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Recently, Fox Sports and the World Poker Tour came to an agreement to televise the World Poker Tour over the next three years – seasons 9 through 11. Throughout each week, FSN will broadcast reruns of previous episodes while new episodes will be shown on the network each Sunday at 8 and 11 p.m. President of the World Poker Tour, Adam Pliska, was optimistic about the deal saying that FSN has long been a champion of the World Poker Tour and that he is happy that they have decided to continue the long standing contract to continue broadcasting World Poker Tour events on the network. He also was pleased about the better time slot that is being awarded the WPT with Fox and the increased volume in promotions and reruns that promise to enhance the visibility of the WPT with returning and new viewers.

Beyond the changed time slot, little else will be changed about the shot itself. FSN still plans to keep seasoned poker announcers Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton to host the show. 2011′s season will mark the ninth season that Van Patten and Sexton have acted as announcers for the tour. However, the show will feature a new “Raw Deal” special where a poker player will make remarks on a variety of topics. This segment will also be home to the popular Royal Flush Girls. Auditions for the host of this new segment took place during the Bicycle Casino Legends of Poker tournament earlier this month.

Season 9 of the World Poker Tour will launch in January of 2011 and begin with the popular poker tournament Bellagio Cup IX. During this season, a new host Kimberly Lansing will also be joining the team. New stops on the World Poker Tour for season 9 include the Hard Rock Casino in Florida.

CEO of the World Poker Tour, Steve Heller has also made some statements about the new features in season 9 and is already remarking that it will be much faster and edgier with plenty of big name professionals in the online and offline poker world.

FSN first picked up the World Poker Tour during season 7 when GSN made the decision to stop broadcasting the show following season 6. Before season 6, all seasons of the World Poker Tour were broadcast on the Travel Channel. Fox Sports Network is a collection of 16 region specific stations that regularly reach 80 million homes nationwide.