World Poker Tour Begins New Season and CBS Deal
The World Poker Tour is ready to kick off 2025 – a brand new season of main tour events and WPT Prime festivals, all contributing to a fresh Player of the Year race. And the icing on the cake is a new and exclusive broadcast partnership with CBS Sports Network for premiering WPT episodes.
Wrapping 2024 Season
After a very busy December with the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, the World Poker Tour wrapped its 2024 season. The festival, in its third year, offered 55 tournaments, which included everything from satellites to the World Championship itself.
In the end, Chase Bricker won the historic ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll for more than $1M, and Scott Stewart won the WPT WC Main Event for more than $2.5M. Zachary Vankeuren took down the WPT Prime Championship, and Mark Travis Egbert won the WPT Alpha8. Well-known players who took home prize money and trophies included Adam Hendrix, Joe McKeehen, Matt Vengrin, Barry Hutter, Brad Owen, Keith Lehr, Tony Lin, and Jim Collopy. Most winners hailed from the United States, but others represented Mexico, Hong Kong, Canada, Israel, Switzerland, Greece, France, China, and Spain.
🏆✨ Another epic season in the books! ✨🎊
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 31, 2024
See you at the tables in 2025! ♠️ pic.twitter.com/TNHnGnPBAb
It appears that Yunkyu Song won the 2024 WPT POY race with 2,275 points, ahead of Dylan Smith and his 2,150 points and Eric Afriat with 1,750. Song earned the points through six cashes during the season, which added up to $539,586 in earnings.
New Season Begins in February
The first stop for the World Poker Tour in 2024 was at NagaWorld in Cambodia. It is the same this year, only a bit later on the calendar. Let’s look at the schedule for the 2025 season as it stands so far.
- February 14-18: $1,100 WPT Prime Cambodia Championship at NagaWorld, Phnom Penh
- February 19-24: $3,500 WPT Cambodia Championship at NagaWorld, Phnom Penh
- March 13-17: $1,100 WPT Prime Cyprus Championship at Chamada, Kyrenia
- March 16-19: $3,500 WPT Rolling Thunder Championship at Thunder Valley, California
- March 21-26: AU$2,000 WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship at The Star Gold Coast
- April 4-8: $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship, Florida
- May 2-5: $3,800 WPT Choctaw, Oklahoma
- August 13-18: $3,500 WPT Cyprus Championship at Chamada, Kyrenia
- August 14-18: TW$35,000 WPT Prime Taiwan Championship at Asia Poker Arena, Taipei City
Inevitably, the WPT will add more events as they are confirmed and approved by local gambling authorities.
NEXT MONTH the @WPT returns to @NagaWorld for @WPT Cambodia!🇰🇭🏆
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) January 3, 2025
MORE THAN 60 EVENTS • OVER $3,000,000 GTD
$1,100 @WPTPrime Championship $750K GTD: Feb 14 - 18
$3,500 @WPT Championship $1.5M GTD: Feb 19 - 24
📲 More info, booking & full schedule - https://t.co/ULa8YGFuUG pic.twitter.com/0ILoQGQsod
WPT + CBS
In November, the World Poker Tour announced that it signed a multi-year contract with CBS Sports Network for WPT premiere episodes. The exclusive television partnership will put poker on the front page of sports programming, so to speak, and bring the tournament action to a wider audience. WPT CEO Adam Pliska referred to CBS Sports as a “top-tier network,” and WPT’s Loc Sondheim called it the “ideal partner to elevate WPT TV and expand its reach to new households around the nation.”
Episodes premiered on November 14, and action will progress through the 2024 season’s filmed tournaments and on through the recently-concluded WPT World Championship at Wynn.
Those wanting to watch the WPT on CBS should check local listings. The CBS Sports website does not show any search results for poker, which means episodes will be listed only on local broadcast schedules.
