The 2026 WSOP will return to ESPN broadcast, with the Main Event final table available for free. The remaining 99 bracelet events can be watched live for free on the official WSOP YouTube, Facebook, X, and Twitch platforms.
The 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will see significant changes in its television and live broadcasts. Major changes, but don't worry, this annual poker extravaganza will still be easily accessible to poker fans worldwide, and most of the content will be free.
The era of the WSOP on PokerGO and CBS Sports is over. The WSOP will return to ESPN.
It shouldn't be surprising that GGPoker, the new owner of the WSOP (whose parent company acquired the WSOP brand from Caesars Entertainment for $500 million in 2024), will have new television broadcasting plans. However, poker fans will notice many similarities to past summers, including familiar faces like Jeff Platt, Norman Chad, and Lon McEachern all participating in the broadcasts.
The World Series of Poker returns to ESPN
In April, the WSOP announced that the Main Event would return to ESPN, the top U.S. sports network, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a huge upgrade compared to CBS Sports, a cable television channel that many sports fans either don't subscribe to or are completely unaware of. ESPN, on the other hand, is part of almost every cable television package and played an indispensable role in the exponential growth of poker in the early 2000s.
Chad and McEachern, who have served as WSOP commentators for ESPN and CBSSN since 2003, will return to the broadcast studio for the main event. This world championship, won by Michael Mizrachi last year, will... July 2 The game will take place at Horseshoe and the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.
This $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament will proceed to the final table on July 13th, followed by a break for the first time since 2016. The advancing players will... August 3 Returning to the competition for a three-day final table event. All daily live streams before the final table will be broadcast via [platform name - implied]. ESPN app conduct.
The ESPN app isn't free; it costs $29.99 per month, or you can bundle it with Hulu and Disney+ for an additional $10 per month. However, the main event final table will be streamed live for three consecutive days on ESPN or ESPN2 cable television channels for free.
Between July 13th and the start of the final table, ESPN and ESPN2 will broadcast four condensed versions of the Main Event highlights. Following the final table, the channel will also broadcast a two-hour edited version of the final table events. Therefore, poker fans who don't want to pay to watch the Main Event can still catch a large amount of the action for free, although it may not be live.
What about the other events in the 2026 WSOP?
ESPN will only broadcast the main event this year. However... May 26 All other events in the 2026 WSOP will be streamed live on the official WSOP YouTube channel, as well as on Facebook, X, and Twitch. This provides players with an unprecedented range of viewing options, and it's completely free to watch for 51 consecutive days.
This year, the live broadcast stage will move from Horseshoe to the Paris ballroom. Throughout the summer, a live broadcast table will be set up in the Paris hotel, offering daily live coverage of 99 non-main event bracelet tournaments for free on your preferred streaming platform.
The full lineup of commentators for daily live broadcasts has been announced and will begin. May 29 Initially, they are all familiar faces in the poker world. Nick Schulman and Ali Nejad often team up, and Joe Stapleton, who moved from PokerStars to the WSOP, will also join. Popular veteran poker player Maria Ho will serve as an analyst. 2004 WSOP Main Event runner-up David Williams will also step into the broadcasting studio, and of course, Platt, who left PokerGO to become a WSOP host, will be reporting from the sidelines throughout the summer.
The 2026 WSOP will offer more live coverage than ever before, across more platforms. Only coverage leading up to the Main Event final table will require a pay-per-view. Most of the live-streamed final tables will be No-Limit Hold'em events, but Platt briefly revealed on Twitter some additional side coverage of the non-No-Limit Hold'em final tables, which will be broadcast from the side tables.
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