Daniel Negreanu has said that getting the World Series of Poker back on ESPN for the first time since 2021 is a “big deal" for the game.
The WSOP announced the new multi-year deal last week, and it will see poker’s biggest stage back on ESPN, with extensive coverage and primetime final table broadcasts.
ESPN was instrumental in poker’s early-2000s boom, helping turn the WSOP Main Event into a global spectacle.
Its 2026 coverage will start on Day 1A of the Main Event on July 2, with a minimum of six hours of programming each day until the final table is set on July 13.
The tournament will then break for three weeks, when ESPN will show the final table live over three days, August 3-5, starting at 9pm each day.
ESPN cameras helped turn Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 WSOP Main Event win into a poker boom.Negreanu backs ESPN’s storytelling approach
In a YouTube video posted Wednesday, Negreanu talked about how ESPN will be able to promote the final table and bring more viewers to the biggest final table in poker.
“The final table [will be shown] on ESPN in a primetime slot on August 3-5,” Negreanu says. “They're three-hour slots at 9pm ET for the first two days, and the third day is the one that could go long, right? Because that's nine hours allocated, but sometimes these things take longer than that.”
Negreanu says he’s confident that the Main Event broadcast will be a success because of the crew behind it – Omaha Productions.
“The show you’ll probably know them best for is Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli [Manning]. What they're going to be doing in that three-week period is some lead-up promo videos to get you really riled up, to get you to understand these people.”
“I really think that you're going to see a major upgrade across the board in terms of what you're seeing.”
The 2026 WSOP begins May 26, with free daily streams from May 29. ESPN’s Main Event coverage starts July 2 and culminates with a live three-day final table broadcast from August 3–5.
Watch Negreanu's full YouTube video below.
