Snooker aims to pot Middle East

Invented by British officers in India, the game has been through some tough times in its British heartland. That’s not the case in China or India, however. And the game’s promoters want to bring this region on board.

Ronnie O’Sullivan of England plays a shot against Barry Hawkins of England during the final match of the 2013 World Snooker Championships at The Crucible. AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS

It’s a case of pot luck for which Arabian Gulf state is likely to emerge as the regional home of the game.

“Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the Middle East are areas we are interested in bringing an event to,” says Jason Ferguson, the chairman of snooker’s governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).

“We’ve got a player from Qatar on the tour now [Ahmed Saif] and events from Europe to China and Australia; it’s a truly global game, but the Middle East is our missing link. We need to bring in the TV and sponsorship to cover prize money but we are talking to people out there.”

To cover staging an event and prize money, Mr Ferguson estimates between £500,000 (Dh3 million) and £600,000 is needed. But to get snooker established in the region, he also wants to tackle the grassroots. “It’s about getting the event going on the ground. In the Middle East, I’m keen to bring snooker to people rather than let people come to the clubs,” he says.

The world snooker tour is back in the game’s heartland with the Masters at London’s Alexandra Palace starting today, but a game that traces its origins back to 1875 has been transformed in recent years.

When the Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis in the 39th and final frame of the 1985 World Championship, the match was watched by 18.5 million viewers in the United Kingdom but was very much stuck in its traditional roots – British working men’s clubs.

The only overseas players tended to come from the Commonwealth. Of the eight players beaten by Davis and Taylor en route to the 1985 final, only two – the South African Silvino Francisco and the Australian Eddie Charlton – came from outside Britain.

Then, the WPBSA had around 30 members but few were active. “Only a handful were providing players for the tour,” says Mr Ferguson, a former professional himself, who was previously elected WPSA chairman but quit after retiring in 2004.

Although the previous WPBSA regime had initiated expansion in the Far East after the success of Marco Fu, who won the 2007 Grand Prix and was runner-up in the 2011 Masters, even his success had colonial links. Fu is from the former British colony of Hong Kong.

As the WPBSA struggled to expand snooker, the game was hit by a European Union ban on sponsorship of sporting events by tobacco firms in 2005. The 2006 World Championship was the first in 30 years not to be sponsored by Embassy cigarettes.

Mr Ferguson returned as WPBSA chairman as thelong-time snooker impresario Barry Hearn took control of World Snooker, the game’s commercial body, which operates the professional circuit. Mr Ferguson describes the sport then as “dying”. Mr Hearn agrees, saying: “Back then, it was moribund, a part-time sport. Everyone was going through the motions revolving around a BBC contract.”

Snooker’s “world tour” then comprised a mere half a dozen events. Total prize money on offer was just £3.5m and one of the world’s oldest games was not even recognised as a sport by Sport England, the pan-sporting body in the game’s homeland. Last year, Mr Ferguson, also a director of World Snooker, managed to get Sport England to recognise snooker and the tour has blossomed internationally. He adds: “I was brought back by Barry Hearn to head the governing body and the commercial side.”

Mr Ferguson reels off the statistics with the confidence of someone who believes in his vision. “We’ve got 90 national governing bodies, including one in Dubai.”

When Ronnie O’Sullivan won the 2013 World Championship, his winnings were £250,000 and a revitalised world tour now has more than 30 events from Germany to Australia and China and offers total winnings of £8.3m.

Mr Hearn’s Matchroom Sports has sold television rights to 78 countries around the world. The WPBSA still works with the BBC but also with IMG and Eurosport, which Mr Ferguson pin-points as being key to the expansion in Eastern Europe.

This has taken the European tour to Bulgaria, where crowds for matches in the event staged in June 2013, which was won by John Higgins, reportedly saw crowds of more than 1,000 attend some sessions. Mr Ferguson adds: “There is strong interest in Latvia and we’re in talks in Russia. It’s not long before we have a major ranking event in Eastern Europe.”

The WPSBA has tried events in South America and introduced the game to India, which Mr Hearn believes could be the start of a major breakthrough. He adds: “The Indian Open is potentially the biggest breakthrough. The Indian sub-continent is a massive potential market.”

Snooker was first invented at Jubbulpore in India in 1875, when British officers from the Devonshire regiment began experimenting with billiards. Mr Hearn and Mr Ferguson believe that snooker in India could soon emulate China, where the previous regime had introduced a sport that has really begun to take off.

“We started out with one event that was invitation only many years ago but we’re working with the CBSA [China Billiards & Snooker Association] and now we’ve got 14 players on the main tour,” says Mr Ferguson.

The image of the game in India, China and other parts of the Far East, such as Thailand, is very different to the one that snooker retains in Britain. When the tobacco sponsorship was pulled, their replacements were typically online bookmakers, such as Betfred, William Hill and Betfair, which sponsors the World Championships.

This drew criticism in Britain, particularly on social media platforms, that the game’s governing authorities were purposely aiming downmarket in its homeland and not looking for more up-market sponsorship.

“The UK is a tough market. The banks have laid off thousands of people and there’s a big concern generally about sponsorship there,” says Mr Ferguson. “I’m sure it will pick up and different types of sponsorship will come through.

“One of the things we do is have different levels of sponsorship. In China, snooker is seen as a very upmarket sport, a gentleman’s sport with great etiquette. What other sport can you find where players own up to their own fouls? That’s a great asset overseas.”

Snooker sponsors in the Far East include the Bank of China and Ferguson points to how the game has become part of the school curriculum in some Asian countries. The WPBSA has also developed a white board game called Functional Snooker for schools and tables are increasingly being installed in schools with the approval of the education authorities. One school in China has 28 snooker tables.

“That’s been one of our big successes,” says Mr Ferguson. “Young kids learning maths that teachers could not engage before. You couldn’t expect parents to leave kids in snooker clubs, but they are far more comfortable leaving them playing snooker in a school.”

For Mr Ferguson and the WPBSA, that is where the future of the game in the Middle East lies: the grass roots, and establishing an enthusiasm for the game with the younger generation that follows through into adult life.