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European Poker Tour
The European Poker Tour is the most well-known and highest-paying poker series in Europe. These tournaments are played out in some of Europe's ritziest casinos; the EPT evolved as Texas Hold 'Em gained popularity starting in 2004. The fifth season of the EPT was in 2008, and the Tour's poker variant of choice continues to be Texas Hold 'Em.
The executive producer of the European Poker Tour, John Duthie, has played poker for years, and he won one million pounds in the 2000 Poker Million. His fame allowed him to introduce poker to the United Kingdom, and when the tournaments began, the EPT had just half the buy-in of the WPT. However, the buy-in has risen to where it is comparable to the WPT's.
Europe's first Poker Tour was a multicountry, multievent series of tournaments that happened all across Europe. Now, the EPT is sponsored by pokerstars.net, and it's filmed for TV by Sunset+Vine. It's broadcast throughout the world, and it has a featured "show" table just for that purpose.
The European Poker Tour's sixth season started with a 1,000 euro buy-in, taking place in Barcelona. 229 players participated. This past season, the buy-in was 10,000 euros, and it involved more than 1,000 players. New events happened in San Remo and the Czech Republic. That season's finale at Monte Carlo brought 842 players and a prize total of of 8.4 million euros.
The tournaments of the EPT are televised worldwide, and they are structured similarly to the tournaments run by the World Poker Tour. Today, the EPT is the largest and most televised poker series, with coverage on all European networks.