Euro Tour Prague - New Format

TheOne

TheOne

www.MetroPool.club
Silver Member
The Euro Tour Prague will be the first Euro Tour with the new format and more added money. This event will have a two tier system, the top 32 players will be seeded straight into the top 64. They don't need to arrive until Friday evening and are guaranteed money.

PRIZE-MONEY BREAKDOWN / POINTS
Rank Points Prize-money
1 630 €6.500,00
2 520 €3.900,00
3/4 440 €2.000,00
5-8 370 €1.500,00
9-16 330 €1.000,00
17-24 300 €800,00
25-32 275 €600,00
33-48 275 (235) see page 3 €400,00
49-64 275 (200) see page 3 €250,00
65-80 250
81-96 235
97-128 220
129-160 200
161-224 180
225-288 160

1 euro = approx $1.3

The rest of the players arrive on Wednesday evening and play double elimination down to 32 qualifiers who join the top 32 seeded players.

The rules are VERY stricy, Dress code, no drinking in arena, and all players must wear sponsors logo for TV matches (semi finals and final). Each match is race to 10, alt break (in 3 rack bunches), balls are tapped so no racking issues mostly, and players only allowed 1 rack practice before match. Players must wait until after the finals to collect there cheques in order to fill up the TV match audience and help ratings. Eurosport covers these events on TV and sponsor betandwin.oom show TV table matches live on the internet where the public can bet. The online virtual pool website cashpoolcomps.com is also a major sponsor now.

The money isn't amazing but pretty good and it's increased twice in the last year. There are 7 events a year, the top 28 players qualify for the world pool championships as does any finalist during the year.

This tour is organized by the EPBF (BCA's equivalent in Europe) and anyone can play on it. fyi there are 3 Americans listed in the ranking list of almost 700 players.

http://www.eurotour.nu/
 
Anything approaching $1000 for 32nd place and $400 for turning up is got to be good. Some things aren't popular with everyone like making players wait for cheques but the message to the players is load and clear.

You help us with the tour and the tour will grow helping everyone. The Eurosport figures are reportedly very good, the coverage jumped from EuroSport 2 to EuroSport 1 after only 1 or 2 events I'm told. If it performs well the prize money will increase again. This format is only happening at the 3 most popular events this year because more than 256 players wanted to play on them! However it seems that the two tier system is popular and rewards the top 32 players who have no doubt earned their spots on this extremely high quality tour.

Hopefully this tour and the new Asian Guinness tour can help show that there's nothing wrong with pool as it is if it is marketed properly.

Thanks btw I'll need it! :)
 
TheOne said:
Anything approaching $1000 for 32nd place and $400 for turning up is got to be good. Some things aren't popular with everyone like making players wait for cheques but the message to the players is load and clear.

You help us with the tour and the tour will grow helping everyone. The Eurosport figures are reportedly very good, the coverage jumped from EuroSport 2 to EuroSport 1 after only 1 or 2 events I'm told. If it performs well the prize money will increase again. This format is only happening at the 3 most popular events this year because more than 256 players wanted to play on them! However it seems that the two tier system is popular and rewards the top 32 players who have no doubt earned their spots on this extremely high quality tour.

Hopefully this tour and the new Asian Guinness tour can help show that there's nothing wrong with pool as it is if it is marketed properly.

Thanks btw I'll need it! :)
Click to expand...

I wish you guys the best and I hope it keeps getting better !!!!!!

The money is nice. But what really makes pool work better overseas compared to the US is that TV pays for the events over there and we have to pay them (TV) over here. If we ever get a TV deal like what they have overseas prize funds over here will get much better.

I know many promoters over here tried and tried to secure a sweet deal for televised events/tours here in the US but none came to flourition. Maybe, someday, someone will have the magic to get it done.

One can only hope.............

Mj
 
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TheOne said:
This tour is organized by the EPBF (BCA's equivalent in Europe) and anyone can play on it. fyi there are 3 Americans listed in the ranking list of almost 700 players.

http://www.eurotour.nu/
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing the info about this tournament, to include the 3 Americans listed in the rankings! :p

Whatever you do, don't do that robot dance when you're in the pit! :D

Good luck. Hope to see you in the finals! :)

JAM
 
MikeJanis said:
The money is nice. But what really makes pool work better overseas is that TV pays for the events over there and we have to pay them over here. If we ever get a TV deal like what they have overseas prize funds over here will get much better.

One can only hope.............

Mj
Click to expand...

Hi Mike, I posted this mainly for the US promoters like yourself who might like to compare what's happening in other places.

However my understanding of the money situation is that Eurosport isn't paying anything yet. A company called kazoom does the production and I "assume" Eurosport covers the cost only until it has proven itself. *if* it works then Im sure the money will go up substantially.

My understanding is that the EuroTour money has increased dramtically in recent years and used to be very small. From what I can see this has come about by unbelievable amounts of work by the guys running the EPBF and getting the "product" into a format they can market and sell to sponsors. Their is no doubt betandwin and cashpoolcomps have helped here. Of course as the tour improves more people want to play on it and the whole thing snowballs.

Mike do you know how the womesn tour works over their in the USA? They seem to be doing pretty well and are on TV often. From what I have seen the style of play isn't much different from Europe/Asia as many of the players such as Alison come from a snooker background. Why is the females tour such a TV success?
 
JAM said:
Thank you for sharing the info about this tournament, to include the 3 Americans listed in the rankings! :p

Whatever you do, don't do that robot dance when you're in the pit! :D

Good luck. Hope to see you in the finals! :)

JAM
Click to expand...

I certainly won't be copying Peter Crouch, a lanky English footballer who did this appalling effort after scoring a goal recently!!! :eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKy2kWfNozk
 
TheOne said:
Hi Mike, I posted this mainly for the US promoters like yourself who might like to compare what's happening in other places.

However my understanding of the money situation is that Eurosport isn't paying anything yet. A company called kazoom does the production and I "assume" Eurosport covers the cost only until it has proven itself. *if* it works then Im sure the money will go up substantially.

My understanding is that the EuroTour money has increased dramtically in recent years and used to be very small. From what I can see this has come about by unbelievable amounts of work by the guys running the EPBF and getting the "product" into a format they can market and sell to sponsors. Their is no doubt betandwin and cashpoolcomps have helped here. Of course as the tour improves more people want to play on it and the whole thing snowballs.

Mike do you know how the womesn tour works over their in the USA? They seem to be doing pretty well and are on TV often. From what I have seen the style of play isn't much different from Europe/Asia as many of the players such as Alison come from a snooker background. Why is the females tour such a TV success?
Click to expand...

TheOne, I to have had success creating the Viking Tours as a marketable product. This year the sponsors were very generous to us which gave me the opportunity to add 3 new divisions to the Viking Tour and increase our number of events from a maximum of 53 to now having 91 events. One of the keys to the longevity of the tour (any tour) is to increase the numbers events or have more money added to the events as the tour becomes more marketable. I choose to go with more events and slightly more money over time. In The beginning, 1994 we only had 16 events then in 97 in whent to 24 then 26 then 48 then 53 and now the 91. Each year that we increased the number of events we also increased the total added monies for the year. So far we have increased our total added monies since the beginning by over 715%.


As far as the Womens tour goes, I'm not privy to that information. Anything I have to say that refers to it is mostly speculation. With that said. The Women have a sweet deal with TV. They still don't get paid from the TV stations but they do get the golden goose called air-time. Air-Time is the key to their success along with having great people behind the scenes.

Most US TV deals work like: If your are very lucky you can get some air-time hours (and this is almost impossible). Once you do that, you have to pay to have the event produced to their standards of production quality then you give them the program with a few commercials that you can sell and then they take it from there. It's a pretty big RIP-OFF for the players and the promoters and gives pool on TV here in the US a very slim chance of ever being prifitable enough for anyone including players to capitalize on it.


One of the questions I have for you is: What are your deals for the table manufactures that put their tables in your televised events ?

I have heard that the only fees associated to them is to bring you the tables. Is that correct ? Please shed some light on this for me.


EDITED: TheOne, how about we take this to private email. You can reach me at vikingtour2@yahoo.com
 
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MikeJanis said:
TheOne, I to have had success creating the Viking Tours as a marketable product. This year the sponsors were very generous to us which gave me the opportunity to add 3 new divisions to the Viking Tour and increase our number of events from a maximum of 53 to now having 91 events. One of the keys to the longevity of the tour (any tour) is to increase the numbers events or have more money added to the events as the tour becomes more marketable. I choose to go with more events and slightly more money over time. In The beginning, 1994 we only had 16 events then in 97 in whent to 24 then 26 then 48 then 53 and now the 91. Each year that we increased the number of events we also increased the total added monies for the year. So far we have increased our total added monies since the beginning by over 715%.


As far as the Womens tour goes, I'm not privy to that information. Anything I have to say that refers to it is mostly speculation. With that said. The Women have a sweet deal with TV. They still don't get paid from the TV stations but they do get the golden goose called air-time. Air-Time is the key to their success along with having great people behind the scenes.

Most US TV deals work like: If your are very lucky you can get some air-time hours (and this is almost impossible). Once you do that, you have to pay to have the event produced to their standards of production quality then you give them the program with a few commercials that you can sell and then they take it from there. It's a pretty big RIP-OFF for the players and the promoters and gives pool on TV here in the US a very slim chance of ever being prifitable enough for anyone including players to capitalize on it.


One of the questions I have for you is: What are your deals for the table manufactures that put their tables in your televised events ?

I have heard that the only fees associated to them is to bring you the tables. Is that correct ? Please shed some light on this for me.


EDITED: TheOne, how about we take this to private email. You can reach me at vikingtour2@yahoo.com
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

I certainly didn't want to question anything you have done, I was shocked by the number of events you are holding this year, amazing! IMO the only thing lacking in professional mens pool in the states is a few people like yourself to bang heads together and unite your best events. Then and only then will their be a US professional tour which can be marketed and hopefully at the very least get the same deal the women get. Hopefully this will happen with the UPA starting again this year.

With regards to the TV, I agree it doesn't sound a great deal. But everything seemed to snowball with the EuroTour when they got the eurosport deal. Yes the deal might not be great but atleast it gave them a carrot (airtime) which they used to attract betandwin and cashpoolcomps.

I will send you an email.
 
JAM said:
If you can find it in yourself to do this when you enter the pit, I will be your new number-one American fan! :)

JAM
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone every did it as good as he did, sad what happened to him in the end.

But ok if I ever win a world title I'll have a go (Im prob safe ;))
 
TheOne said:
Hi Mike,
IMO the only thing lacking in professional mens pool in the states is a few people like yourself to bang heads together and unite your best events. Then and only then will their be a US professional tour which can be marketed and hopefully at the very least get the same deal the women get. Hopefully this will happen with the UPA starting again this year.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried to get this going (the working together thing) with a systen called the New Unified Tour System (The N.U.T.S.) but it seemed most others had better things to do in their own backyard and are not interesded in taking the time to make pool work on a lrager scale. I was really disapointed with the lack of cooperation.

However, I do give Props (Special Thanks) to Nick Prinslo (Tiger Planet-Pool Tour), Greg Sullivan (Diamond Billiard Products) and Mark Griffin (BCA Pool Leagues) for helping and trying to make it work with me.

Mj
 
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MikeJanis said:
Yeah, I tried to get this going (the working together thing) but it seems everyone has better things to do in their own backyard and are not interesded in taking the time to make it work. I was really disapointed with the lack of cooperation.
Click to expand...

It seems that way, however I live in hope that it will happen, I still think the US would have the best tour in the world if it happened:
  • DCC
  • Valley Forge
  • BCA Open
  • World Summit
  • US Open
  • UPA Finals
  • Champion of Champions (should be restructured to be all the above winners)

And this doesn't even include Florida, NYC, Atlanta events, Reno Open etc etc!
 
TheOne said:
It seems that way, however I live in hope that it will happen, I still think the US would have the best tour in the world if it happened:
  • DCC
  • Valley Forge
  • BCA Open
  • World Summit
  • US Open
  • UPA Finals
  • Champion of Champions (should be restructured to be all the above winners)

And this doesn't even include Florida, NYC, Atlanta events, Reno Open etc etc!
Click to expand...


Unfortunately, about the only way all the promoters of those events are going to work together is if someone hands each of them a briefcase full of cash. The big problem is that they all have different table, cue, cloth, hotel and such sponsors deals. Unless someone can overcome those obstacles with "cash now" there is no way for it to work. It's a problem of being short sighted. These guys wont believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow until they see someone else get it. Which leaves the age old problem of having to start something new from the ground up.

Mj
 
MikeJanis said:
Unfortunately, about the only way all the promoters of those events are going to work together is if someone hands each of them a briefcase full of cash. The big problem is that they all have different table, cue, cloth, hotel and such sponsors deals. Unless someone can overcome those obstacles with "cash now" there is no way for it to work. It's a problem of being short sighted. These guys wont believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow until they see someone else get it. Which leaves the age old problem of having to start something new from the ground up.

Mj
Click to expand...

you're probably right but these events are Americas crown jewels, if you packaged them into one tour and got all the players pulling together you'd have such a great product!

Didn't the UPA get most of them with the exception of the DCC and Valley forge? BTW I'm not a UPA cheer leader, I'd just like to see you guys unite and they seemed to be the closest ones to pull it off.
 
TheOne said:
you're probably right but these events are Americas crown jewels, if you packaged them into one tour and got all the players pulling together you'd have such a great product!

Didn't the UPA get most of them with the exception of the DCC and Valley forge? BTW I'm not a UPA cheer leader, I'd just like to see you guys unite and they seemed to be the closest ones to pull it off.
Click to expand...

The tactics used last time to try and pull that off were a little heavy handed at times. Nobody wants to see that again. I think everyone learned their lesson from that.

On the other hand, there is great potential for a co-op between several promoters which inludes the UPA and a few others if they look a little further in the future at what it could be.
 
MikeJanis said:
The tactics used last time to try and pull that off were a little heavy handed at times. Nobody wants to see that again. I think everyone learned their lesson from that.

On the other hand, there is great potential for a co-op between several promoters which inludes the UPA and a few others if they look a little further in the future at what it could be.
Click to expand...

I do recall reading something like that, lets hope it works next time.

It's so frustrating as an "outsider" looking in, it's all there it really is. But people are always looking for excuses and trying to come up with a new format or new pool angle etc.

But how can people say it won't work until people put their differences aside and the current event's are packaged as one. This IMO is something the BCA should be pushing for tooth and nail, if the BCA still wants to be the governing body for American cue sports.

EDIT
Just wanted to clarify that I suggest the BCA because I think it needs a neutral non profit governing body to achieve this, and the BCA are supposed to be this within the USA.
 
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Sponsors Logo

TheOne said:
all players must wear sponsors logo for TV matches (semi finals and final).
Click to expand...

Have you guys figure out how to maneuver around the player's individual sponsor and a competing company sponsoring the tour?

Just remember the Asian Tournament dilemma.


MikeJanis,

Unfortunately, America however big is just one market and most TV stations already have key sports to deliver enough contents to the viewer.

Pool tours in Europe and Asia cover multiple nations for TV station to get excited about.
 
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crosseyedjoe said:
Have you guys figure out how to maneuver around the player's individual sponsor and a competing company sponsoring the tour?

Just remember the Asian Tournament dilemma.
Click to expand...

It was sorted, something along the lines of "that's the rules you accept when you sign up, if you don't like it don't play!". Upset some of the more senior pros but I can appreciate what they are trying to do.

I don't think they are stopping anyone wearing their current sponsors logos but everyone must wear the others in the semis and final.
 
Sponsors have to be more lenient about it. Remember no tour that I know of can actually offer a payout that players can live out of, so players have to have an amalgam of sponsors just to have a viable career in pool.
 
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