Poker Central Expands Editorial and Production Teams

LAS VEGAS (January 5, 2017) — Poker Central®, the ultimate poker lifestyle destination, today announced the expansion of its team as part of its move to a pure digital format.

Planned for months, Poker Central is expanding its TV business model to evolve into a new digital suite of assets, including online and mobile content and social, experiential and TV events. This move to a digital-first format is a reflection of today’s reality of consumption of media and content.

Shot on location in Las Vegas and in exotic places around the globe, Poker Central’s shows will offer a peek behind the scenes at the quirky, funny, exciting, opulent and riveting world of poker. Poker Central will create fresh daily programming and content for onsite and distributed network consumption, while continuing to shoot its wildly successful flagship poker tournaments for digital streaming and TV, 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.”

The new staff added to the Poker Central team are listed below.

• Remko Rinkema has been tapped to become Poker Central’s first Senior Editor. Rinkema is well-known in the poker world for his global coverage of everything poker. As one of the most recognized reporters in in game, Rinkema has interviewed just about every famous player in the world.Rinkema will also be hosting two podcasts under the Poker Central umbrella. “The Poker Central Podcast” covers the latest news and topics in the poker world while “Heads Up with Remko” features one-on-one interviews with poker players and celebrities.
• Paul Oresteen is one of Poker Central’s two new staff writers. For more than a decade, Oresteen has written for poker’s largest outlets and has covered the game’s biggest personalities. Hailing from Atlanta, Oresteen travels coast to coast covering poker games at every level.
• Will O’Connor is another new staff writer for Poker Central. Known in the poker world by his blogger name of ‘Will OC,” O’Connor has covered some of the biggest poker events and series in the U.S. Team Expansion.

These three poker editorial experts join the newly created team from the digital world, announced earlier:

• Justin Lundstrom is Poker Central’s new Head of Production and Programming. Formerly Director of Video Production and Operations at Complex Media, Lundstrom increased Complex Media’s video production to twenty times its former output. He has also produced a documentary feature film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has years of production experience in the digital, commercial, music video and advertising worlds.
• Carl Marxer is Poker Central’s new Director of Creative Services, in charge of animation and brand graphics. Marxer is an award winning designer, a NATAS member Emmy Awards judge, and a member of the Television Academy. Marxer’s prior experience includes VICE, Viceland TV, the MLB Network, CNN and the Back9 golf network start up.

These staff additions come on the heels of the signing of well-known poker pros to join the Poker Central team. In August, Poker Central announced that three famed poker players, Brian Rast, Maria Ho and Tom Marchese would join Poker Central as Ambassadors. With Rast, Ho and Marchese on board, this doubles the lineup of professional poker players working with Poker Central, as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari joined in 2015. The Ambassadors will create exciting new tournaments, live and promotional events and also contribute editorial content.

“Our five new editorial and production experts, combined with our six professional poker player Ambassadors, give Poker Central an unmatched major league roster that will be a powerhouse in 2017,” added Kakaty. “We will redefine not only how poker news and TV is distributed, but capture a much wider audience of everyone who loves the crazy lifestyle of the poker world.”

About Poker Central®

Poker Central is the ultimate source for fans of poker and the poker lifestyle. Available globally, where and when you want it, Poker Central’s delivery of everything poker offers a peek behind the scenes into the VIP lifestyle and lavish, jet-setting world of high roller poker players. Shot on location in Las Vegas and in exotic places around the globe, Poker Central offers fans of poker, and the poker lifestyle, a glimpse into the quirky, funny, exciting and riveting stories that make up the crazy world of poker. For more information, visit www.pokercentral.com, www.facebook.com/pokercentral and www.twitter.com/pokercentral.