WSOP Europe 2008 Schedule, ESPN Deal Announced

Harrah's Entertainment has announced the schedule for the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), to be held September 19th to October 2nd, 2008 in London, England. The series is expanded slightly over the inaugural 2007 version, and will this year included four bracelet events and five additional non-bracelet preliminaries. The series will be sponsored by Betfair and will be held at several London Clubs International properties – Empire (Leicester Square), The Sportsman and Fifty. Two other London LCI properies, Golden Nugget and Rendezvous, may also be part of the mix when the preliminary schedule is confimed. Sportsman, Leicester Square and Fifty were all part of the inaugural 2007 proceedings as well.

The four bracelet events, including the addition of a £1,500 No-Limit Hold'em freezeout to start the proceedings, have been scheduled as follows:

• (9-19-08) Event #1, £1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Day 1A (three-day event / two opening days)

• (9-22-08) Event #2, £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. (three-day event)

• (9-24-08) Event #3, £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha (three-day event)

• (9-27-08) Event #4, £10,000 World Championship No-Limit Hold'em (five-day event / two opening days)

Players can pre-register through any London Clubs International property, at Las Vegas-based Harrah's properties, or can try to qualify online through tournaments on sponsoring site Betfair.

In related news, Harrah's announced a deal with exclusive WSOP telecaster ESPN to broadcast eight hours of WSOPE coverage in 2008. The coverage will be aired globally. The details of the live broadband coverage on ESPN360.com have yet to be confirmed. Harrah's will complement ESPN's coverage by distributing WSOPE content into non-ESPN markets.