... Why did Predator choose to become a competitor to Matchroom?
Maybe it planned to become the sport’s biggest promoter before it knew what MR was really up to?
Maybe it thought Matchroom’s ambitions were too limited (no women’s pool).
Maybe it thought Matchroom’s ambitions were, instead, too big and would crowd Predator out.
Maybe it felt its influence over players as the sport’s biggest sponsor was being threatened.
Maybe it was simply a case of bad blood.
We just don’t know.
Whatever the case, Predator chose a very different strategy than Matchroom. Cooperation rather than confrontation. Predator had good relations with the WPA and the federations around the world. It chose to work within the system.
One could look at the Predator/WPA relationship several ways. Perhaps Predator saw the WPA as an ally it could use as a stalking horse in its coming confrontation with Matchroom. When the WPA ban took place, Predator’s fingerprints were nowhere to be found.
The WPA and federations, for their part, saw Predator as an ally to fight back against Matchroom’s effort to marginalize them. Maybe they are even funding Predator’s Pro Billiard Series to prop up their own position in the sport. It’s a big mystery to me how Predator has been able to sharply raise prize funds in the past few years.
However they are aligned, Predator and the WPA appear to have mutually benefited ...
TBC
