The 2010 Stanley Cup is narrowed down to the final four teams, and many of those competitions are on Versus.  Versus hasn’t had a lot of luck in the five years of their NHL contract. However, they’ve improved their luck this year.  What impaired them this year was an argument with DirecTV but thankfully for Versus that clash was finished before the 2010 Stanley Cup betting playoffs began. 

In the first two rounds of Stanley Cup wagering, Versus benefitted from their peak viewership.  Actually, it is the highest viewership for the NHL since 1994. The ratings are 25 percent higher than last year. In the conference semifinals, Versus had 1.04 million viewers, which was an improvement on last year. “When we first started, there were a lot of naysayers who said we weren’t big enough to deliver to these audiences,” said president of Versus Jamie Davis. “I think we’ve proven ourselves.”  

The NHL got more visibility on ESPN and ESPN 2 when it was televised by those two channels, but during the last year of their contract, the average ratings had fallen below what Versus obtains now.  When the matches were on ESPN 2 the ratings were really dicey.  ESPN would have kept the NHL, but they didn’t want to pay for it.  Versus stepped in and paid the NHL more money than ESPN was willing to pay and things are now going well for Versus.  The current three-year deal with Versus and NBC goes through next year but talks are already underway for the next one.

“Versus has provided a home for hockey, particularly in the playoffs,” said John Collins, NHL CEO. “Now you have the casual fan finding Versus.”

ESPN might want to get back into doing hockey, but they don’t desire it as an everyday sport.  Versus is providing the NHL the level of coverage that ESPN never would.   

The conference finals in 2010 Stanley Cup are largely televised by Versus. Even two matches of the Stanley Cup Finals will be televised by the network. What damages the network a little bit is that the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh are gone and that the Candiens is not a popular team in the US.

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