One story around the IPT (~2005) was that the plan was to develop online betting on the matches and sell the whole system to a Chinese billionaire. This would have made individual bettors the real sponsors of the events. It would have created a dedicated fan base that would have grown as friends and family would have been drawn into the high-end production.
Snooker is in effect sponsored by such bettors. The current event, which you can see on https://matchroom.live/home , is sponsored by Betfred, a UK bookie. Other bookies are offering odds on the event, but Betfred is on the banners around the pit and is mentioned frequently. The players are all wearing large BETFRED patches over their hearts. (Presumably the event, The Betfred Masters, also gets revenue from broadcast rights.) The 16-player event pays a total of just under $1,000,000.
Betfred was also the sponsor of the 2020 World Championship last August. Fred himself participated in the draw. The winner (O'Sullivan) got about $675,000.
Snooker provides an interesting, viewable product. The possibility of wagering both increases interest for some people and results in rather large sponsorships. The influx of money motivates the players to improve and brings new players to get into the game. A word about viewability... for one final, half of England was up at midnight still watching a game where the players might not pot a ball for 20 minutes during a spell of safeties.
The previous large sponsor of Snooker was tobacco. There was less direct connection there, but tobacco had lots of money for advertising. That ended when tobacco was banned from television, and snooker went into hard times for a while.
An amazing array of bets are offered on matches, such as what color will be potted first and how many centuries will occur. Here are the basic odds for the winner of the event.
![CropperCapture[235].jpg](https://forums.azbilliards.com/attachments/croppercapture-235-jpg.580944/ "CropperCapture[235].jpg")
Snooker is in effect sponsored by such bettors. The current event, which you can see on https://matchroom.live/home , is sponsored by Betfred, a UK bookie. Other bookies are offering odds on the event, but Betfred is on the banners around the pit and is mentioned frequently. The players are all wearing large BETFRED patches over their hearts. (Presumably the event, The Betfred Masters, also gets revenue from broadcast rights.) The 16-player event pays a total of just under $1,000,000.
Betfred was also the sponsor of the 2020 World Championship last August. Fred himself participated in the draw. The winner (O'Sullivan) got about $675,000.
Snooker provides an interesting, viewable product. The possibility of wagering both increases interest for some people and results in rather large sponsorships. The influx of money motivates the players to improve and brings new players to get into the game. A word about viewability... for one final, half of England was up at midnight still watching a game where the players might not pot a ball for 20 minutes during a spell of safeties.
The previous large sponsor of Snooker was tobacco. There was less direct connection there, but tobacco had lots of money for advertising. That ended when tobacco was banned from television, and snooker went into hard times for a while.
An amazing array of bets are offered on matches, such as what color will be potted first and how many centuries will occur. Here are the basic odds for the winner of the event.
