Matchroom Sport
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Matchroom Sport is a sporting event promotions company founded by English entrepreneur Barry Hearn and his son Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of snooker and boxing and is also involved in pool, bowling, golf, fishing, darts, table tennis, poker and gymnastics. The company is based in Brentwood, Essex.[1] Matchroom has a comprehensive broadcasting agreement in the United Kingdom with Sky Sports.
Cue sports
Matchroom Sport entered snooker event management in the 1980s. They had players such as Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, and Jimmy White under contract.
Matchroom expanded into other cue sports, organising a World Professional Pool Championship for nine-ball pool in Cardiff, Wales, in July 1999. The following year, that tournament merged with the annual WPA World Nine-ball Championship, the most prestigious professional tournament, under the auspices of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). Matchroom remains a principal sponsor and even organizer.
Matchroom's other prestigious pool event is the Mosconi Cup, held each December from 1994 onwards. The event is modelled on the Ryder Cup in golf, and pits a team of European players against a team from the United States. Since 2003, the event has alternated between European and American venues, having previous always been held in the UK.
The Mosconi Cup is notable for having evolved from an exhibition event in the early years, into a genuinely prestigious tournament. Early Mosconi Cup contests were characterised by a team of some of America's most charismatic players taking on a European team of mainly British snooker players, in an attempt to promote nine-ball in the UK. More recent instances of the event have been fought in a much more serious manner, although the raucous crowd atmosphere has been retained, making it unique among cue sports competitions.
Matchroom sports also promote the World Cup of Pool, a national team scotch doubles event, and the World Pool Masters an annual nine-ball event.[2]
Ten-pin bowling
Matchroom has been involved in a revival of the sport of ten-pin bowling which has given the sport a renewed international pop-culture interest.
With a roster of the world's three major bowling events – the World Tenpin Masters, the Weber Cup and the AMF World Cup – Matchroom Sport has established a successful formula for presenting televised bowling. All three events are presented by broadcasters Nick Halling and Cass Edwards.
Boxing
Current stable
References
- ^ "Companies beginning with 'ma'". CheckSure.biz. Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: ROIsure Digital. 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
- ^ "World Pool Masters Archives - Matchroom Pool". Matchroom Pool. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ "Boxers Archive - Matchroom Boxing". Matchroom Boxing.