The Main Event will no longer have a four month break and the champion will be crowned in July instead.

The last ever November Nine

Today Poker Central announced it had acquired the global television and digital media rights to the World Series of Poker. This includes an agreement with ESPN to introduce same day coverage of the Main Event.

There will be an estimated 40 hours of live coverage on ESPN starting on Day 1A with a 30 minute delay, as well as even more live streaming scheduled planned courtesy of Poker Central.

The big change this year will be that the November Nine concept will be effectively retired, with the final table playing through to a winner on July 22nd.

The final table will start on July 20 and be spread over three days, as per the current format, but simply with no four month delay in-between.

The November Nine concept was introduced in 2008 as a way to increase media hype around the Main Event, as well as to package TV coverage in the build up. However, in recent years the quality of live streams has improved so much that this was perhaps inevitable.

Will you miss the November Nine? Let us know in the comments: