Pool's professional future probably looks more like eSports than 1980s ESPN. It's only a matter of time before someone with the right combination of skills and personality brings pool to new audiences via Twitch or the like.
Realistically, what should promoters focus on when it comes to pro pool?
- Thread starter Positively Ralf
- Start date
PRAY Spot on. I can remember at least one golfer being banned from the US Tour where the money is huge. He just went to play on the European Tour where the money was less huge but still crazy for what (like pool) amounts to a recreational activity, a diversion. I don't follow golf anything like closely (if there were no other sports that I preferred then I certainly would) but I think there is now a third option, a "world" tour in the works.
Well there always been gambling on snooker right? Vegas is the most visited city in the country for vacations and it was built on gambling and the Lotto is sold in grocery stores and purchased by kids and grandparents, so is gambling really an issue?
Gambling is one of the major issues. You can place bets on snooker matches. Pool? Nope. That’s why a lot of people won’t take it seriously. You can bet on pretty much any sport - except professional pool.
Not disagreeing with you, but Pool is a very technical game to play and all the games can be tough to understand..., anybody can play poker, anybody can play cornhole, anybody can play darts and you can start at any age and become a decent player, not so much with our game. And I don't think that any player in our sport connects with the public and for sure NON of them are marketable.
Please don’t be like most pool players and buy into this fallacy that pool is the toughest game to master. To become truly excellent at anything, requires skill and dedication. I think there are plenty of guys out there that could have beaten Earl or Shane, but never took up the game due to lack of interest. All the constant comparisons to golf crack me up. Seems a lot of people have NO CLUE how hard it is to become a top 100 golfer in the world, vs top 100 in pool. Think of the sheer size of the competitive field. They make more money because they deserve to.
Well if you in the PGA Tour you got real sponsors giving you valuable stuff, plus a nice stipend.
Even if you finish in top 25 at event like SNOTSdale TPE Phoenix Open you got nice pay day.
Read and
I play Pool and I golf at a very good level and gamble at both, golf is not easy nor is pool, but the games that are on ESPN are far easier than Pool, cornhole, darts.., and the payout is way better. You can never make the cut in golf and enjoy a VERY GOOD living, but you can be one of the best ever in our game and play for peanuts.
And if you know the names of the guys that could have beat SVB or Earl please share that info because I never ran across them.
More education about the billiards industry.
Hearing Emily Frazer explain to pro pool players how to promote is the reason she exists.
Pro pool players know what it was
like to eat before Matchroom and now after they sing a different tune.
It still feels like some pros treat the high profile publicly marketed events as a dress
rehearsal for something private.
The conversion from pool player to public speaker is a bigger jump than going from league player to top 50 in pool.
Not all players are allowed to have public opinions. Its good Emily is there to let them know which ones to have.
Hearing Emily Frazer explain to pro pool players how to promote is the reason she exists.
Pro pool players know what it was
like to eat before Matchroom and now after they sing a different tune.
It still feels like some pros treat the high profile publicly marketed events as a dress
rehearsal for something private.
The conversion from pool player to public speaker is a bigger jump than going from league player to top 50 in pool.
Not all players are allowed to have public opinions. Its good Emily is there to let them know which ones to have.
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I’ve already reached my limit with you. If you don’t understand the point of my message, that’s clearly on you.
Another guy who doesn’t get it. Keep praying. Hopefully your “god”’will answer.Well if you in the PGA Tour you got real sponsors giving you valuable stuff, plus a nice stipend.
Even if you finish in top 25 at event like SNOTSdale TPE Phoenix Open you got nice pay day.
Read and
I’ll spoon feed you. The top 1000 realtors in my city, would make more money than SVB. Realtors. So, why would anyone who has any sort of financial drive, choose POOL as a profession?
You don’t get it, Pool is not professional sport.
It is a profession most starve at who say I am Pro player.
You can feed a family better with XL Pizza, then you being a Pro Zpool player.
What city do you live in? That number sounds a bit high.
You've made a lot of good points in this thread, Shawn.
I have always agreed that the 1991 Challenge of Champions dump was a missed opportunity for pool. It placed the game and those who play it for a living in a very negative light at a time when pool had a chance to become one of the sports of interest to the betting public. The Mirage, a new hotel trying its darndest to compete with its next-door legend Caesar's Palace, was in the process of becoming a significant venue for sports of all kinds, which it believed would increase its betting handle. They were certainly committed to growing the C of C event, and the betting handle and prize fund would surely have increased over time. A possible result of this would have been other sportsbooks in Las Vegas showing some interest in making book on pool, and had it gone that way, I feel there would be more money in professional pool today.
Needless to say, once some players conspired to cheat the Mirage out of some money, even though very little money was involved, the alarm was sounded that maybe making book on pool wasn't the greatest idea. Of course, nobody can say for sure just how much damage was done, but when their first contract was up, the Mirage walked away from the Challenge of Champions, an event that remained a money maker for another twenty years. Thirty years later, there are still no Las Vegas sportsbooks of which I'm aware that take action on pool.
Still, I'll add that, in its own way, "The Color of Money", a movie that I loved, did similar damage. Yes, I don't need to be told that the film gave pool a significant temporary boost, but the fact is that it reinforced the public perception that, for elite players, pool is a dirty business in which stalling, trickery and dumping are commonplace. There was even dumping in serious tournament play, and Paul Newman was devastated to learn that Tom Cruise had dumped and scored big betting the other side.
I suspect that one day, the sportsbooks will make book on pool again, but opportunities have been lost because pool has mismanaged its image and has been perceived as a crooked sport for far too long.
In the meantime, I think we are starting to see pool projecting a slightly better image to its public and some top event producers are starting to modify how the game is being presented.
I'm looking forward to the "60 Minutes" piece on pool a few months down the road. I'm not terribly interested in whether it motivates another 1,000,000 people to try their hand at pool, but very interested in whether it begins to change the public perception of the game for the better. If it focuses on legitimate competition and is made to look like a career worthy of pursuit, that will be nice, but if it reinforces the game's gambling/hustling culture, it won't do anything important for pool.
PracticeChampion
Well-known member
Promoters go around asking players what would be best to help the sport when they should be asking people who don't play, get those people and it grows.
I enjoy watching free streams of tournaments but not gonna pay for it so if I'm not then zero chance your beginners are. Make them free or extremely cheap and get paid from sponsors
Pool has about a million chiefs and only a few Indians, that ratio needs reversed or combined all to an organization of some sort. Everyone is fighting over a dollar rather than working together to make a million
I enjoy watching free streams of tournaments but not gonna pay for it so if I'm not then zero chance your beginners are. Make them free or extremely cheap and get paid from sponsors
Pool has about a million chiefs and only a few Indians, that ratio needs reversed or combined all to an organization of some sort. Everyone is fighting over a dollar rather than working together to make a million
So true. The pro pool offering has been tweaked and tweaked and tweaked some more just to appease the players and has made the game almost unrecognizable to most.
I recall attending a call shot call safe 10-ball event at the Super Billiards Expo. I was sitting next to a fellow who was there playing in the amateur eight ball events. As we watched, we saw a player miss the ten and then they shot it again at opponent's request, and this happened again and again, until the same person had shot at the ten ball four times in a row. The fan said to me "what's going on here?" and had left the arena within five minutes of asking me that question. Sometimes, pool really goes out of its way to make the game completely unrecognizable to casual onlookers.
It's the casual and non-players that matter, but the players have either never understood this or just never bought into it. What these fans want is what matters.
Watching the NFL draft its all human stories selling the promotion of the sport.
The family line stories, the shockers, the athletic development and recognition.
It does not feel like a sales promo. It just feels like watching people live and share their passions.
Pro pool does not come across like this.
The family line stories, the shockers, the athletic development and recognition.
It does not feel like a sales promo. It just feels like watching people live and share their passions.
Pro pool does not come across like this.