very high ratings
(the highest ever
recorded by that
cable network).
The
show made its
network debut on
February 1, 2004 on
NBC with a special
"Battle Of
Champions"
tournament, which
aired against CBS
coverage of the
Super Bowl XXXVIII
pre-game show. The
Travel Channel aired
the first five
seasons of the Tour.
In April 2007, WPTE
announced that the
series would move to
GSN for its sixth
season in the spring
of 2008. The first
WPT tournament to
air on GSN, the
Mirage Poker
Showdown, debuted on
March 24, 2008.
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Ace
King,
Gambling911.com
Originally published
April 20, 2008 9:48
pm EST
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