Poker Central adds programme boss in digital play

Las Vegas-based channel Poker Central has made a raft of hires as it prepares to become a fully-digital operation, with a programming and production chief among the new staff.

Poker Central launched as a TV channel in October 2015 with finance from businessman and poker player Cary Katz, but ended its 24/7 linear streaming feed at the end of 2016.

It has now hired former Complex Media director of production and operations Justin Lundstrom, who will become head of production and programming.

The new-look brand will combined online and mobile content, and social, experiential and TV events, which the company said as “a reflection of today’s reality of consumption of media and content”.

It will include daily, poker culture-themed programming shot on location in Las Vegas and “exotic places around the globe”, and will continue to film flagship poker tournaments for digital streaming sites and television, the latter in partnership with “major TV networks”.

“Our core demographic, especially millennials, want their content directly from the source, in both traditional and non-traditional formats,” said Joe Kakaty, president of Poker Central. “The huge success of our flagship events, both digitally and internationally, was our clarion call to this new way of providing poker content.”

Other new hires at Poker Central announced this week include former Viceland and CNN exec Carl Marxer, who becomes director of creative services, overseeing animation and brand graphics. There are also new editors, staff writers and poker experts joining the ranks.