In the wake of last week’s indictment by federal authorities of eleven individuals associated with online poker sites FullTiltPoker.com, AbsolutePoker.com and PokerStars.com, cable sports television channel ESPN has announced that it has removed all poker-related advertising.
“For the immediate future, we are making efforts to remove related advertising and programming pending further review,” read a statement from the Connecticut-based broadcaster.
Majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, the broadcaster does still plan to show this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) though. A tweet from WSOP confirmed that the, “2011 WSOP will air on ESPN without interruption...in fact, many new TV enhancements coming...stay tuned.”
A five-week run of the PokerStars sponsored North American Poker Tour that was due to start on ESPN2 earlier this week has been cancelled though.
It also appears that the Fox network will not be showing The Big Game or the Million Dollar Challenge, both of which are backed by PokerStars.
The future of High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark also remains unclear.
