Epic Poker in Major Publicity Deal

Professional poker league signs agreement with USA Today and Big Lead Sports A new deal has been closed recently by the new professional poker league, Epic Poker, with the USA Today Sports Media group and U.S. independent online sports property, Big Lead Sports, based on which Epic Poker has become the exclusive source of poker news for Big Lead sports, and it will also see the latest Global Poker Index updates -- a patent pending system to rank and track the weekly performance of the world's top 300 live tournament poker players –published weekly in both the print and online editions of USA Today. According to Jeffrey Pollack, executive chairman of the Epic Poker and its parent company, Federated Sports and Gaming, "Our work with the USA Today Sports Media Group and Big Lead Sports will help drive poker deeper into the mainstream news cycle and further position the game right alongside other professional sports content." On the other side, it has been assessed by Tom Beusse, president of the USA Today Sports Media Group: "More Americans are playing and watching poker than ever before, and this partnership will enable us to provide that avid, growing audience with the content they want. The USA Today Global Poker Index will give our readers access to new and relevant content that's easy to track and understand. It will also help open up the game of poker to the casual fan." "Partnering with Epic Poker will enable us to offer our fans top-notch coverage and insights into everything happening in the world of poker," said Chris Russo, chief executive officer of Big Lead Sports, adding: "Epic Poker's pool of talented poker feature writers will be providing coverage of all the world-class players and tournaments and will complement the already growing archive of poker news content found on Epic Poker."