Best Player/Business Successes
- Thread starter Matt_24
- Start date
Lots of players have derived income from cue deals. Nothing unique about Earl's deal. Only he could fk up a sweet deal like he had.
Fired in 2007 after a 17-year relationship.
Yes, I do believe so. He has a huge following on Facebook. When he posts, within 1 minute, he gets close to 1,000 likes, which as a professional on Facebook, he does get an income for his posts. He also has a YouTube channel which brings in income. Fedor is a huge super star around the world, especially in Asia.
His online sales of merchandise, not to mention the $250,000 he won at World's and all the rest of the tournaments, makes him the winningest pool player in this decade. Then there's the challenge matches. I think he will surpass Efren because the money paid out today for pool-related happenings is much higher than it was when Efren was in his prime.
But make no mistake about it, Efren has done quite well and will continue to do well. Fedor, however, is just getting started. He just hit 300,000 followers on Facebook.
i don't know enough about social media to quantify that stuff. but efren won 500k + 200k in IPT alone, then tokyo open around 170k, matchroom world 9b, etc. he surely has fedor beat in table winnings. but it's likely endorsements and stuff back then doesn't count as much as what fedor's doing. he is very savvy. smart guy. seems to surround himself with good people too (including kristina of course).
About table winnings, of course, Efren has a longer span of playing competitively. But business-wise, I think Fedor is the smartest cookie in the bunch. He is not only competing and winning, but he's created a huge business thanks to his fame or celebrity, if I can call it that.
It will be interesting to see how long Fedor's streak lasts. Every pool champion has one. Look at Earl's domination in American pool. And now pool is more global. I don't think we're going to be seeing as many American champions in the future unless—and I hope—the BCA organizations continues its mission to have industry members sponsor pool events. Master's chalk has stepped up to the plate with the BCA, and that makes me very happy. But I digress.
He died way too young (early 40's) to accumulate millions, but Nick Vlahos used to take his considerable gambling winnings and send them home to his parents to invest in real estate. I saw him often at Silver Spring's Roman Billiards, the home of other serious players like Geese and Tom Wirth, and Nick was the best of them all, even at the ripe old age of 14 and 15. Maybe the most naturally talented player I've ever seen in person, including the likes of Earl, Sigel and Alex.
Maybe not so much