Pool's 15 most influential people/brands list

Geosnooker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was surfing the Internet the other day and discovered this place called ‘China’.

Kidding aside.

Most watched sports in the world

Football

Cricket

Field Hockey

Table Tennis

Tennis

The point? Whatever is happening in a country of 1.4 billion people and one of 1,2 billion is, by default, the most ‘whatever’. Billiards in China dwarfs what is happening elsewhere
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member

What a pile of garbage this list is! It almost looks like it was randomly generated or pieced together by some who are out of touch with the realities of pool today.

Where's Diamond Billiards? They've added the WPA sanctioned Diamond 10 ball Open to what may be the best event of the year in American pool, namely the Derby city Classic. They've also revolutionized the game's equipment and brought the pool table itself to a previously unsurpassed level. Greg Sullivan's profound influence and continuing contributions to the sport were rightly celebrated when he earned entry to the BCA Hall of Fame last year.

Roy's Basement a powerbroker? They are an asset to pool but have little to do with more than a few players and have almost no say or influence in how our sport moves forward at the pro level. Roy's Basement a greater powerbroker than WPA? If this list was meant to be an exercise in comedy, mission accomplished.

The only thing they definitely got right is putting Matchroom #1, although a case can be made for APA as well for #1.
 

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
OP is (allegedly) from Norway, so there's that...

What a pile of garbage this list is! It almost looks like it was randomly generated or pieced together by some who are out of touch with the realities of pool today.

Where's Diamond Billiards? They've added the WPA sanctioned Diamond 10 ball Open to what may be the best event of the year in American pool, namely the Derby city Classic. They've also revolutionized the game's equipment and brought the pool table itself to a previously unsurpassed level. Greg Sullivan's profound influence and continuing contributions to the sport were rightly celebrated when he earned entry to the BCA Hall of Fame last year.

Roy's Basement a powerbroker? They are an asset to pool but have little to do with more than a few players and have almost no say or influence in how our sport moves forward at the pro level. Roy's Basement a greater powerbroker than WPA? If this list was meant to be an exercise in comedy, mission accomplished.

The only thing they definitely got right is putting Matchroom #1, although a case can be made for APA as well for #1.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Seems quite obvious a number of the extremely limited number of voting members for this list of 15 most influential individuals or entities in the industry voted for themselves. It would’ve had a lot more legitimacy if they were not permitted to vote for themselves. Actually it would’ve had even more legitimacy if this poll was offered to all AZ billiards forum members for us to come up with our own lists - no politics involved! The only one we likely would have consensus on is the very first one - Matchroom.
 

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Seems quite obvious a number of the extremely limited number of voting members for this list of 15 most influential individuals or entities in the industry voted for themselves. It would’ve had a lot more legitimacy if they were not permitted to vote for themselves. Actually it would’ve had even more legitimacy if this poll was offered to all AZ billiards forum members for us to come up with our own lists - no politics involved! The only one we likely would have consensus on is the very first one - Matchroom.
it would then be heavily biased toward USA perspective though...
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
it would then be heavily biased toward USA perspective though...
I think many of the regulars here from the US are pretty knowledgeable as to our worldly view of pool and who is important. Certainly in addition to Matchroom, others that come to mind outside of the US would be the EPBF, Ivan Simonis Inc, Miki/Mezz, Aramith, and Ronnie O’Sullivan if snooker is included.

As far as the US, ones that weren’t included in that list that certainly should’ve been in my opinion would be Greg Sullivan/Diamond/Derby City, Alan Hopkins/SBE, Brunswick corporation (clearly not as much as it used to be), Olhausen, and possibly even some of the largest online dealers such as Seyberts and Meullers. Yes, they were certainly correct including the APA, Pat Fleming (Accustats) and Predator on the list.
 

Mick

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What is matchroom? I went to their site and it didn't really clear it up for me.

You'd think I'd have heard of the most powerful influence in pool, but here we are.
 

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ah.... this list is a joke.

They should have thrown Mike Panozzo in just to throw it completely over the top.

Lou Figueroa
 

Supr Charged

Supr Charged Agency
Gold Member
...It would’ve had a lot more legitimacy if they were not permitted to vote for themselves.


www.poolspower15.com:

"Voters were given the following instructions; Vote for who you believe has had the most influence on pool in 2020, and rank them from 1 to 15.

They could not vote for themself if they were nominated.

The ballots were then run through a scoring system that takes into account the total number of votes, average placement, and frequency of votes."
 

Supr Charged

Supr Charged Agency
Gold Member
What a pile of garbage this list is! It almost looks like it was randomly generated or pieced together by some who are out of touch with the realities of pool today.

Where's Diamond Billiards? They've added the WPA sanctioned Diamond 10 ball Open to what may be the best event of the year in American pool, namely the Derby city Classic. They've also revolutionized the game's equipment and brought the pool table itself to a previously unsurpassed level. Greg Sullivan's profound influence and continuing contributions to the sport were rightly celebrated when he earned entry to the BCA Hall of Fame last year.

Roy's Basement a powerbroker? They are an asset to pool but have little to do with more than a few players and have almost no say or influence in how our sport moves forward at the pro level. Roy's Basement a greater powerbroker than WPA? If this list was meant to be an exercise in comedy, mission accomplished.

The only thing they definitely got right is putting Matchroom #1, although a case can be made for APA as well for #1.

I hear you, and if the point was to vote on who had the most influence on pool in the U.S. the outcome would probably have been somewhat different. The 12 voters were voting with worldwide influence in mind.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
www.poolspower15.com:

"Voters were given the following instructions; Vote for who you believe has had the most influence on pool in 2020, and rank them from 1 to 15.

They could not vote for themself if they were nominated.

The ballots were then run through a scoring system that takes into account the total number of votes, average placement, and frequency of votes."
So it sounds like the 15 were pre-selected for all the voters to rank? Who preselected the top 15 and what was that based on? Why not let the voters write in their top 15 without being handed the list of 15 to choose from?
 
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Supr Charged

Supr Charged Agency
Gold Member
So it sounds like the 15 were pre-selected for all the voters to rank? Who preselected the top 15 and what was that based on? Why not let the voters write in their top 15 without being handed the list of 15 to choose from?

All candidates were nominated by a larger group than the 12 on the Voting Committee.

There were close to 100 names on the candidate list.

The ballots were then run through a scoring system that takes into account the total number of votes, average placement, and frequency of votes.

Then, there were 1-15.


(The voters were also nominated in, btw).
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
I hear you, and if the point was to vote on who had the most influence on pool in the U.S. the outcome would probably have been somewhat different. The 12 voters were voting with worldwide influence in mind.

Although it's true that the poll would be different if pertaining to American pool alone, this post is an even bigger joke than the poll, which clearly has overlooked worldwide influence or just plain doesn't understand what it means. Some of those showing up in your poll have little to no worldwide influence in pool, and at least one of them is undeserving of a spot in the sport's top 100 powerbrokers.

Diamond Billiards has profound worldwide influence, producing two of the events having the greatest international participation on the world pool calendar and by having revolutionized and greatly enhanced pool equipment all over the world.

At present, the events having having the biggest, most elite, internationally diverse fields are a) World 9-ball, b) China Open 9-ball, c) US Open 9-ball, d) World 10-ball, e) Derby City Classic, f) Diamond 10-ball Classic, g) the International 9-ball and h) the All Japan Championships. Four of them are contested on American soil. At least six of them use Diamond Billiards equipment, which has come to represent the standard in the sport.

Obviously, those who have voted are clueless about worldwide influence in pool.

The only possible explanation for the omission of Diamond Billiards, which belongs in your top five based on worldwide influence is that those who have judged the case are absolutely clueless abut who the movers and shakers in worldwide pool are.
 
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