'World Nine-ball Tour'............Matchroom announcement

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garczar

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matchroompool.com

WORLD NINEBALL TOUR MARKS NEW DAWN FOR POOL - Matchroom Pool

• World Nineball Tour to provide a minimum of $3-million prize money this year • Over 40 World Nineball Tour events • 1,000 hours of live pool in 2023, from the Matchroom Majors WORLD NINEBALL TOUR SCHEDULE Matchroom Pool is proud to unveil the formulation of the World Nineball Tour marking the...
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I hope it succeeds. It will be interesting to see how various players craft their schedules to balance travel costs and ranking point opportunities. I'm sure the big names can go to any tourney they want, but for a lot of up and coming players, I bet they will have to make some hard decisions on where they spend their travel budget.
 
It will be interesting to see how the pro players adhere to the current state of affairs between Matchroom's Nineball Tour and WPA distancing themselves from Matchroom. Who wins?

Here is the recent Billiards Digest Publisher Monthly Column: 𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙨

Fast on the heels of the World Pool-Billiards Association (WPA) announcement effectively distancing themselves from Matchroom, the British promoter today announced a formal worldwide 9-ball tour boasting a $3 million total prize fund and 40 ranking events.
According to the release issued by Matchroom Pool, the World Nineball Tour (WNT) will establish a set structured tour anchored by its own Matchroom-promoted events.

The long-anticipated move eliminates any doubt that Matchroom came to the conclusion that the only way to grow the sport globally is to take total control of a particular discipline, much as it did with professional darts and professional snooker, both now boasting annual prize funds in excess of $18 million. Matchroom founder Barry Hearn has long expressed his frustration with the world governing body’s ineffectiveness in moving the sport forward.

“If you’re on board, enjoy the ride,” Matchroom Pool boss lady Emily Frazer said in a Facebook post announcing the news, a message that clearly drew a line in the sand for both players and promoters to consider.

“The World Nineball Tour is the future,” said world No. 1 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz. “It gives us all more motivation to succeed.”
Regarding its ambitious expansion of worldwide events in 2023 — including the addition of Matchroom-promoted major tournaments in Spain and Asia — the release hinted that Matchroom was still amenable to working independently with WPA-affiliated national federations, stating “the World Nineball Tour is keen to work with organizers and federations all over the world,” and that the new tour platform offers an opportunity “for local organizers to grow their events.”

“This is a time when anyone who truly cares about creating opportunity for players to join in this historic journey,” added Hearn. “This is pool’s big chance.”

“This doesn’t happen overnight,” Frazer cautioned in an interview with BD. “It’s a gradual process. With the [rankings] transparency of money-per-point, the pressure is on organizers to increase prize money. It will get to the point where we turn events down and that will naturally create a standard.”

Among the challenges facing Matchroom and the WNT is scheduling. Where its darts and snooker properties have seasons and are anchored primarily in Europe, the WNT features events around the world and 12 months a year.

“It’s about patience with the calendar and juggling the events and the continents based on the Matchroom events,” acknowledged Frazer. “We have 9-ball organizers to think about now, so it’s all about growing the third-party events too. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we’re putting people in place to ensure that these issues are addressed and managed, creating a structured season. It will take time.”
The release also announced the formation of an “integrity unit” to focus on anti-corruption and drug testing to “ensure the continued professionalism of the players” in WNT events.
 
And there's more: 𝗪𝗣𝗔 𝘃. 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗜𝗜

Things are about to get really interesting in the spat between Matchroom Pool and the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA)!
According to a letter released by newly appointed WPA General Secretary Jorgen Sandman, the WPA Board of Directors have voted to change the pool discipline played at the World Games from 9-ball to 10-ball.

The WPA also voted to change the Predator-sponsored 2023 World Junior Championships from 9-ball to 10-ball.
So, what is so dramatic about that?

The ripple effect of the decision is likely to have a significant impact on the European and Asian pool scenes, where federations base much of their funding on “WPA sanctioned” events. Player funding from European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) members (national federations that often get their funding from the government) is tied to the sport’s affiliation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in general and the World Games in particular. If the World Games’ pool discipline is 10-ball, federation bonuses for international events may be for 10-ball tournaments only. The federations could also limit travel stipends to WPA-sanctioned tournaments.

The EPBF has not officially announce any policy changes, but the powerful continental federation was none too pleased with Matchroom’s decision to drop its $200,000 UK Open (May 30-June 4 in London) on top of the EPBF’s marquee competition, the annual European Championships, scheduled for June 1-11 in Tampere, Finland. Matchroom has also scratched Eurotour events from its Nineball Rankings list.

The Eurotour has been a 9-ball tour since its inception. Will it change to 10-ball?

EPBF President Gre Leenders has yet to respond to questions about the federation’s likely stance going forward, but several players said that the German Billiard Federation has alerted them that its player members will be forced to choose between Matchroom events and Eurotour events in 2024. Players missing Eurotour events to participate in Matchroom events will be banned from representing Germany on the tour and will be barred from the country’s Bundaslega pool leagues, for which players are compensated by their respective clubs.

While the WPA will likely contend that the switches were made on the argument that 10-ball has a lower luck factor than 9-ball, the change appears to be a direct response to Matchroom’s announcement in December that it would no longer sanction any of its events, save for the World Pool Championship, with the world governing body.

Matchroom’s decision to detach itself from the WPA came after the WPA turned down Matchroom’s request that the world governing body formally recognize its ambitious Matchroom World Nineball Rankings as the official rankings of the discipline.
“Matchroom will not continue to invest millions of dollars [into the sport] without having some skin in the game,” Matchroom founder Barry Hearn said in response to the WPA’s snub during an interview at the 2022 Mosconi Cup in Las Vegas. “Governing bodies have proven that they’re not good enough at promoting the sport. They just rubber stamp events and charge a sanction fee.”

By voting to change several of its major events to 10-ball, the WPA is sending a clear message that its focus going forward will be to reassert its value and relevance as a sanctioning body to promoters of international 10-ball events.

In addition to the World Games and World Junior Championships, 10-ball will be the pool discipline at the new, multi-discipline WCBS Championship, slated for July 13-20 in Turkey. While formal announcement has yet to be made, the event is slated to be a team tournament with national teams putting forward a player in each of four disciplines — 10-ball, three-cushion, snooker and Heyball, the new tag given to “Chinese 8-Ball.” (“Heyball” translate from Mandarin to English as “Black Ball.”)



 
I know, that there has been an Email circling around, that the EPBF warns Junior players to sign contracts with MR, in an attempt to somehow protect their events from MR's influence.

I think sooner or later the EuroTour and European championships will become some kind of development tour for Juniors and Amateurs and the pros will play in the MR events. Albin, for example, already gives a sh**t on ET and EC.

Same happened to Darts with the PDC and BDO.

It would be interesting, if Predator pulls off the same thing with 10 Ball and can get to some kind of agreement with MR about their schedules.
WPA would be dead in a blink of an eye.
 
This is a pattern of pathetic behavior by the WPA.

They're basically saying to Matchroom that if WPA can't have a major role in the administration of world nine ball, they'll do as much damage as they can and try to hitch their wagon to 10-ball. It's a losing battle in my eyes, and one that threatens the very existence of WPA, as they are now poised to preside over a continuously shrinking percentage of pool's empire.

WPA embarrassed itself a year ago with the Russian ban and seems less and less in touch with the realities of our sport. Similarly, the WPA rankings have become a running joke that do not reflect who the best players are. Matchroom's tour and affiliated nine ball events are and will remain the true measuring sticks for excellence in pro pool, and for WPA to have fought rather than embraced this, once again, underscores their lack of touch with the realities of today's professional pool scene.

Finally, I don't want to be misinterpreted. I admire Predator and wish them success in their ten ball exploits. There is room enough for both 9-ball and 10-ball on pool's landscape. I just don't approve of WPA trying to give 10-ball event producers a competitive advantage that would result from the WPA changing many of its major events to 10-ball. The fact is that competitive 10-ball is a fringe game and has been for some 25 years. That won't be changing.

Ultimately, WPA is resisting rather than supporting the amazing growth that Matchroom has brought to pro pool. Seems like a bad decision to me.
 
sjm said:
This is a pattern of pathetic behavior by the WPA.

They're basically saying to Matchroom that if WPA can't have a major role in the administration of world nine ball, they'll do as much damage as they can and try to hitch their wagon to 10-ball. It's a losing battle in my eyes, and one that threatens the very existence of WPA, as they are now poised to preside over a continuously shrinking percentage of pool's empire.

WPA embarrassed itself a year ago with the Russian ban and seems less and less in touch with the realities of our sport. Similarly, the WPA rankings have become a running joke that do not reflect who the best players are. Matchroom's tour and affiliated nine ball events are and will remain the true measuring sticks for excellence in pro pool, and for WPA to have fought rather than embraced this, once again, underscores their lack of touch with the realities of today's professional pool scene.

Finally, I don't want to be misinterpreted. I admire Predator and wish them success in their ten ball exploits. There is room enough for both 9-ball and 10-ball on pool's landscape. I just don't approve of WPA trying to give 10-ball event producers a competitive advantage that would result from the WPA changing many of its major events to 10-ball. The fact is that competitive 10-ball is a fringe game and has been for some 25 years. That won't be changing.

Ultimately, WPA is resisting rather than supporting the amazing growth that Matchroom has brought to pro pool. Seems like a bad decision to me.
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I find it interesting that you think 10B is a fringe game, I haven't played much the last couple of years but here in Boise it was nothing but 10B being played and watching matches on YouTube it seemed to always be 10B.

I say this because I'm not a fan of 10B and much prefer 9B.
 
JAM said:
And there's more: 𝗪𝗣𝗔 𝘃. 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗜𝗜

Things are about to get really interesting in the spat between Matchroom Pool and the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA)!
According to a letter released by newly appointed WPA General Secretary Jorgen Sandman, the WPA Board of Directors have voted to change the pool discipline played at the World Games from 9-ball to 10-ball.

The WPA also voted to change the Predator-sponsored 2023 World Junior Championships from 9-ball to 10-ball.
So, what is so dramatic about that?

The ripple effect of the decision is likely to have a significant impact on the European and Asian pool scenes, where federations base much of their funding on “WPA sanctioned” events. Player funding from European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) members (national federations that often get their funding from the government) is tied to the sport’s affiliation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in general and the World Games in particular. If the World Games’ pool discipline is 10-ball, federation bonuses for international events may be for 10-ball tournaments only. The federations could also limit travel stipends to WPA-sanctioned tournaments.

The EPBF has not officially announce any policy changes, but the powerful continental federation was none too pleased with Matchroom’s decision to drop its $200,000 UK Open (May 30-June 4 in London) on top of the EPBF’s marquee competition, the annual European Championships, scheduled for June 1-11 in Tampere, Finland. Matchroom has also scratched Eurotour events from its Nineball Rankings list.

The Eurotour has been a 9-ball tour since its inception. Will it change to 10-ball?

EPBF President Gre Leenders has yet to respond to questions about the federation’s likely stance going forward, but several players said that the German Billiard Federation has alerted them that its player members will be forced to choose between Matchroom events and Eurotour events in 2024. Players missing Eurotour events to participate in Matchroom events will be banned from representing Germany on the tour and will be barred from the country’s Bundaslega pool leagues, for which players are compensated by their respective clubs.

While the WPA will likely contend that the switches were made on the argument that 10-ball has a lower luck factor than 9-ball, the change appears to be a direct response to Matchroom’s announcement in December that it would no longer sanction any of its events, save for the World Pool Championship, with the world governing body.

Matchroom’s decision to detach itself from the WPA came after the WPA turned down Matchroom’s request that the world governing body formally recognize its ambitious Matchroom World Nineball Rankings as the official rankings of the discipline.
“Matchroom will not continue to invest millions of dollars [into the sport] without having some skin in the game,” Matchroom founder Barry Hearn said in response to the WPA’s snub during an interview at the 2022 Mosconi Cup in Las Vegas. “Governing bodies have proven that they’re not good enough at promoting the sport. They just rubber stamp events and charge a sanction fee.”

By voting to change several of its major events to 10-ball, the WPA is sending a clear message that its focus going forward will be to reassert its value and relevance as a sanctioning body to promoters of international 10-ball events.

In addition to the World Games and World Junior Championships, 10-ball will be the pool discipline at the new, multi-discipline WCBS Championship, slated for July 13-20 in Turkey. While formal announcement has yet to be made, the event is slated to be a team tournament with national teams putting forward a player in each of four disciplines — 10-ball, three-cushion, snooker and Heyball, the new tag given to “Chinese 8-Ball.” (“Heyball” translate from Mandarin to English as “Black Ball.”)



Click to expand...

Many of us around here (including you) predicted that Matchroom would have to break from the WPA given the WPA's global incompetence on all issues. I didn't expect the WPA to fight back.
 
sjm said:
This is a pattern of pathetic behavior by the WPA.

They're basically saying to Matchroom that if WPA can't have a major role in the administration of world nine ball, they'll do as much damage as they can and try to hitch their wagon to 10-ball. It's a losing battle in my eyes, and one that threatens the very existence of WPA, as they are now poised to preside over a continuously shrinking percentage of pool's empire.

WPA embarrassed itself a year ago with the Russian ban and seems less and less in touch with the realities of our sport. Similarly, the WPA rankings have become a running joke that do not reflect who the best players are. Matchroom's tour and affiliated nine ball events are and will remain the true measuring sticks for excellence in pro pool, and for WPA to have fought rather than embraced this, once again, underscores their lack of touch with the realities of today's professional pool scene.

Finally, I don't want to be misinterpreted. I admire Predator and wish them success in their ten ball exploits. There is room enough for both 9-ball and 10-ball on pool's landscape. I just don't approve of WPA trying to give 10-ball event producers a competitive advantage that would result from the WPA changing many of its major events to 10-ball. The fact is that competitive 10-ball is a fringe game and has been for some 25 years. That won't be changing.

Ultimately, WPA is resisting rather than supporting the amazing growth that Matchroom has brought to pro pool. Seems like a bad decision to me.
Click to expand...

Thanks Stu for these thoughts. You have always had a good explanation as to.the WPA's motives so it's interesting that you see this as a blunder (as I do). Maybe Shane Tyree will make the podcast and pool media rounds to explain himself.
 
Chili Palmer said:
I find it interesting that you think 10B is a fringe game, I haven't played much the last couple of years but here in Boise it was nothing but 10B being played and watching matches on YouTube it seemed to always be 10B.

I say this because I'm not a fan of 10B and much prefer 9B.
Click to expand...
Yes, 10-ball may have its pockets of popularity. I'm really taking note of the fact that in world pool, and this can be validated if you study the Cuescore site, there seems to be at least 10 different 9-ball events for every 10-ball event. That said, 10-ball has a greater presence in action pool than in tournament pool.
 
kling&allen said:
Thanks Stu for these thoughts. You have always had a good explanation as to.the WPA's motives so it's interesting that you see this as a blunder (as I do). Maybe Shane Tyree will make the podcast and pool media rounds to explain himself.
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Shane is a good man and he will do what's best for pool in America, but he is just one of many that can influence how WPA plays the politics of worldwide professional pool.
 
there needs to be a mediator of sorts, to prevent over scheduling. there also needs to be a governing body to uphold both the rules of the games and the conduct of the players. imo, MR walking away from the WPA was idiotic. this in turn is a childish response of course.

re 10-ball in general, yes it's probably the biggest game among players in practice where i'm at. but 8b/9b is still bigger among bangers. it should be said though that many practice 10-ball to be better at 9-ball. one ball more and all that
 
kling&allen said:
Many of us around here (including you) predicted that Matchroom would have to break from the WPA given the WPA's global incompetence on all issues. I didn't expect the WPA to fight back.
Click to expand...
I’m not surprised to be honest. Unlike other occasions, Matchroom is an actual threat and the WPA feels the need to reassert itself. But I find it amusing that by all but abandoning 9 ball, the WPA is essentially giving matchroom what they wanted in the first place in a round about way. If all of their ranking events are 10 ball, then they are basically ceding control of the 9 ball rankings.
 
Cameron Smith said:
I’m not surprised to be honest. Unlike other occasions, Matchroom is an actual threat and the WPA feels the need to reassert itself. But I find it amusing that by all but abandoning 9 ball, the WPA is essentially giving matchroom what they wanted in the first place in a round about way. If all of their ranking events are 10 ball, then they are basically ceding control of the 9 ball rankings.
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They have been completely incompetent for years so no surprise their incompetence is finding new and interesting manifestations in this attempted power play.
 
I still have a bit of trouble consuming this news. Is this just plopping some branding on top of the current state of things? Will Matchroom continue to put events on their rankings schedule without collaboration from those events? Is Matchroom putting up the full $3 million or are they just putting their name next to the prize money of independent promoters? Can you call it a tour if it doesn’t have any coordination in scheduling? They have created more events. They’ve added structure. And I’m all in on hitching my hopes to their wagon. I’m just struggling to navigate the significance of this announcement. It’s a step in the right direction but I’m cautious in my measure of how big of a step it really is. Maybe someone can spell it out for me.
 
Has the link in the original post been modified? Where in this marketing puff peace by Lady Em is there mention of either the WPA or Predator or Tenball?
 
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MattPoland said:
I still have a bit of trouble consuming this news. Is this just plopping some branding on top of the current state of things? Will Matchroom continue to put events on their rankings schedule without collaboration from those events? Is Matchroom putting up the full $3 million or are they just putting their name next to the prize money of independent promoters? Can you call it a tour if it doesn’t have any coordination in scheduling? They have created more events. They’ve added structure. And I’m all in on hitching my hopes to their wagon. I’m just struggling to navigate the significance of this announcement. It’s a step in the right direction but I’m cautious in my measure of how big of a step it really is. Maybe someone can spell it out for me.
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Some of the regional series are co-promoted I think. And then there are indeed smaller tournaments that have hitched their wagon to matchroom. Arguably this announcement is mostly a branding thing, but that’s not nothing because they did have to formalize their calendar into a tour. But yes, a lot of this is marketing speak.

I suspect the overarching plan is something similar to snookers revitalization in the early 2010s. Use a ton smaller events to feel out local markets and then invest/keep successful ones and drop the rest.

But it’s important to keep in mind that catching up to snooker requires slow but sustained growth. So while it would be nice for them to announce a calendar of 20 major events, I think its more sustainable for them to add one to two new ones per year so that pool is in strong place in 5 to 10 years time.
 
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