Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Sports promotion |
Headquarters | Brentwood, Essex |
Key people | Barry Hearn Eddie Hearn |
Website | www |
Matchroom Sport is a UK-based sporting event promotions company founded by Barry Hearn and run by him 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 had broadcasting agreements in the United Kingdom with DAZN, Sky Sports, ITV, and the BBC.
Matchroom formed in 1982 concentrating on snooker management with the likes of Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, and Jimmy White under contract. It sponsored two non-ranking tournaments, the Matchroom Professional Championship (1986–1988, restricted to its contracted players) and Matchroom League (1987–1994). A novelty song called "Snooker Loopy" by "Chas & Dave and The Matchroom Mob" reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart in 1986, with five Matchroom players featured on backup vocals and in the video.
Hearn's first foray into boxing promotion was the Frank Bruno vs. Joe Bugner heavyweight clash in 1987 in front of 35,000 people at White Hart Lane. [2] [3]
The range of sports increased in 1994 with the Mosconi Cup, an event which sees teams from Europe and the United States compete in a 9-ball pool tournament. [4] [5] It has become a major event on the professional pool calendar. [6]
Over the years, Matchroom's portfolio under Hearn grew, taking a majority stake in the Professional Darts Corporation in 2001, helping oversee a growth in the sport. [3] Matchroom Sport also promote the World Cup of Pool, a national team scotch doubles event, and the World Pool Masters, an annual nine-ball event. [7]
In 2002, the company formed PGA EuroPro Tour, the UK's leading developmental golf tour, in association with the PGA. [8] Later, in the 2000s, came ten pin bowling's Weber Cup. [9] In 2009, Barry Hearn became the majority shareholder in World Snooker Tour Ltd. Since then the sport has grown, with prize money increased and new events introduced worldwide. [10]
More recently, Matchroom has launched the World Championship of Ping Pong, [11] Superstars of Gymnastics, British Basketball All-Stars, [12] and British Fast5 Netball All-Stars.
In April 2021, Barry Hearn stepped down as chairman with his son Eddie taking over the role. Barry will continue as president in an advisory role, while Eddie takes over as head of the PGA EuroPro tour, alongside overseeing Matchroom's wider operations and continuing to head the boxing division. [13]
Steve Davis is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World Snooker Championship finals in nine years, winning six world titles, and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. He was runner-up to Dennis Taylor in one of snooker's most famous matches, the 1985 World Championship final, which ended in a dramatic black-ball conclusion that attracted 18.5 million viewers, still the largest British television audience for any broadcast after midnight and any broadcast on BBC Two.
The Scottish Open is a ranking professional snooker tournament held in the United Kingdom. The tournament had many name changes in its history, as the tournament was formerly called International Open, Matchroom Trophy and Players Championship. Apart from a hiatus in the 1990/1991 and 1991/1992 seasons, the tournament remained a ranking event until 2003/2004. In the 2012/2013 season the tournament was added back to the calendar as part of the Players Tour Championship minor-ranking series.
The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1994 between teams representing Europe and the United States. Named after American pool player Willie Mosconi, the event is comparable to the Ryder Cup in golf and the Weber Cup in bowling.
An individual sport is a sport in which participants compete as individuals. However, team competitions within individual sports also occur, such as the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup.
Earl Strickland is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He has won over 100 championship titles and three world titles. In 2006 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. In 1996, Strickland won the largest cash prize to date winning the PCA $1,000,000 Challenge by being the first player to run 10 consecutive racks in a tournament. He is also known as one of the sport's most controversial players for his outspoken views and his sometimes volatile behavior at tournaments.
Barry Maurice William Hearn is a British sports promoter who is founder and president of Matchroom Sport.
The PGA EuroPro Tour was a men's developmental professional golf tour. It was created in 2002 by the merger of two development tours, the EuroPro Tour and the PGA MasterCard Tour, as the Professional Golfers' Association and Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport joined forces.
ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.
David Alcaide Bermúdez is a Spanish professional pool player. He is a two-time winner of the World Pool Masters, winning the 2017 event, defeating Jayson Shaw 8–7 in the final, and again in 2019 defeating Alexander Kazakis 9–8. Alcaide is a three-time world championship semi-finalist having reached the stage at the WPA World 10-ball Championship, in 2009 and 2015, and the WPA World Eight-ball Championship in 2011.
Michaela Tabb is a Scottish snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top tournaments such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. She qualified in 2001 to referee on the World Snooker Tour and was the sport's highest profile female referee for the next 14 years. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open, and the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. As of 2022, she is the only woman to have refereed the World Snooker Championship final, which she did twice, in 2009 and 2012.
Edward John Hearn is a British sports promoter who is chairman of Matchroom Sport and Professional Darts Corporation. Hearn is the son of promoter Barry Hearn, the founder of Matchroom Sport.
Daryl Peach is an English professional pool player, from Lancashire, who resides in Blackpool, England. He won the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, where he defeated the Philippines' Roberto Gomez 17–15 in the final to become the first British player to win the WPA World Nine-ball Championship.
In the United Kingdom, sporting events are broadcast on several national television networks, as well as radio. Many of the sporting events are listed online or in different kind of apps. These apps are mainly designed by sport fans who want to have an easy way to find when a certain game or match is played, as well as when a race starts or which channel is broadcasting the olympic games etc.
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.
Joshua Filler is a German professional pool player from Bönen, Germany. In 2018 Filler defeated Carlo Biado 13–10 to win the 2018 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. In 2017 he was the youngest player to win the China Open, and in 2018 he also won the 10-ball European Pool Championships. Filler became WPA and Euro Tour world number 1 in 2019, and later he reached the final of the 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship before losing 10–7 to Ko Ping-chung.
In 2018, championships were held across three continents to determine the best players in major cue sports, including snooker, pool, and English billiards. While these are mostly single player sports, some matches and tournaments are held as either doubles or as team events. The snooker season runs between May and April; the pool and billiards seasons run through the calendar year.
Professional tournaments in table-top cue sports took place in 2020. These events include snooker, pool disciplines and billiards. Whilst these are traditionally singles sports, some matches and tournaments are held as doubles or as teams. The snooker season runs between May and April, whilst the pool and billiards seasons is listed over the calendar year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was disrupted with many events being cancelled or postponed. Cue sports events were played in January and February, before tournaments were discontinued for all disciplines due to the pandemic, returning in June without an audience.
This is a timeline of the history of Sky Sports.
This is a timeline of sports channels in the UK other than Sky Sports, BT Sport and Premier Sports/FreeSports. The timeline also includes sports events which were shown on non-sports non-terrestrial channels. The timeline also includes sports coverage broadcast on streaming services.