World Team Poker to be aired on Fox

A new sport that’s taking the poker world by storm is soon coming to a sports network. Fox Sports Network has announced it will air footage of World Team Poker starting in July.

The joint effort between FSN and World Team Poker will likely up the ongoing attempts to create some sense of poker as a sport. World Team Poker debuted at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in May. The first broadcast of team play is scheduled to be shown on FSN in mid-July.

Though poker might not seem like an activity that lends itself to team play, team poker is a team sport like any other. Teams have coaches, team captains, bench players and even substitutes who can come in when necessary. National teams compete against other teams from around the world.

The event that will be shown on FSN featured teams from 20 countries. Each team anted up $50,000 to play in the tournament.

Johnny Chan and David Chiu, both longtime and well-known poker players, were the captains of Team China. They defeated Team Brazil and took home the $300,000 prize.

Fox Sports Network is known for its broadcast of more traditional team sports. The network reaches more than 80 million homes and regularly broadcasts Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association games.