First place in snooker world championship is 500,000. How come snooker has somewhat made it and not pool?
How come snooker and not pool?
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Two words: Barry Hearn. Do a search of his name and snooker and you'll learn all you need to know. Until he got involved snooker was a lot like US pool, going NOWHERE. BH got involved, Steve Davis was his first player and the rest is history. Since Barry and MR have the US Open now maybe pool will see an upsurge.
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30+ years of constant TV exposure, and the ability to legally place a wager on matches has helped grow snooker. I also personally believe it’s a superior product for TV compared to 9 ball. The colours are easy to tell apart just based upon placement and the game is simple to understand on the surface.
Actually that is 500k GBP or $645,000.
BBC. Pot Black. Steve Davis. Embassy Tobacco. Stephen Hendry. Clive Everton. Alex Higgins. Barry Hearn. On-line betting sites.
If you really are a pool nut, you need to get Robert Byrne's books. One chapter is titled, "The Boom You Hear Is Snooker", and he was writing about it in the 1980s.
So far as I can tell, pool (of various sorts) is bigger than snooker in Australia now.
That may be because it's easier to play , but my bet is Chinese 8 ball is going to be the game of the future , it attracts players from all cue sports and the Chinese are dumping a lot of money into it
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The first book I ever read billiard related was written by an Aussie named Horace Lindrum. I was 12, or so years old and it was about the only book on anything billiards at my small town library. The only other book they had was an autobiography on Minnesota Fats. I read them both, but the Aussie’s book was much more impressive to me at the time since I just wanted to learn how to play good pool, and really didn’t care to read about Fats bragging. Besides, the snooker book had plenty of instruction for a beginner like myself. Anyway, after reading I could almost imagine a snooker table on every corner in Australia...kinda like a big city in the U.S. back in the early 1900s. I had just assumed that snooker was still the game of choice over there. I’m still surprised that a snooker instructional book showed up in a small town library in Kentucky.
I'd bet on it.
Slight history correction.
In the 80's & 90's Davis, Hendry, White and others were made millionaires well before BH took over World Snooker. Snooker suffered a big loss of revenue with the tobacco advertising ban, BH rescued it from there.
Well...,
Pool has a good chance to make a come back in time. There are more tournaments paying better then there has been in a long time. Pool in China, Japan, Europe and the amateur level in the United States is growing.
The question for Pool in the states is, are there 4 or 5 american players that are worth watching internationally, that can bring TV rating and attract ESPN again?
Pool has a good chance to make a come back in time. There are more tournaments paying better then there has been in a long time. Pool in China, Japan, Europe and the amateur level in the United States is growing.
The question for Pool in the states is, are there 4 or 5 american players that are worth watching internationally, that can bring TV rating and attract ESPN again?
BH was Davis' first manager all the way back in '75. The great matches involving Davis, Higgins and White were all in the 80's then into the 90's. If it wasn't for Hearn's management of Davis way back we may have never heard of Stephen Hendry.
Because snooker had someone take it by the horns and reel it in. Made it professional. Sure you had guys like Alex Higgins who defied all that, but he was one of those guys who was just marketable that the powers that be in snooker(BH) were smart enough not to dump him.
There's a lot that pool can do better if it ever wants to be where snooker and even 3 cushion is. A better governing body imo would be a start, especially here in the US.
And I'm only saying this because this is how I feel, but the 2019 US Open was nothing out of the ordinary, at least from what I watched. I didn't see anything that made it stand out compared to other big production 9 ball tournaments being held during the year.
There's a lot that pool can do better if it ever wants to be where snooker and even 3 cushion is. A better governing body imo would be a start, especially here in the US.
And I'm only saying this because this is how I feel, but the 2019 US Open was nothing out of the ordinary, at least from what I watched. I didn't see anything that made it stand out compared to other big production 9 ball tournaments being held during the year.
Snooker did dump Alex Higgins (sort of), he got banned at least a couple of times.
Barry Hearn refused to sign him as he was too much of a liability.
However remember back that Barry Hearn was Steve Davis' manager (and others), not the same position he currently takes (whatever that is exactly).
Given how much he likes to throw an invite to Earl when possible, I'd imagine he would have done the same with Alex Higgins if he was in charge back then!
misinformed.......
You need to watch the Rack Pack..............none of them were millionaires before they met BH . BH was heavily involved with snooker long before the tobacco ban . His matchroom stable, which included all the best players except Alex Higgins, was established in the 70's. He managed them all .
You need to watch the Rack Pack..............none of them were millionaires before they met BH . BH was heavily involved with snooker long before the tobacco ban . His matchroom stable, which included all the best players except Alex Higgins, was established in the 70's. He managed them all .
BH had nothing to do with running World Snooker and the prize funds, he was a player manager, the original post was about prize money.
If it wasn't for BH and Steve Davis(and the Hurricane) the game would still be a smokey back room old man's game. He had everything to do with prize money going up. Not just that but the endorsement deals would have never happened.
Exactly right. NONE of them would have made that kind of money if BH didn't get involved. BTW, in 1975 the WORLD CHAMPION won 7,500(Australian dollars) about 5,600 US. By 1980 it was 20,000 and has skyrocketed ever since. You want to tell me that BH and Steve Davis had nothing to do with this? Don't think so.
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