2024 World Pool Championship

Higher prize money and additional endorsement opportunities fixes the chop problem. Early golf and professional cycling grew out of that with increasing prize money and I think billiards seems to be trending that direction.

Collusion or influence from sports bookies is an issue that every major professional sport has. The only solution there is constant vigilance.

I think professional fishing will occasionally require lie detectors. There was a recent scandal where the top prize money winner was stuffing his fish with lead.
 
If the prestige of winning the World Pool Championship title is worth a damn, then I feel chopping is a complete non-issue...with regards to the "marketability" of MR's product. Even if Kaci and Gorst agreed to evenly splitting up the prize money, going down in the record books as 2024 World Pool Champion is more than enough motivation for both to play at their highest level. Probably not the case for your local 9-ball tournament.

Now, if there was some collusion such as..."You take the title and 40% of the prize money while I take runner-up and 60%," then that would be a different story.
 
Wouldn't it take a few accountants to figure out what what an effective chop would be between an Albanian and a US taxpayer regarding officially reported prize money?

Fedor in particular seems like he would be the last person to try to cheat US tax codes at the moment.....
 
Justaneng said:
Wouldn't it take a few accountants to figure out what what an effective chop would be between an Albanian and a US taxpayer regarding officially reported prize money?

Fedor in particular seems like he would be the last person to try to cheat US tax codes at the moment.....
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Overseas income is taxable ?
 
JoeyInCali said:
Overseas income is taxable ?
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Yup, until you spend more than 330 days outside the U.S. in any given year. Not sure if prize money is different than income.

I work in China a lot. I pay taxes to both countries.

Relevant for Fedor this looks like how Indiana handles it:

Overseas Income

After 2017, those with foreign earnings and profits must report them when filing both state and federal taxes. Learn about how you can report foreign assets.
www.in.gov www.in.gov

It looks like any taxes the Saudis took out can be credited up to a certain amount, but the credit needs to be factored back into state taxes.
 
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JoeyInCali said:
Overseas income is taxable ?
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And I was in France for nine months. The IRS let me slide because I paid French tax, but California still wanted to get paid. The alternative was to lose state residence which I didn't want to happen.

I think doing "interesting" things with the prize money when both the taxman and Emily have their beady eyes upon you is fraught with peril.
 
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Let's not lose sight of the fact that in terms of tax reporting, a saver has no implications for an event producer. Matchroom will report that Fedor received $250,000 and that Kaci received $100,000. If these was a saver, and to this point there is no substantiation of it, Gorst and Kaci must report the amounts in accordance with the tax laws of their respective countries.

Event producers are never made aware of savers and are, in fact, victims when they occur, as the integrity of the product they are selling can possibly be compromised. I'd be surprised if savers are not, at very least, discouraged and possibly forbidden, in the contract players sign with Matchroom, but I won't suggest for a moment that I know one way or the other.

Still, the new trend of making the first prize inconsistent with the total prize fund as a marketing gimmick, a practice which began at the World 10-ball, almost ensures that some savers will take place.

What individual sport would have the second prize be just 40% of the first prize? The sport to which pool is regularly compared to on this forum is golf. In golf, the standard payout for first place is 18% of the purse, while second place pays 10.8% of the purse, so second place pays 60% as much as first place. If we take a look at Women's pro pool, at the WPBA event played at RAXX last week, first place paid 10,000 while second place paid 6,000, so second place paid 60% as much as first place.

The first prize at the WPC was abnormally large relative to the total prize fund, and when that's the case, savers will always be an issue.
 
sjm said:
... Still, the new trend of making the first prize inconsistent with the total prize fund as a marketing gimmick, a practice which began at the World 10-ball, almost ensures that some savers will take place.
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It was a different kind of event, but perhaps the best example of this was Matt Braun's Challenge of Champions. I have to wonder if any of those events did not have savers going on.

(For those who didn't know, the CoC was winner-take-all, $50k.)
 
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Bob Jewett said:
It was a different kind of event, but perhaps the best example of this was Matt Braun's Challenge of Champions. I have to wonder if any of those events did not have savers going on.
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Have to admit, Bob, that as I wrote my post, I thought of that event.
 
Poolmanis said:
I don´t get why everyone talks like it happened. What i saw just random new user put bad rumor in.. Then everyone talks like it happened. Guy really got what he wanted to achieve.
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I think almost all replies are offering comments about how its unlikely and the challenges in executing. No one replying here is making a case for the unsubstantiated rumor.
 
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Bob Jewett said:
And I was in France for nine months. The IRS let me slide because I paid French tax, but California still wanted to get paid. The alternative was to lose state residence which I didn't want to happif en.

I think doing "interesting" things with the prize money when both the taxman and Emily have their beady eyes upon you is fraught with peril.
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Then it would be dumb to chop the prize money.
Winner has to declare full amount.
Loser gets off .
 
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staticfire98 said:
Who is flying back with a suitcase full of euro's or greenbacks? Is this like Happy Gilmore where they can ask for an extra big check to compensate for the differential after taxes, social security, 401k deductions?
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I have no idea. Just saying there are other scenarios. Like the billions in "illegal" gambling. You think even legit pro gamblers report all their scores? JFTR I have no knowledge of any shady activity in sports nor do I care.
 
straightline said:
I have no idea. Just saying there are other scenarios. Like the billions in "illegal" gambling. You think even legit pro gamblers report all their scores? JFTR I have no knowledge of any shady activity in sports nor do I care.
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Crossing state lines is a lot different than crossing international borders.

Anything over $10,000 USD needs to be cleared inbound to the U.S.

That said, honestly you or I could probably sneak more in no question, I’ve never been sent to secondary screening at US customs.

But specific to Fedor, he’s always going to be the guy clearing US customs with a Russian accent, and currently he’s doing so with a U.S. residence permit placed inside a Russian passport - there is simply no way he’s going to be the one skirting any of this.
 
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