Blue Square & Grosvenor UK Poker Tour

Blue Square & Grovesnor Casinos - £4 Million UK Poker Tour

Online bookmaker Blue Square and Grosvenor Casinos, both part of the Rank Group, today announce the launch of the first major UK-only poker tour to hit our shores. This new tour – the largest in the UK, with a £4m total prize pool - will commence in January 2007 and tour different Grosvenor casinos each month.

The tour consists of 10 legs, starting in Bolton on January 12th 2007, culminating in the Grand Final in December at the world famous London Grosvenor Victoria Casino. Winners of each leg of the tour will also win a seat at the UK Poker Tour Grand Final to be held at the end of the year.

Each leg of the tour is a £1,000 buy in, with players also able to qualify in satellites at Grosvenor Casinos or on line at Blue Square Poker. There is a £3,000 buy in to the Grand Final for non-leg winners. All participating players will have the chance to play for a share of an anticipated £4 million total prize pool across the ten events.

Peter McCann, Managing Director of Grosvenor Casinos, comments "Grosvenor Casinos have long been a home of live poker, but up until now there has been no major dedicated poker tour in the UK. We feel that a professional tour accessible to all is the natural progression of our existing poker offering and a means of attracting new players who wish to experience live poker tournaments."

Martin Belsham, Managing Director of the tour sponsor Blue Square, adds, "The popularity of poker continues to grow and Blue Square hope to maximise on the synergy between us and our sister company Grosvenor Casinos. We aim to give people an opportunity to cross the threshold from playing poker online to playing live at high profile tournaments throughout the UK."

Each leg of the tour will be filmed and broadcast on Channel 4 in the second half of 2007. Deborah Poulton, Deputy Editor of Sport at Channel 4 commented "We are proud of our reputation for bringing high quality poker programming to our audience, with brands such as Late Night Poker. We are excited to be working with such established brand names as Grosvenor Casinos and Blue Square Poker on the UK Poker Tour next year. We consider this a valuable addition to our Poker programming."

Poker players can find out more details on how to play on the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour on the tour website: www.bluesquarepoker.com.

Tour dates & locations:

• January – Bolton, 12th-14th
• February – Walsall, 15th-18th
• March – Cardiff, 23rd-25th
• April – Manchester, 20th-22nd
• May – Brighton, 18th-20th
• July – Newcastle. 20th-22nd
• August – Luton, 9th-12th
• September – Plymouth, 7th-9th
• October – London, 18th-21st
• November – Blackpool, 15th-18th
• November/December - GRAND FINAL, London, 29th Nov -2nd Dec