Sabio Holdings announced the launch of the first-ever fully TV-produced Creator Poker Championship, in partnership with the World Poker Tour (WPT), this May.
The Creator Poker Championship will air on CBS in two parts, airing on May 15 from 9 to 10, and from 10 to 11 PM EDT. The event is produced by Creator Poker Sports, a dedicated studio label of Creator TV, a part of Sabio Holdings.
The Creator Poker Championship will build on the success of December’s livestream, which saw the likes of King Bach, Billy Love, Soy Nguyen, and Wengie battle it out in real-time.
This time around, a similar group of players will come together in a produced TV series, offering higher production quality, more action, and episodic storytelling.
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Creator TV Sports Bringing Poker to the Mainstream Audience
The Creator Poker Championship is Creator TV’s attempt to take poker to the next level and make it more interesting and engaging for mainstream audiences.
The show will blend the charm of high-stakes poker action with the entertainment value that popular internet creators bring to the table, building a broadcast-ready property built for cross-platform distribution.
Joe Ochoa, the co-founder and general manager of Creator TV said: “This is a defining moment for Creator TV Sports™. We’re seeing a format that was built for streaming environments extend into national sports television, further validating the Creator TV model.”
Creator TV Sports, the driving force behind the Championship, is built on original programming, pairing popular internet creators with big brands like the World Poker Tour. Such pairings allow for the creation of competition-based series that can perform well across different distribution channels.
A New Brand of Entertainment
The Creator Poker Championship is only the latest in a series of exciting programs produced by Creator TV Sports, as it aims to leverage the reach of major internet celebrities.
Programs like the Creator Poker Championship and the Creator Pickleball Tour, along with various other programs currently in development, are structured to create recurring engagement from the fans and integrate brand opportunities.
Creator Poker Championship’s debut on CBS will take the program beyond the digital platforms and bring it into the real television ecosystem, representing the next step in the development of creator-led formats in Creator TV production.
Can Poker Become a Mainstream Phenomenon?
Creator Poker Championship is the latest in a series of attempts to make the game of poker more enticing to mainstream viewers.
Hustler Casino Live’s Creator Games, which involved the likes of Mr. Beast and Ninja were proof of concept, as they saw hundreds of thousands of people engage with poker for the first time ever.
Even major TV poker shows like High Stakes Poker have been making strides to leverage the mainstream popularity of celebrities like Kevin Hart to increase their viewership and expand their fan bases.
The massive expansion of chess in the wake of “Queen’s Gambit” airing on Netflix, and the subsequent creator surge, demonstrated that even games generally considered slow-paced can become mainstream phenomena with sufficient marketing.
Poker is a fast-paced game with numerous elements that play well with mainstream audiences, such as psychological warfare, personal relationships, and high-stakes gambling. With proper production and the right faces behind it, shows like Creator Poker Championship have real potential to take the game to the next level.
Regular participation of mainstream celebrities in poker-related programming and consistent production with the likes of Creator TV Sports are the best ways to bring poker into the light and continually engage new generations of prospective poker players.
