Sport Industry Group

Snooker to get expanded world tour- 27 Nov 2009 00:00:00

World Snooker, in conjunction with agency partner IMG, has announced plans for a new international calendar with more than double the existing number of global ranking tournaments – a move aimed at reviving interest in the sport.

The game's governing body says the World Snooker Tour will increase the number of global ranking tournaments to 15 in a bid to create a world circuit.

The plan is to hold at least 15 ranking events, with additional invitational tournaments, during the first year and increase the number in the following season, bucking a recent trend of a reduction in the number of events.

The 2009/10 season has seen a reduction from eight to six ranking events, with the Northern Ireland Trophy and Bahrain Championship dropped from the calendar.

The tour would be run by IMG, the events management company which looks after World Snooker's international broadcasting rights.

World Snooker chairman Sir Rodney Walker said: ‘We hope the players and promoters will recognise the opportunities of this ambitious plan.’

The announcement of an expanded tour comes as a surprise given the paucity of sponsors currently investing in the game.

There has been no indication about which countries would host the new tournaments.

However, Germany, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Portugal could all be in the running having hosted events as part of the World Series of Snooker during the past two years.

Walker said World Snooker had brought forward its announcement about the World Tour as a response to ‘misleading, inaccurate and downright untruthful comments about the sport’ over the past few months.

Walker added that the sport's ‘history of turmoil’ had ended and it was now in a ‘financially stable’ position.