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In a press release issued on Wednesday, the World Poker Tour® and Matchroom Sport have announced that the upcoming season of Premier League Poker will be renamed the World Poker Tour® Premier League Poker and will be sponsored by PartyPoker.com.

The 2011 version of the Premier League Tournament will see the number of entrants increased from 12 to 16, each of whom must ante-up the buy-in of $125,000. Party Poker will be adding a further $250,000 plus a $25,500 seat into the 2012 WPT® World Championship which will bring the total prize pool to $2,275,000.

“WPT and Premier League Poker both represent top class poker competition and high quality television,” said Steve Heller, CEO of World Poker Tour. “The Premier League structure is one of the most unique in the world. WPT has always been an innovator, and this is a perfect fit.”

Eddie Hearn, Managing Director of Matchroom Sport, creators of Premier League Poker, said, “I’m delighted that Premier League Poker is now a World Poker Tour special event. This association not only gives Premier League Poker extra credibility amongst players and guarantees them extensive global coverage, it also cements the winner as one of poker’s true greats when he or she joins the ranks of WPT Champions.”

World Poker Tour Premier League Poker will be presented by Kara Scott, and will be considered a WPT “special event.”  Which means no Player of the Year points will be awarded. The dates and location for the World Poker Tour Premier League Poker will be announced in the near future. For more information about the WPT Premier League Poker and other WPT events you can visit www.worldpokertour.com.