Which is more popular in England? Pool or snooker!

[JAM]

If you want Matchroom to give away their content for free then how do they make any money?

Where would the prize money come from?

I subscribed to Mathroom-dot-live when it first came into existence several years ago and have continued to pay for it every single month. The streaming on that platform has been successful, with one snooker event problem when the stream would cut out before the end of a frame and/or start when the frame was in progress. Other than that, the Matchroom-dot-live platform has been superb.

To have the Matchroom-dot-live platform available to some countries and not all seems odd. The post I made earlier in the thread never DEMANDED the Matchroom give it away for free. Rather, I suggested to use the Matchroom-dot-live platform to all countries, especially the United States and Canada where the DAZN coverage sucks. DAZN coverage is so poor that Matchroom let everyone watch the event before the World Cup on the Matchroom-dot-live platform and Facebook because DAZN dropped the ball.

Back to the intent of my post, again, not DEMANDING a f**king thing, is that pool might be better served to grow in popularity if folks were able to watch it on a better platform. I have no problem paying for pool if the platform it is being shown on is superb, much like the Matchroom productions are superb.

It is a shame, mista335, that one cannot express an opinion on this forum—and I am not referring to you whatsoever—without their words being misconstrued in an effort to flame and/or create consternation.

Since pool games seem more popular in the U.S. than England, as was the original reason for the poll, it might serve Matchroom and pool as a sport better to make the coverage of the excellent Matchroom events easier to access. My Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Chester will never subscribe a DAZN with all of its boxing ads. DAZN does not seem to publicize pool on their channel, yet they do boxing. What will get my Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Chester to watch pool? is an area that needs closer examination in the United States where pool seems to be more popular than in England, again, in my opinion.

 

[Catalin]

By number of viewers: snooker
By number of players: pool

Not many people play snooker recreationally in England. It's more a sport for people who train seriously with a coach.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

 

[mista335]

they have sponsors and commercial breaks. relying on that alone probably wouldn't cover their overhead costs, unless they revert to fixed cameras and random joe doing commentary, not to mention what little would be left for prize money

Adverts like most free content has, proven formula-if the audience is large enough.

Not reinventing the wheel

Cable networks are never going to show their content for free.

They rely on the the monthly subscriptions much more than the advertising revenue.

 

[mista335]

To have the Matchroom-dot-live platform available to some countries and not all seems odd.

No, it makes perfect sense.

The cable companies and streaming services have paid for EXCLUSIVE rights in their country or region for those tournaments.

For example here in Australia Fox Sports has the rights for all the Matchroom tournaments. Fox Sports isn't going tp pay if they know people can just pay $4.99 for the month on Matchroom.live.

I have to pay $29.99 a month to watch it.

Matchroom.live is for all the countries that Matchroom haven't secured any broadcast rights. (Unless there's a screw up!!)

 

[Swighey]

Pool certainly needs to be on a popular sports network (Fox? ESPN? or whatever is big now, my knowledge might be a bit out of date) in the US to capture the casual sports fan. That's only for now though - in the future the major sports networks are actually going to need sports like pool - the future of the EPL, NBA, etc in certain broadcasting territories lies with streaming. Why have a third party contract with a TV network when you can sell straight to the fan on whatever smart TVs mutate into? There's far too much money to be made this way, and that's one reason why the sports networks need to diversify. I'm pleased to see that pool is part of this diversification, and more than happy for it to ride on the back of snooker with crossover players and commentators - every average Joe knows he can't be any good at snooker but thinks he can be good at pool.

 

[Guy Manges]

The money says snooker... Guy

 

[Quesports]

I think BEER is more popular than both pool and snooker combined Jen, just saying!

 

[eg9327]

What about blackball and English 8-ball? Those are definitely different from pool, and definitely not snooker.

English Billiards is another wacky game that fell by the wayside

English billiards is an excellent game to learn skills with cue ball control. You have to modify the table layout slightly for regular pool tables. It is a great practice game. Anyone who hasn't tried it should give it a go.

 

[Greg M]

English billiards is an excellent game to learn skills with cue ball control. You have to modify the table layout slightly for regular pool tables. It is a great practice game. Anyone who hasn't tried it should give it a go.

I've thought about giving it a go on my local snooker table using the cue ball, a red and a yellow, but I haven't had the opportunity yet. It's a fascinating game to watch professionally.

 

[ShootingArts]

With apologies I didn't vote because of my split answer. I think snooker is more popular to watch, I'll watch snooker before watching pool myself.

To play, pool. One reason is those silly blackball or whatever they are called tables that will almost fit in a closet. People have a lot more exposure to pool of one sort or another I would think. A snooker table, other than the seven footers, takes up a lot of territory!

Then again, "I have never been to England but I kinda like the Beatles." I don't know what they like best in Canada or Mexico, how the heck would I know what they like best in England!

Hu

 

[vjmehra]

Both.

The problem is, as others have alluded to the answers are different!

Snooker is miles more popular to watch than any form of pool, but its quite difficult to find a table in many parts of the country now (also the difficulty of the game puts off most people from a playing perspective).

Pool here means 'English 8-Ball', which is the most popular game to play (but watched by very few, albeit they are promoting the game more now on free to air tv).

Pool as you presumably mean it would be 'American Pool' here (and almost exclusively 9-Ball aside from the odd casual player who will most likely play 8-Ball on a 9ft American style table, but using English 8-Ball rules...its annoying, ha)!

As 9-Ball is covered by Sky Sports here it gets more tv coverage than 'English Pool' (or at least more high profile coverage, in terms of hours its possible with Ultimate Pool on free to air tv English Pool might have overtaken it), not sure how the streaming numbers compare.

As for playing any form of 'American Pool' it will be way less than 'English 8-Ball' and almost certainly less than snooker too.

 

[Greg M]

Pool as you presumably mean it would be 'American Pool' here (and almost exclusively 9-Ball aside from the odd casual player who will most likely play 8-Ball on a 9ft American style table, but using English 8-Ball rules...its annoying, ha)!

A casual pool group I play with plays American eight-ball exclusively, and it's exactly like you described. Just a random mashup of WEPF world rules and pub rules. I would actually prefer to keep the American rules with the American tables and get to know them better, but the problem is that no one knows the full rulesets (myself included, to a degree), so we just stick with the WEPF/pub rule hybrid. Even the American tables here have a D marked on the cloth.

 

[Average Joes]

Being British (originally) it has to be:

Playing: Pool
Watching (TV): Snooker

You probably won't meet many guys (or gals!) in the UK who have never had a few games of casual pool in the pub over the years. EVERYONE has played Pool at sometime or another. But playing snooker is FAR rarer. They don't tend to have snooker tables in pubs due to the size (I've never seen one and frequented a lot of pubs!!!) so people just don't have easy access, unlike pool tables which are fairly common in pubs (again due to the size!) For snooker you'd have to go to a snooker hall, so you'd have to make a decision that you want to play, and actively seek it out, it's not a casual thing (unlike Pool the polar opposite!)

But for watching on TV, zero question snooker. Watched by millions. I grew up watching snooker on TV, but NEVER saw a single game of pool on terrestrial TV ever.

So I'd say that for exposure/familiarity in the UK, pretty much everyone is familar with both games through watching snooker on TV, or playing pool in pubs and youth clubs etc. But people PLAYING pool in the UK I would guess would be waaaaay over 100 to 1 for people who have actually played pool vs snooker. Maybe 1000+ to 1?

EVERYONE has played pool, few have played snooker (comparitively). And on the flip side, millions have watched a (bit) of snooker on the TV, and VERY few (comparitively) will have watched a game of Pool on the TV.

If you're a fan or actually play seriously then you'll know both and have watched both, of course. But for the 'general public' that's my 2p

 

[Thunder Thighs]

Which do think is more popular in England? Pool or snooker.

This is an interesting thread. I voted for snooker, although I wish it were pool.

 

[bbb]

JAM
tomorrow is a week
do we get the answer?
i would like to contact you regarding tom tom

 

[Guy Manges]

I subscribed to Mathroom-dot-live when it first came into existence several years ago and have continued to pay for it every single month. The streaming on that platform has been successful, with one snooker event problem when the stream would cut out before the end of a frame and/or start when the frame was in progress. Other than that, the Matchroom-dot-live platform has been superb.

To have the Matchroom-dot-live platform available to some countries and not all seems odd. The post I made earlier in the thread never DEMANDED the Matchroom give it away for free. Rather, I suggested to use the Matchroom-dot-live platform to all countries, especially the United States and Canada where the DAZN coverage sucks. DAZN coverage is so poor that Matchroom let everyone watch the event before the World Cup on the Matchroom-dot-live platform and Facebook because DAZN dropped the ball.

Back to the intent of my post, again, not DEMANDING a f**king thing, is that pool might be better served to grow in popularity if folks were able to watch it on a better platform. I have no problem paying for pool if the platform it is being shown on is superb, much like the Matchroom productions are superb.

It is a shame, mista335, that one cannot express an opinion on this forum—and I am not referring to you whatsoever—without their words being misconstrued in an effort to flame and/or create consternation.

Since pool games seem more popular in the U.S. than England, as was the original reason for the poll, it might serve Matchroom and pool as a sport better to make the coverage of the excellent Matchroom events easier to access. My Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Chester will never subscribe a DAZN with all of its boxing ads. DAZN does not seem to publicize pool on their channel, yet they do boxing. What will get my Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Chester to watch pool? is an area that needs closer examination in the United States where pool seems to be more popular than in England, again, in my opinion.

YES...

 

[Guy Manges]

A casual pool group I play with plays American eight-ball exclusively, and it's exactly like you described. Just a random mashup of WEPF world rules and pub rules. I would actually prefer to keep the American rules with the American tables and get to know them better, but the problem is that no one knows the full rulesets (myself included, to a degree), so we just stick with the WEPF/pub rule hybrid. Even the American tables here have a D marked on the cloth.

I think if we go back in time we can find that D to be called the kitchen... Guy

 

[Guy Manges]

Pool certainly needs to be on a popular sports network (Fox? ESPN? or whatever is big now, my knowledge might be a bit out of date) in the US to capture the casual sports fan. That's only for now though - in the future the major sports networks are actually going to need sports like pool - the future of the EPL, NBA, etc in certain broadcasting territories lies with streaming. Why have a third party contract with a TV network when you can sell straight to the fan on whatever smart TVs mutate into? There's far too much money to be made this way, and that's one reason why the sports networks need to diversify. I'm pleased to see that pool is part of this diversification, and more than happy for it to ride on the back of snooker with crossover players and commentators - every average Joe knows he can't be any good at snooker but thinks he can be good at pool.

I had a reply on this forum telling me that for the ten years they were on this thread, all was to talk of the rules and Never saw a change... Guy

 

[Guy Manges]

Maybe someday the rule control needs to come back to the USA... we have our rules and the rest of the world has their rules, And the players can adjust, isn't that the way most of it is now... Guy

 

[JAM]

JAM
tomorrow is a week
do we get the answer?
i would like to contact you regarding tom tom

I went over there and clicked "Start a Conversation" and messaged you. I'm not sure if that is private messaging or not. I don't understand the software the same way I used to.