I love snooker. A lot of people who read my blog I hope love snooker. But we also come together to describe our grievances and irks of how our sport has run. Also, a ranting article seems to be more read than a loving article in the form of sonnets with advanced calligraphy. Don’t worry, there will be an article on the reasons why I love snooker soon. I had done a countdown on this as well – for my initial countdown, please click here.
These are more things I don’t like about snooker. Obviously, some of these things aren’t going to change because they are part of the parcel of the sport and no sport is perfect. This is not a one-man campaign, which even thinking that makes me snigger a little bit. Anyways, here’s the countdown!
4. The Domination Of Betting Sponsors
According to Snooker HQ, 12 out of 20 ranking events on the calendar were sponsored by betting companies in the 2017/2018 season. The list feels like it’s getting larger. Off the top of my head:
Betway. Bet365. BetVictor. Coral. JojoBet. William Hill. Dafabet. Betfred. PokerStars. Betfair. 888.com. Ladbrokes. 12BET.com. And most recently, a Chinese gambling company called 19.com – whoever they are.
As someone is isn’t engrossed into odds, it is very easy for me to criticise and feel uneasy. Why are we becoming reliant on one industry again? Of course, we are urged to gamble responsibly and that’s good. But it’s hard to not put two and two together the number of betting sponsors and snooker players who were banned or suspended due to betting-related offences. Surely, more different and local industries could sponsor these events too?
However, money talks. Gambling companies have a lot of money to help finance these tournaments. Also, their track record of sponsoring organised events is usually very excellent and they seem to promote snooker very well. Presumably, invitational events are more likely to attract a lot of these companies. China especially, is becoming more lucrative and will be even more in the future, so why not?
David Hendon asked Jason Ferguson on the plethora of betting sponsors in his Snooker Scene Podcast in 2018. Ferguson pointed out that the support from regulated gambling companies helped grow snooker drastically. He said World Snooker aren’t as reliant on these companies now in comparison to tobacco companies a couple of decades ago. Ferguson claimed they have vigorous systems in place to check less regulated institutions in China. Yu Delu’s and Cao Yupeng’s hefty suspensions prove that World Snooker won’t be prepared to roll over.
I don’t mind gambling companies sponsoring events. However, I just feel nervy with so many of them sponsoring the majority of the events and the possibility of what happened to sport decades ago happening ago.
3. The ‘Snooker Is Not A Sport’ Clan
This is something a lot of fans can relate to. Some people consider snooker, alongside pool or darts not to be a sport. It is understandable for those who do not understand cue sports in general. Sport is very typically an activity involving physical exertion and skill as an individual or a team.
However, snooker is indeed a sport. A snooker player must have a lot of bottle or mental fortitude, probably the most out of any sport. You cope with pressure in any sporting arena. You could even call it a ‘mind sport’ because a snooker player does use a lot of intellectual prowess and skill. There is also plenty of skill, strategy, precision. Yes, you don’t need to sweat it out and do sprints to pot the black in to get in position on the yellow. But being physically fit helps your snooker performance to enhance your concentration. Just don’t remind me of Stephen Lee and Bill Werbeniuk!
However, there are those people. Some people are too stubborn to believe that it is a sport. Others will say that it isn’t to deliberately rub people up the wrong way. Thankfully, you don’t hear of it very often. But I notice during the big events that some people enrage fans by saying snooker isn’t a sport for the sake of enraging them. We do not like those people.
2. Criticism Over Slower Players
Back in the era where Ray Reardon and Terry Griffiths dominated the scene, play was slower and century breaks were rare. Since then, you have a range of different styles to play snooker. Steve Davis and John Higgins are tactical kings. Alex Higgins and Jimmy White are flashy entertainers. Judd Trump and Neil Robertson are lords of power. Ronnie O’Sullivan and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh are fluidly rapid. Peter Ebdon and Rod Lawler take their time to plan and sweat a pint of blood for every shot.
So why are we punishing players for playing snooker slower than we like them to?
Barry Hearn introduced data measuring Average Shot Time (AST). He mentioned there will be consequences for sportspeople who take more than on average, thirty seconds per shot. The obsession with AST annoys me. It’s interesting to have another statistic and of course it gets people talking. It doesn’t tell us as much as we think, yet many people take it for gospel. It could be a safety-laden match. The player could be ill or they are so under the cosh that they need time to think about how to play their next shot. This leads to a number of outcries and flak over those who are 30s AST.
Of course, there are generally slow players. They have their own technique and way to beat their opponent. That is what makes snooker so interesting when you see different players with different styles compete against each other. It’s completely unfair to see slow players being forced to play quicker and make an error as a result, because of the fear of being punished. The criticism of slower players and the AST obsession is killing diversity of how to play snooker.
1. Twitter Vitriol Within The Snooker Community
Solely because of this blog, I joined Twitter in 2016. I was very cynical about Twitter because of its reputation of having people with anonymous accounts slagging each other off on it. I was right, at least some of the time. Snooker Twitter is usually quite lovely. I enjoyed a lot of good chat with fellow bloggers, players and fans and developed good friendships with them. I met a few of them in events and hopefully will see them again soon.
Unfortunately, every Twitter community is vulnerable to fighting between accounts and Snooker Twitter is no exception. Name-calling, shaming, that sort of thing. The lowest people in this context are those who lose a bet and spew bile to players in the form of insults and most shockingly, death threats. Thankfully, all players brought it to Jason Ferguson’s attention. For some professionals, it is enough to pull the plug on Twitter altogether.
Of course, we all love a debate, a joke and an argument every now and again. I’ve been in a few of them on Twitter but thankfully, nowhere malicious in comparison to some of the things I’ve seen. Is it likely to stop? Unlikely. As long as there is snooker to keep us occupied by arguing with something relevant, people are happy. At least for now.
