The streaming service will provide coverage for four events throughout the season.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL. – The 2023 season has been one of tremendous growth and progress for the Epson Tour, the official qualifying tour of the LPGA Tour. The schedule sees record-breaking numbers, with $5M in total purses awarded throughout the year, and more affordable tournament entry fees thanks to multiple Official DEI Partners.
GKLive.TV will join the Epson Tour’s journey to the LPGA Tour in 2023, showcasing the talented athletes competing this season through live streaming at four events. Over the last three years, GameKast has streamed over 100,000 events and set a goal of supporting women’s sports in half of their broadcasts. So far, they’re meeting that goal and will continue to work toward it with the Epson Tour. The first event to be streamed will be the Island Resort Championship in Harris, Michigan from June 23-25th.
“We are pleased to broadcast the Epson Tour events and work with this great group of people,” said James Brady, Managing Partner for GameKast LLC. “Covering these events serves two of our commitments; providing coverage of underserved sports and women's sports.”
In addition to the Island Resort Championship, the following events will be able to be viewed live:
- French Lick Charity Classic (August 3-6 in French Lick, Indiana)
- Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout (September 22-24 in El Dorado, Arkansas)
- Epson Tour Championship (October 5-8 in Daytona Beach, Florida)
Live streaming will benefit the Epson Tour athletes in many ways, most importantly displaying their hard work throughout 22 events to hopefully land in the top 10 on the season-ending money list to earn LPGA Tour membership in 2024.
“I think it’s going to be really cool for all of us players to finally have an answer to ‘How do we watch the Epson Tour?’ For the 10 years that I’ve been on tour, the answer has been, ‘we don’t get coverage’,” said Epson Tour veteran, Daniela Iacobelli. “There are so many people, whether it’s mom, dad, aunt, uncle, sister or the guy you met in your pro-am last week, that want to keep in touch and follow you. They question ‘well what happened on that hole?’ Now they can watch what happened.”
Some athletes, both across the country and globe, aren’t able to travel with their family and rely on phone calls and social media for support. Epson Tour rookie, Natasha Andrea Oon, understands this struggle, as her family lives in Malaysia and cannot attend events. With GameKast Live, families and fans who can’t attend are still able to watch and support their favorite golfer.
“First of all, I think this will mean a lot to the people around me,” said Oon. “They’re always on Live Scoring and get so frustrated that they can’t watch me play. It’s nice to know that someone who really cares about you and supports you can watch you from anywhere. It’s also a great way for us athletes to get recognized.”
Streaming will be free to fans and can be viewed on www.epsontour.com and https://www.gklive.tv/. For more information on GKLive.TV, please visit https://gklive.tv/.