Barry Hearn makes changes in PTC – Snooker News
Barry Hearn joined the World Snooker management in 2009 and after that he took some drastic steps to improve and promote the game. For starters, he introduced new snooker events such as Players Tour Championship (PTC) which not only featured many new faces
but also helped promote the game across the world.
Now the snooker chairman has decided to shake up the PTCs a bit so that players can play with more ease and comfort.
Before Hearn joined the snooker management, there were only six major snooker events in the calendar. The snooker chief introduced many major and minor snooker tournaments in the season including PTC, Power Snooker, Snooker Shootout, Brazil Masters and Australian
Goldfields Open. Due to the increased number of snooker events, the game ratings went high across the world.
Addition of PTC events into the calendar was one of the best achievements in his career as chairman. With PTCs in the season, players had a chance to improve their rankings and directly qualify for the televised stages of major ranking events.
The PTC circuit had 12 events, six from European tour and six from World tour. These events have now become a major part of the snooker season and are conducted throughout the year. In his recent announcement, Hearn has made some changes in these events.
According to Hearn, “European Tour (part of the Players Tour Championship series) events in Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, two in Germany and one more. Prize money for each increased to 70,000 Euros. Snooker is the most watched sport on Eurosport, with outstanding
viewing figures. Prize money for PTC Grand Finals increased to £300,000 with a top prize of £100,000.”
He further added, “Future prize money increases are likely to be given to PTC events as they have the fairest structure. Snooker should be a meritocracy with less protection of the top players. Ability should be the only criteria.”
Meanwhile, he also changed the basic format of German Masters and Welsh Open snooker event along with the total prize money. The contribution of promoting snooker on a global level by Hearn cannot be understated as the popularity of the sport is at an all
time high.
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