AI dubbing company Papercup® has struck a partnership with the World Poker Tour® (WPT®) , as the global poker brand swaps out traditional localisation methods in favour of AI-powered tools for the very first time.
Papercup will work with the World Poker Tour to translate 184 of the franchise’s 44-minute-long episodes into Brazilian Portuguese. This will amount to nearly 140 hours of content and enable viewers across South America to access WPT’s latest shows and tournaments in their native language quicker than ever before.
Traditionally WPT has relied on using traditional dubbing services for its large catalogue of engaging content. Forced to deal with lead times of up to six months, the company experienced ongoing challenges with timely content delivery and adaptation. With lead times now halved, thanks to the new partnership, WPT has found a way to overcome these hurdles.
The adoption of Papercup’s AI dubbing technology marks the first time that WPT has found a scalable dubbing solution that matches the stringent quality requirements of major streaming platforms. Now the premier poker content produced by WPT will be able to reach international fans watching on OTT platforms, as well as its own FAST channel, faster than ever before.
Marc M. Dion, Director of Distribution & Ad Sales of World Poker Tour said: “The quality of Papercup dubbing has been second to none. A big part of that is down to their AI voices and expert translators who go through every sentence to make sure the moment is truly captured in the new AI dubs. The major streaming platforms have very stringent criteria when it comes to dubbed content and if it’s going to connect with our shared viewers. When they gave us the thumbs up, we knew we were ready to move forward with Papercup.”
The high-quality content that Papercup guarantees when dubbing at scale is fundamental to the partnership. The company operates using a combination of machine-learning tools and expert human translators to deliver maximal linguistic and tonal accuracy. Its AI voices are built using data from real voice actors and have all the warmth and expressivity of human speech.
Jesse Shemen, CEO of Papercup, said: “The world of sports and entertainment has so much to gain from the adoption of AI tools like ours. Localising quality content with the care and attention it deserves, at speed is an absolute priority for WPT in order to engage their international fan base – our scalable solution means this work is finally possible.”
Papercup’s cutting-edge AI technology is already being used by brands like Fremantle, Bloomberg, Sky News, Fuse Media, Insider, and The Jamie Oliver Group to localise hundreds of hours of content in a high-quality and cost-effective way. Videos produced by the company have already reached over 1 billion people in non-English speaking territories.
More information about the partnership as well as sample footage, is available here.