Let’s start with the bid to get pool into the Olympics. The IOC first says to be considered you need to be a sport with membership in Sport Accord (firmly GAISF). Sport Accord says you need to be a contest played internationally with a single top level governing body with an official set of rules. WPA is born. Sport Accord then said we are getting bugged by pool, snooker and carom. We consider cue sports to be a sport and those games to be separate disciplines of cuesports. So we only want to talk to one federation. So the federations for pool, carom and snooker formed the WCBS to be the single body representing cuesports. Sport Accord accepts the WCBS and pool is now an Olympic sport. But it’s not in the Olympics Games. The IOC originally called the number of sports (probably to manage expenses). Then the IOC lifts the cap and tries out a handful of provisional sports at each set of games (probably to court youth markets). WCBS bids for cuesports and it never gets picked. But cuesports get included in the World Games as a consolation prize. So WPA is a voting member of WCBS. And each continental pool federation is a voting member of WPA. And each national federation is a voting member of their continental member. So it’s a tiered structure of ownership. And ultimately WPA lets each continental member have authority over their territory.
Now looking at the WPA, they provide pool an official connection to the IOC. They claim branding ownership of the terms “World Championship” for pool. They license the right to hold a world championship to third party promoters (like Matchroom or Predator) to host a world championship event.
WPA also sanctions regular competition around the world. Certain large events are required to be sanctioned. Sanctioning means paying a percent of the prize fund as a fee. That money funds WPA operations and funnels up to support WCBS Olympic campaigns. WPA sanctioning offers some degree of calendar protection from other sanctioned events.
Because the WPA provides a connection to the IOC, this secondary effect takes place. Some governments take pride in Olympic sports. They have government funds (at a country, province, or city level) available for sports programs. That can include the support of training centers, coaching programs, and player assistance. Some governments will add money to events hosted in their country/province/city. Players might get financial support for traveling to sanctioned events. They might get rewards for medaling in national, continental or major world competitions. This is more pronounced in countries like Germany, Austria, Poland, Netherlands and Greece. And some people claim the extent of that support might be exaggerated, but it’s not trivial.
This entire structure of pool has born two big things. One is a bunch of bureaucrats that are entrenched in that structure, gain personal clout via their positions of power, have incentives to preserve and defend the structure, and feel they personally know what’s “best” for the players and the sport. Two is that the degree of athleticism in the sport rises significantly. This is the backbone of why Europe has risen to dominate the Mosconi Cup.
And some countries like the US do not offer government funds for sports programs. Instead we have a non-profit organization USOPC that has rights to license Olympic broadcasts and trademarks in the US. Commercially that generates so much revenue that we get support for sports like gymnastics, swimming, etc. But the USOPC doesn’t recognize BCA because it only represents pool (weakly) and not all cuesports (carom and snooker too) in North America. So no special IOC-affiliated money for us.
Meanwhile Matchroom decided to stop sanctioning their events after having done so for quite some time. Why? Maybe they question the value. Maybe they are not trying to be “Olympic-affiliated” and just want to be “commercial” (like the NBA). Maybe they don’t like the bureaucracy of date protection. Maybe they don’t like WPA pushing their WADA-compliant requirements onto them. Maybe they just see the success of other “commercial” sports they manage without IOC involvement and just want to repeat those formulas. Maybe specifically Barry Hearn has his own personal history of complexities dealing with IOC organizations and is just bitter about those experiences.
But the WPA is a committee. Its decisions are the votes of the continental members. So what do they vote on? Well they look at Matchroom and they feel the “Olympic Authority” is the ultimate god-given authority over all international pool and not sanctioning is not a legal option. Matchroom looks at that and says “your authority is merely your own fiat authority, we don’t have to bend our knee and kiss your ring.” Could both co-exist? Yes. Could Matchroom just sanction their events with a favorable compromise and everything be better for the players? Yes. Will they? Doesn’t look like it. Does it matter? Right now, definitely. But if Matchroom grows the sport exponentially and makes millionaires of players, it won’t matter.
So again what does the WPA do from there? They vote. And members like the ACBS say “Matchroom is coming to Asia. They are hosting events. They are not sanctioning. They are convincing governments to host events and add money without IOC affiliation. They are profiting off the names of players we built up inside our system. They threaten our role and power. They must be stopped. Players choosing to do that in Asia must be banned”. The other continental members are less strict but also recognize that maybe there is a decision point. You’re in our structure or you’re out of it. If you’re out of it, you don’t get our benefits. We don’t mind Matchroom in our territories but we can’t speak for Asia. So we’ll stand with them in repercussions for those that play unsanctioned events in their territory.
