EUROSPORT EVENTS and FSTC SPORTS MANAGEMENT, the management company of John Higgins’, Graeme Dott & Michaela Tabb , are proud to announce the launch in 2008 of a new Snooker ‘World Series” to be run from May through August of each year.
The “World Series” will start with 4 events in 2008 and has scheduled growth to 8/10 events by 2010.
The series will open in Poland in June 2008 and will then travel to Jersey and Russia with the fourth venue in central Europe to be announced soon. Its format will be invitational and the events will gather the world’s best players from the top 20, occasional wild cards as well as local players.
John Higgins, the 2007 World Champion says: “After I won the World Championship I was determined to capitalise on this by developing Professional Snooker into regions where we know it is popular. We spent the summer visiting countries such as Russia, the Middle and Far East and also ran a pilot event in Warsaw, Poland. I could not believe how popular the game was in these regions and have to say I was over the moon to find myself being recognised and signing autographs on the streets of Moscow.”
“This new Series will complement the Ranking Events run by World Snooker, and hopefully will pave the way for the expansion of Professional Snooker internationally. The support from the players and management as well as the enthusiasm and energy they have shown in assisting the development of the Series has been fantastic” comments Pat Mooney, CEO of FSTC Sports Management.
“We will be taking an attractive and stylish festival of Snooker to each of some of the most prestigious locations in the world and will be working exceptionally hard to give our sponsors and commercial partners the type of product and hospitality they deserve from such a high profile sport.” he adds.
“Snooker has a long tradition on Eurosport! With 300 hours of coverage every year, we are proud to have contributed to the development of its popularity throughout Europe. We believe in the potential of this high profile sport and we are delighted to collaborate and support this project with top experts like John Higgins and Pat Mooney” says Jacques Béhar, President and CEO of Eurosport Events.
“The launch of this new Series also marks an important step for the development of Eurosport Events as it deepens our multisport expertise and extends our portfolio comprised today of international events in motorsports, equestrianism and sailing.” he concludes.
Eurosport Events will be responsible for the expansion of this series. It will be the licensing agent handling the international distribution of worldwide media rights (including TV rights) and will also manage the sale of the marketing rights and international communications.
The Snooker World Series will receive extensive TV coverage including live transmissions on Eurosport, Europe’s n°1 sports TV channel reaching over 112 millions homes across 59 countries, completed by extensive coverage on Eurosport Asia, Eurosportnews and eurosport.com.
2008 SNOOKER WORLD SERIES CALENDAR
Warsaw Poland 7-8 June
St Hellier Jersey 21-22 June
1 venue in Europe to be announced 28-29 June
Moscow Russia 12-13 July
About FSTC SPORTS MANAGEMENT
FSTC Sports Management have been established as a sub division of FSTC (T&C) Ltd, an international consultancy with its roots in major international projects and event management within the Financial Sector. FSTC Sports Management Ltd manage the affairs of the last two World Champions, John Higgins and Graeme Dott, as well as the portfolio of the world’s foremost female referee Michaela Tabb. FSTC Sports Management secured John Higgins as an Executive Director, shareholder and investor this year and has already established itself at the forefront of sports management within the Snooker arena. FSTC Sports Management will focus on the development of high profile, stylish events and will be scouring the world in its search for the most exciting and promising young snooker players.
About EUROSPORT EVENTS
Eurosport Events is the event management arm of Eurosport Group. Created in May 2007, it is a specialist division in the organisation, management and promotion of international sporting events.
Eurosport Events is today involved in motorsport series such as the FIA World Touring Car Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the Formula Master and the CIK-FIA Karting World Championship, in the Global Champions Tour (equestrianism show jumping) and in sailing events such as the Trophée Clairefontaine and the new round the world race, the SolOceans.
Eurosport Events is in charge of the events’ organisation, from TV production to media rights distribution (via Eurosport Group’s own media and through sublicensing), as well as the sale of the marketing rights and international communications.
About EUROSPORT GROUP
The Eurosport Group is the leading sports multimedia platform in Europe with Eurosport, Eurosport 2, eurosport.com, Eurosportnews and Eurosport Mobile. Eurosport, the leading European channel, is available in 20 different languages reaching 112 million homes and 240 million viewers across 59 countries. Eurosport 2, the new generation sports channel launched in 2005, is transmitted to 25 million households in 11 languages across 43 different countries. Eurosport’s 8 websites include four co-branded sites with Yahoo! in the UK, Spain, Germany, and Italy, as well as eurosport.com local language sites in China, Russia, France and Sweden, establishing Eurosport as a leading player for sports information and networking online with 7 million unique visitors per month across all sites. Eurosportnews provides up-to-date worldwide sports news and is transmitted worldwide. Eurosport Mobile offers Live streaming, WAP & I-Mod services with the latest sports news and Live results.
Contacts
FSTC SPORTS MANAGEMENT
Pat Mooney, CEO
Tel. + 44 01786 458108
mailto:pat.mooney@fstcollege.com
EUROSPORT EVENTS
Gilles Durand, Communications Director
Tel. + 33 1 40 93 96 06
gdurand@eurosport.com