ESPN2 Signs Deal to Broadcast North American Poker Tour

Next week’s NAPT Venetian tournament will be broadcast on ESPN2.

The North American Poker Tour may be the newest kid on the international poker block, but it’s already poised for success after scoring a deal with ESPN2 to broadcast 16 hours of tournament coverage this year. New episodes of the NAPT will begin airing in April.

“We’re very excited to bring the North American Poker Tour to ESPN,” said Jamie Horowitz, the network’s coordinating producer. “Our fans like big names and big stakes – the NAPT will have both in excess.”

The next event on the NAPT’s schedule is the $5,000 NAPT Venetian main event in Las Vegas, which starts next week and is expected to draw more than 800 players. While that tournament is working its way down to a final table, the High Roller Bounty Shootout will get going at Venetian with $5,000 bounties on everyone’s head and a $100,000 bonus to whoever claims the most bounties during the tourament. Already confirmed for the 36-player, winner-take-all event are Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein, Tony G and Antonio Esfandiari.

More air dates are set to be announced later, but here are the ones already confirmed by ESPN:

• April 19: Venetian $25,000 high-roller bounty shootout (9-11 p.m. ET)
• April 26: Venetian $25,000 high-roller bounty shootout (9 p.m. ET)
• April 26: Venetian $5,000 main event (10 p.m. ET)
• May 3: Mohegan Sun shootout (9-11 p.m. ET)
• May 10: Mohegan Sun shootout (9 p.m. ET)
• May 10: Mohegan Sun $5,000 main event (10 p.m. ET)
• May 17: PCA $25,000 high-roller (9-11 p.m. ET)