World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), based in Bristol, the United Kingdom, is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotional activities. The Professional Billiard Players Association (PBSA) was founded in 1946, and, after some years of inactivity, was revived in 1968 and renamed the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in 1970.

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
SportSnooker (professional) and English billiards
JurisdictionInternational
AbbreviationWPBSA
Founded1970
HeadquartersBristol, United Kingdom
ChairmanJason Ferguson
ReplacedProfessional Billiard Players Association (PBPA)
(founded)1946
Official website
www.wpbsa.com

It owns a 26% share of World Snooker, which organises the professional Snooker ranking circuit events. It also supports World Women's Snooker and World Disability Billiards and Snooker, and English billiards through World Billiards

Overview

According to its financial statements for the year ending 30 June 2019, the principal activities of the WPBSA are "the governance of professional snooker and billiards through the regulation and application of the rules of the association, the development of snooker and billiards as a sport and the sanctioning of the Professional Snooker Tour".[1] The governing body for the non-professional games is the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF).[2]

The WPBSA has a number of associated organisations, including World Snooker, World Billiards, World Women's Snooker and World Disability Billiards and Snooker.

  • World Snooker Ltd is responsible for running and administering snooker's ranking circuit events. These include the World Open, UK Championship, Welsh Open, China Open and the World Snooker Championship. It also holds the commercial rights for the professional game. Barry Hearn's Matchroom Sport owns 51% of World Snooker, and the WPBSA is the next largest shareholder with 26%.[3][4] In January 2020, World Snooker rebranded as World Snooker Tour.[5]
  • World Billiards supervises the English billiards ranking tournaments and ranking list.[6] It was established as a limited company in 2011, with all shares owned by the WPBSA.[7]
  • World Women's Snooker (WWS) had changed its name from World Ladies Billiards and Snooker and Association (WLBSA) to World Ladies Billiards and Snooker when it became a subsidiary company of the WPBSA in December 2015. It moved to becoming World Women's Snooker in 2018.[8][9] WWS supervises the Women's ranking tournaments and ranking list.[10]
  • World Disability Billiards and Snooker (WDBS) is a subsidiary company of the WPBSA set up in 2015 with a remit to create opportunities for people with disabilities play cue sports.[11][12]

Jason Ferguson became the WPBSA chairman in 2010,[13] having previously held the role from 2001 to 2003.[14][15]:318 Rex Williams was chairman for 13 years until 1987, when he was replaced by John Virgo.[16]:154–156 Previous presidents include Jeffrey Archer once served as president.[17]

History

A Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) was formed on 26 July 1946, with Joe Davis as chairman. The professional game was in decline in the 1950s and 1960s and the PBPA was also dormant until being restarted in April 1968 with eight professional members. Mike Green was designated as the Secretary. Membership of the Association was by application, with playing achievements and disciplinary records the main factors taken into account. This means of becoming professional was later replaced by a series of "pro ticket" events.[16]:154–156[18] Prior to the formation of the WPBSA, the world governing body of both snooker and English billiards was the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC or BA&CC), later known as the Billiards and Snooker Control Council.[19]

The BACC announced in August 1968 that the world professional snooker championship would be run on a knockout basis, rather than the challenge system that had been in place from 1964[20] and in September 1969 that "The BA &CC and Professional Billiard Players Association have reached agreement regarding procedure for turning professional and other events governed by the BA CC."[21]

The PBPA disaffiliated from the BA&CC from 1 October 1970[22] and was renamed the WPBSA on 12 December 1970,[15]:45 soon taking control of the running of the professional game.[23]

The WPBSA was reorganised as a limited company on 13 January 1982[24] with the intention that it would negotiate contracts with television companies and sponsors, something that had previously been in the control of promoters like Mike Watterson, as well as organising the tournaments.[15]:80–81 In 1985, Green retired as Secretary and was succeeded by Martin Blake, at which point the Association moved its headquarters from Birmingham to Bristol.[16]:154–156

Promotional activities

A subsidiary promotions company, WPBSA Promotions Ltd, was founded in 1983.[16]:154–156 World Snooker has been successful in promoting the sport in China, a major growth area for the sport[25] and in other territories including Germany.[26]

The World Snooker Federation.[27]

The 2008 Bahrain Championship was the first ranking tournament to be staged in the Middle East, which cost the organisation around £500,000 in prize money and organisational costs. One session at the event did not attract any audience, and the largest attendance for any of the sessions was 150.[28][29] In 2019, World Snooker announced that there would be a ranking event in Saudi Arabia in 2020, the first in a ten-year series. Amnesty International criticised the announcement, due to its concerns about the human rights in the country.[30]

The WPBSA supports coaching in cue sports through an accredited programme, and 2013 it initiated the "Cue Zone into Schools" programme, which took scaled-down tables into schools and was intended to interest school children in taking up the game.[31] In 2019, the WPBSA announced the creation of an All-party parliamentary group for Snooker, chaired by Conor Burns.[32]

In 2015, the Association submitted an unsuccessful bid for snooker to be played at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[33][34] Another bid has been put forward for Paris 2024 through a branch of the association formed in 2017, the World Snooker Federation.[35][27]

Criticism and controversy

In 2001, in a legal case brought by Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and their management company, the WPBSA was found to have taken advantage of its dominant position in the snooker market by forcing its members to seek permission to play in tournaments, which could allow the WPBSA to prevent rival organisations from competing with it.[36][37] Former WPBSA chairman Geoff Foulds lost a libel case that he had brought against The Daily Mirror when it accused him of submitting falsified expense claims to the WPBSA.[38]

The body has received criticism in the late 2000s. John Higgins has been particularly vocal in his opinion that World Snooker has not done enough to promote the game in new territories, particularly in Eastern Europe. The rival World Series of Snooker was launched by a consortium including Higgins in 2008.[39]

When World Snooker scheduled the 2008 Bahrain Championship on dates which clashed with Premier League Snooker matches scheduled five months earlier with World Snooker approval, this caused four leading players (including Higgins) to miss the Bahrain event and consequently lose ranking points—Higgins called the clash "laughable".[40] Premier League organiser Barry Hearn commented that "I am very disappointed and I can't understand why World Snooker hasn't discussed dates with us", while Higgins and his manager Pat Mooney threatened legal action over the ranking points situation.[41] In response, World Snooker referred to the Premier League being a "third-party promoter", noted that they run events on 11 out of 13 weeks between September and November, and (ignoring the threat of legal action if the players involved broke their Premier League contract) declared that "our members have the freedom of choice to pick which tournaments to participate in". The idea of scheduling the event in free time in January or March, or arranging it in advance of Premier League scheduling, was not mentioned.[42]

In 2008, the Association's benevolent fund was investigated for accounting irregularities and the apparent involvement in the decision-making process of WPBSA officials.[43] The decision to decline an application for a grant from Chris Small, a former player who retired due to Ankylosing spondylitis, was also criticised by several of the game's leading figures.[44]

gollark: Did you know that there are actually three independent XTMF writer programs, and three reader ones (two for ingame use, one for playing back tapes on the desktop for some bizarre reason)?
gollark: You are *really* repetitive, qez.
gollark: If I were to redesign it, it would probably use CBOR in place of JSON, possibly apply some sort of minimal compression library, and include a "track type" field of some kind.
gollark: XTMF is admittedly not the best-designed standard, in retrospect.
gollark: See, thanks to it loading standardized XTMF tapes, instead of... having me hardcode the tracks on the computer or something... I can just put in tapes and it'll handle them fine.

References
  1. "World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (The): Accounts for a small company made up to 30 June 2019". Companies House, Government of the United Kingdom. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  2. "WCBS: World Confederation of Billiards Sports". wcbs.sport. World Confederation of Billiards Sports. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  3. "About us". wst.tv. World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  4. "World Snooker Tour". wpbsa.com. WPBSA. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  5. Philips, Owen (9 January 2020). "Barry Hearn: Snooker's elite can 'go or pass' on Saudi Arabia tournament". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  6. "World Billiards". wpbsa.com. WPBSA. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  7. "World Billiards Ltd: Incorporation". Companies House, Government of the United Kingdom. 30 November 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  8. "Restructure For World Ladies Snooker". wpbsa.com. WPBSA. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  9. "About". womenssnooker.com. World Women's Snooker. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  10. "Women's Snooker". wpbsa.com. WPBSA. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  11. "Get Inspired: How to get into snooker, billiards and pool". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  12. "About Us". wdbs.info. World Disability Billiards and Snooker. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  13. "Jason Ferguson Appointed WPBSA Chairman". worldsnooker.com. 2 November 2010. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  14. Rowland, James (21 December 2001). "Snooker: Troubled Ferguson falters on and off the table". The Independent. London. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  15. Clive Everton (2 December 2011). Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards: The Inside Story of the Snooker World. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78057-399-1.
  16. Morrison, Ian (1989). Snooker: records, facts and champions. Guinness Superlatives Ltd. ISBN 0851123643.
  17. "Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare". UK Parliament. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  18. "WPBSA v TSN". BBC News. BBC. 16 February 2001. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  19. Hoyle, Edmond; Dawson, Lawrence Hawkins. The Complete Hoyle's Games. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. p. 311. ISBN 1-85326-316-8.
  20. "Tough first round for Pulman". Billiards and Snooker. Billiards Association and Control Council. August 1968. p. 6.
  21. "B.A. & C.C. Official". Billiards and Snooker. Billiards Association and Control Council. September 1969. p. 8.
  22. "Untitled article". Billiards and Snooker. Billiards Association and Control Council. October 1970. p. 4.
  23. Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Rose Villa Publications. p. 7. ISBN 978-0954854904. While the BA and CC had tried to run the professional game, they failed miserably, and in 1971 the WPBSA took it over completely.
  24. "World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (The)". Companies House, Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  25. Wilson, bill (24 April 2015). "Snooker looks to cue up more big breaks in China". BBC. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  26. Nunns, Hector (3 February 2014). "How Germany fell in love with snooker". BBC. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  27. "About". worldsnookerfederation. World Snooker Federation. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  28. Kane, Desmond (18 August 2008). "Snooker gets a lifeline". The National. Abu Dhabi. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  29. Everton, Clive (6 September 2009). "Dearth of sponsors has snooker in a back spin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  30. Hafeez, Shamoon (8 December 2019). "Saudi Arabia to host World Snooker ranking event for first time". BBC. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  31. "The Role of the WPBSA". wpbsa.com. WPBSA. 18 August 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  32. "WPBSA launches parliamentary group". wst.tv. World Snooker. 9 January 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  33. "Snooker bids to be included in 2020 Olympics in Tokyo". BBC Sport. 23 January 2015. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  34. "Olympic Games: Snooker misses out on 2020 Tokyo place". BBC Sport. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  35. Reuters staff (8 November 2017). "Snooker among cue sports targeting Paris 2024, federation chief says". Reuters. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  36. Adam Lewis; Jonathan Taylor; Nick De Marco; James Segan (1 January 2016). Challenging Sports Governing Bodies. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-78043-988-4.
  37. Everton, Clive (6 October 2001). "Rival circuit gets the green light". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  38. Buckley, Will (4 February 2001). "Potted history of an unseemly cycle of hate". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  39. "Higgins excited about World Series". setanta.com. 17 June 2008. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  40. "John Higgins blasts snooker chiefs over scheduling clash". Daily Record. 23 August 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  41. "Top players set to miss new Bahrain snooker tournament". 20 August 2009. Archived from the original on 24 August 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  42. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 2008-10-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  43. "Snooker: Snooker Body Investigated Over Running of Charity Fund". Buzzle.com. Guardian News & Media 2008. 9 March 2007. Archived from the original on 26 April 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  44. Blackey, Michael (30 July 2008). "Ex-snooker star Chris gives up cash battle". Edinburgh Evening News. Edinburgh. p. 1. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
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