SVB featured on 60 min (dropped 10 hrs ago)

MattPoland

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think pool has a major image problem and it’s not gambling. It’s the pity party. I think Matchroom gets it. If you want to help pool then celebrate everything that is great about it. Most of that piece was an attack on gambling and whine festival on the money situation. Potential sponsors don’t look at that and think, “there’s something special here.” And to parade Shane around saying he doesn’t gamble lacks integrity. You’re not lifting pool up by presenting a fake image. That’s shameful to me.
 

dquarasr

Registered
Elevate the sport by highlighting that it’s not about the seedy side of it? No.

Why didn’t this segment highlight the difficulty of the game and demonstrate the skill required to succeed? Describe the insidious dichotomy of what seems like a simple goal vs the reality of how difficult it really is: direct a white sphere into a colored sphere so the latter goes into a pocket and the former to a specific spot for the next shot. Setting up a staged trick shot does nothing to elevate the sport.

People don’t understand that this ostensibly simple game is incredibly difficult to master. THAT is what should be promoted and celebrated.
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
Just watched it. Isn't this merely an excerpt from last year's piece?

Emily was the one who really made the piece work. She made it clear that having pool players make enough money in competition that they won't need to gamble is the dream, not the reality. I think Emily is right in suggesting that once prize money rises significantly, pool's profile will grow, and its best players will become household names.

Lest we forget, none of us would know the names of Steve Davis, Steve Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan had it not been for Matchroom and others that got snooker on the BBC. Their names didn't grow because viewers came to admire the inherent beauty of snooker but because they came to view the cueists as extraordinarily successful sportsmen.

Shane's mild denunciation of action pool, extremely hypocritical by any reasonable measure, cannot be viewed as anything but an attempt to demonstrate that the top players are buying in to realization of the world of which Emily dreams. I give him a pass here.
 
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jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
Oh Shane. You had a prime chance here to rattle all 6 off, and I'm sure you would have gotten some nice Jelly.
They flew me back to New York for this segment on 60 Minutes. I did a six hour interview with Jon Wertheim where I was repeatedly asked about my gambling background and history as a money player (the producers and Jon had read my book Pool Wars). I chose not to go into depth with my answers and instead focused on the progress that had been made in the professional area of our sport. They cut my entire segment from the final show that aired.

In hindsight I could have blown my own horn and given them some interesting stories about my life on the road, but chose not to. I really believed they would see the value in what I was telling them about how much pro pool had changed for the better. My mistake.
 

Banger

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There is no shortage of gambling in snooker. Or gambling scandals (match-fixing), for that matter. They even have sponsorship from various betting sites.
 

MattPoland

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That’s the thing for me. The producer had a narrative. “Pool is in the doldrums because of its seedy side.” It’s a tired recycled media take on the sport. Emily certainly was a bright spot in the segment. She at least showed that there’s a side of the sport worth having enthusiasm about. So much so that she had the stance she didn’t care about the gambling because she’s more interested in the elevating the professional side to the point the players wont need it anyway. And even that seemed to run contrary to the dire narrative of pool the producer was trying to paint. Emily had it right. Pool doesn’t need a pity party on national television. It needs a celebration. This guy probably hurt pool more than he helped.
 

King T

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This seedy side of Pool thing is way over blown. No body ever talks about the seedy side of poker, nope its the best game in the world just ask anyboby on TV. No one cares about all the gambling in poker its celebrated, its covered on ESPN and even news channels talk about the winners when the Money won is big enough, so how does gambling make Pool seedy?
 

bbb

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I think pool has a major image problem and it’s not gambling. It’s the pity party. I think Matchroom gets it. If you want to help pool then celebrate everything that is great about it. Most of that piece was an attack on gambling and whine festival on the money situation. Potential sponsors don’t look at that and think, “there’s something special here.” And to parade Shane around saying he doesn’t gamble lacks integrity. You’re not lifting pool up by presenting a fake image. That’s shameful to me.
thanks for the reply
 

EL'nino

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Wow, he's on another edition of 60 Minutes. He was on last December. Even if he had to share the stage with darts this time, any exposure is good exposure.
Looks like you got some exposure yourself.
 
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Reactions: sjm

David in FL

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This seedy side of Pool thing is way over blown. No body ever talks about the seedy side of poker, nope its the best game in the world just ask anyboby on TV. No one cares about all the gambling in poker its celebrated, its covered on ESPN and even news channels talk about the winners when the Money won is big enough, so how does gambling make Pool seedy?

Or Golf! Golf, like pool, has a long established culture of gambling. At all levels.

Anybody who doesn't realize the amount of side betting that goes on among professional golfers before and after the actual tournaments doesn't understand the sport at all.

Likewise, it's a rare amateur golf game that doesn't include some form of gambling.
 
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