If the secret is to attract new viewers, it'll be a challenge because I don't think non-player viewers have any conception of how good pros are. They don't understand that it's a combo of shot-making AND cue ball control. I think they think it's just shot-making. Heck, safeties look like terrible shots if you don't comprehend what a safety is. Several in a row and it looks like the pros are hacks. One simple thing is to identify the NEXT object ball; this only works in rotation games and 8-ball is the common game. In the USA anyway. I think they need to put a circle around the object ball and have it quickly fade out and then do the same for the next object ball after that. Non-standard pool ball colors is a problem.
As much as some commentators get on my nerves, I think complete silence is more boring. As for the commenting, one thing that strikes me (for attracting non-player viewers) is that what they are yakking about for every shot, it's not easy for the average viewer to follow all that. Pool is def a challenge to make it appealing to non-players.
Another problem is that there is more than one way a player can shoot a shot and that is a problem for the commentators. Especially with shot clocks, they don't have much time to explain. That's a challenge.
Online gambling might help, yes.
FWIW, I played pool for many years before I truly understood how much a good player can control the cue ball. As I grew up, safeties didn't exist. It was all about shot-making and somehow hope for 'shapes.' This was barroom and pool hall pool. But hardly any real good players. Just recreational pool.
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