Is Harrahs Bluffing ESPN?

Harrahs Entertainment, which owns the rights to ESPN?s highest-rated poker programming last year, The World Series of Poker, is looking to up the ante on the sports network, leaving both sides locked in a somewhat adversarial negotiation.

The final hour of the 2004 World Series of Poker telecasts on ESPN generated a 2.8 rating, and this year?s telecasts are set to begin airing in June. While neither side would speak for attribution, ESPN sources contend that their network has the exclusive rights to renew for each of the next two years. Harrahs, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, is disputing that, and is said to be shopping the rights around, trying to get an idea of its current market value.

?Our first choice is to negotiate a new deal with ESPN,? said a Harrahs source involved in the discussions. ?ESPN?s coverage of the World Series of Poker has been very good. But the show is obviously a hot property and has a lot of interest in the marketplace. We want to negotiate a better deal with ESPN.?

There were rumors that Harrahs representatives were trying to use the new ESPN scripted poker series Tilt--which sometimes casts an unflattering light on card playing--as a bargaining chip to get out of the current agreements. But a source for Harrahs denied that, stating that ?Tilt is not an issue in the negotiations.?

Last year, the National Football League applied pressure on ESPN to cancel the network?s scripted series Playmakers, which portrayed a fictitious professional football league in an often negative way.

ESPN has carried various poker tournaments since 1994. The network just signed a multiyear agreement with Trump Taj Mahal to air the U.S. Poker Championship.

One media buyer believes ESPN has the upper hand because there are so many types of poker tournaments and shows available. ?The World Series of Poker people don?t have much of a leg to stand on,? the buyer said. ?It?s really a peripheral ad buy. Frankly, they should be thanking God that they are on the air at all.?

By John Consoli

News Added: 04 April, 2005

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