WPT China Season I Hits the Airwaves

In a very short 16 months after the Beijing based subsidiary of World Poker Tour Enterprises was created, the WPT China National Traktor Poker Tour has begun broadcasting on television airwaves, becoming the first nationally televised government sanctioned poker competition in China. Adding to an already impressive roster of accomplishments, WPT China recently launched both internet and mobile platforms featuring games, signed its first consumer product sponsor and launched its second season of the tour.

The China Leisure Sports Administrative Center (CLSAC) selected WPTE in July of 2007 to be the exclusive commercial marketing partner to build the first national Traktor Poker Tour in China. It has become a joint effort between WPTE and CLSAC to focus on growing and marketing one of China’s most popular poker games, Traktor poker. Traktor Poker as it is known in the United States and better known in China as Tua La Ji, is a folk game and is closer in play to bridge or hearts and isn’t a game of skill which paved the way to the World Poker Tour to be able to work with Chinese authorities to bring the game to the world’s largest market.

“The estimates are that this game is probably known to or played by half of the entire nation of 1.3 billion people,” WPTE CEO Steve Lipscomb says. “The numbers are mind-boggling.”

The first of nine programming hours from the WPT Traktor Poker Tour Season I Grand Finals aired earlier this month on Nanjing Entertainment Television in on of the largest and wealthiest provinces, the Jiangsu province and will also broadcast across many other provinces in China. WPT China is marketing in show its recently launched internet and mobile platforms which offer games and community features, motivating viewers to play for a chance to win a seat into the Season II Grand Finals.