Prize money




look at this.



BetVictor World Cup of Pool (2019):
  • Record Viewership: The 2019 event on Sky Sports saw a substantial increase in viewership compared to 2018.

  • Global Reach: The tournament reached over 1 million fans globally on Facebook and was broadcast live in over 100 countries, including DAZN in the US, Germany, Canada, and other regions.


  • Matchroom Multi Sport: The event was organized by Matchroom Multi Sport and showcased the best teams in 9-ball pool.

  • Facebook Live: Over half a million fans watched the tournament unfold around the world on Facebook Live.


  • UK Viewers: The final kept audiences hooked with more than three times as many UK viewers tuning in compared with 2018.

  • Pro Billiard Series (PBS): The Pro Billiard Series (PBS) has also seen record-breaking viewership on BilliardTV, with the Vegas tournaments attracting a significant number of viewers.

  • clearly there is a market here. but the money is not going where it should. or too many are not paying enough or at all for the content.
 
maha said:
bigger prize pools make richer and more people interested. cant argue that. how to get them is the hard part of the equation.

four ways work. so those need to be pursued.

1. get more entries
2. charge more per entry
3. get sponsor money or media money.
4. charge sponsors for their products to be advertised on the air, including on players clothing.
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You forgot, sell more tickets. Minor league baseball has no media presence, is boring, pays nothing but is a very good business. Pool would have to do something they've never done before, think hard about fan experience. In the age of streaming, live events pay the bills for musicians. My town has three soccer clubs and a minor league football team, all profitable, minimum tv money.
 
more viewer interest equals more money both in video sales and tickets to events. but tickets for live are very limited for pool tournaments as they are indoors and have limited space.

but just being profitable only means it can survive. it has to grow and be greatly profitable to grow largely.
and the players also need a way to get some more of the money being made from sponsors and fees.
 
That's not exactly true. In large tournaments there is tons of pool to watch. Even the local amateur tournaments I play in will have 20+ tables going at once. Properly organized you could have hundreds viewers or more accommodated within a few feet of a table. Add some concession areas with live tv feeds, some ancillary entertainment like trick shot and equipment demos, playing clinics, spectator challenges and you could have a fun event for a thousand plus spectators. At $75 per head per day over a four day event you'd be over a quarter million at the gate.
 
Cord said:
For the owners, yes. For the players? Not so much.
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That's precisely the point. People don't choose what to watch based on the size of the purse. They choose based on the experience. If you want to unlock big sponsors you need big audiences. Mercedes doesn't pay pro golfers because they are good golfers. They pay them because the right kind of people look at them.
 
Ghost of OBC said:
That's precisely the point. People don't choose what to watch based on the size of the purse. They choose based on the experience. If you want to unlock big sponsors you need big audiences. Mercedes doesn't pay pro golfers because they are good golfers. They pay them because the right kind of people look at them.
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Well said. Pool is gonna always be like bowling as far as $$ goes. Its a blue-collar oriented game so its probably never going to attract sponsors like you see on PGA golf. Its getting better for sure but attracting folks like Merc, BMW, Rolex, Netjets,etc isn't going to happen anytime soon if ever. Look at pro pickleball's line-up: https://www.ppatour.com/sponsors/ Pool can only dream of this right now.
 
garczar said:
Well said. Pool is gonna always be like bowling as far as $$ goes. Its a blue-collar oriented game so its probably never going to attract sponsors like you see on PGA golf. Its getting better for sure but attracting folks like Merc, BMW, Rolex, Netjets,etc isn't going to happen anytime soon if ever. Look at pro pickleball's line-up: https://www.ppatour.com/sponsors/ Pool can only dream of this right now.
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Pickleball is a great example. They do amazing fan experience. They co locate amateur and pro events, have fun places to eat and drink, host live music, the big events are like festivals. As a spectator sport it's a lot like pool. Watching a tiny ball bounce around between 2 or 4 people on a little stage. It should be terrible spectating, but it's awesome because they put the fans first, encourage people to hang out and drink, be entertained and participate.

Michelob Ultra sponsors a bunch of golf. Bud Light is the same stuff just marketed slightly differently. InBev doesn't care where your money comes from as long as you spend it on their beer. In my part of the world Bud Light is the title sponsor of competitive crab boat docking. Doesn't get much more blue collar than that, but the events sell out because they're fun and InBev sends their support because a lot of rednecks is still a lot of customers.
 
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Ghost of OBC said:
Pickleball is a great example. They do amazing fan experience. They co locate amateur and pro events, have fun places to eat and drink, host live music, the big events are like festivals. As a spectator sport it's a lot like pool. Watching a tiny ball bounce around between 2 or 4 people on a little stage. It should be terrible spectating, but it's awesome because they put the fans first, encourage people to hang out and drink, be entertained and participate.

Michelob Ultra sponsors a bunch of golf. Bud Light is the same stuff just marketed slightly differently. InBev doesn't care where your money comes from as long as you spend it on their beer. In my part of the world Bud Light is the title sponsor of competitive crab boat docking. Doesn't get much more blue collar than that, but the events sell out because they're fun and InBev sends their support because a lot of rednecks is still a lot of customers.
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Great post. Pickleball reminds us that every sport can make it if it presents itself in a way that captures the imagination of the public while maximizing the quality of the spectator experience. Obviously, pickleball has the advantage of being a sport derived from tennis, which already has a huge following among those who play it and those who don't.

Many sports have a chance to be the next pickleball-level success story, but pro pool, as fractured and fragmented as it ever has been, seems to be its own worst enemy when it comes to setting the stage for the kind of growth that might be possible if the game's powerbrokers were on the same page.
 
The Masters golf tourney starts in 8 days from now, first prize 3,240,000.00!

10th place 486k wow!!

35th place 97,200.00 wow!

Let’s start practicing! I broke a hundred about 6 years ago for the first time and haven’t played since!

I didn’t start playing until I retired at 58 years old and I’ve played about 25 rds of golf but if I was a young man I would sure like to give it a shot with this kind of prize money. Just sayin.
 
i heard in a podcast yesterday that the first prize in the darts world championship is going to be 1 million GBP, and four other events will have 150 000 GBP first prize. the darts tour is matchroom-run.

the JOY heyball tour have grown too, with two events at 750k USD and many around 100k. iirc they are top heavy though
 
There is old Joke about the difference between, Pro Pool Player, and Extra Large Pizza.

The punch line is you can FEED FAMILY OF 4 with the PIZZA.

Lot boy Truth about like of a Pro Pool Player, not rewarding life for most. No Pension, Healthcare, Disability Insurance, or other BENNIES.
 
CocoboloCowboy said:
There is old Joke about the difference between, Pro Pool Player, and Extra Large Pizza.

The punch line is you can FEED FAMILY OF 4 with the PIZZA.

Lot boy Truth about like of a Pro Pool Player, not rewarding life for most. No Pension, Healthcare, Disability Insurance, or other BENNIES.
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Most people have no idea how good a Tour player is.

They think that if only they had started younger, or could devote more time to the game, they could be making the big bucks playing golf on TV every weekend.

Yeah, no.
 
David in FL said:
Most people have no idea how good a Tour player is.

They think that if only they had started younger, or could devote more time to the game, they could be making the big bucks playing golf on TV every weekend.

Yeah, no.
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Darn right, Dave. For every person aspiring to a career in pro pool, there are probably 200 who are aspiring to one in pro golf, and probably less than 1% of them get anywhere near the paydays of which they dream.

Countless players that routinely break par on the golf course never get past the sectionals that would enable them to even try the PGA qualifying school event that would offer an avenue to a pro golf tour.

Several US amateur golf champions were not nearly good enough to make a good living from golf.
 
Mensabum said:
Nice spread dude!!👍🏻
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What about mine?

Screenshot_20250404-112051.jpg

@Fatboy
 
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