23 January 2023 , 14:10
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Emily Frazer was working as a Matchroom floor manager, huddled around a pool table in the Philippines with 500 plus fans, when the penny dropped.
The public interest in the sport's World Cup event was clearly there. The exposure, clarity, and management around it however, all represented a badly missed opportunity. And Frazer wasn't about to let things slide any longer.
"You had all these levels of people leaning over things just to watch, it was mad," she told Mirror Sport. "And I sat there thinking ‘this is crazy’. I was sitting by the referees and just said ‘what is this? teach me the rules’.
At that point, Matchroom multi-sport were running just three pool events a year - the World Cup, Masters, and iconic Mosconi Cup. But with viewership on the increase, Frazer decided it was time to "think outside the box," and learn from the growth of other sports.
“Because we’re (Matchroom) under this multi sport umbrella we would do a netball 'fast five', we’d go and do a gymnastics event at the O2. And then I’d go to the darts, or the boxing and just thought ‘imagine if pool got that big’. But you can’t get that big if you’re only doing three events a year. I said we need more content.
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“Opportunities started coming. The US Open went up for grabs and we acquired that. Now we sell out 256 players for events within two minutes, and that’s at 750 dollars an entry. They’ve set up these events across the different continents and we’ve got a US Open, a UK Open, and an Asian Open. And of course now we’ve acquired the World Championships."
Fast forward to now and the company is running 10 annual Nineball events at locations around the world. And Frazer, who since July 2020 was been managing director of Matchroom Multi Sport, explained that providing clarity to fans has been instrumental in the success.
“It didn’t change overnight, there were blood sweat and tears, but a year ago we made this huge investment in Nineball world rankings," she said. "You’ve got the governing body of the sport but there are so many disciplines in pool. We were getting lost when we were trying to pitch the events to broadcasters and sponsors.
“So we came up with this rebrand of Nineball. We figured out all of the rankings contained all these disciplines, it was very confusing, it wasn’t transparent, it wasn’t fair on the players. Now they’ve got a circuit of £2 million dollars prize money for just the Matchroom events. A system where they can earn ranking points to get into the Mosconi Cup and get seeded for the World Championships."
Current focus will be on the latter event, with the 2023 version taking place in Poland next month. But Frazer's ambition to revolutionise is not confined to pool alone: "We take these niche sports, like ping pong, fishing, ten pin bowling, pool, netball, gymnastics, and we turn them into entertainment. There’s always a balance between the sporting side and entertainment but we make it appeal to a wider audience. We’re not about taking away hardcore fans but adding to hardcore sports fans.”
Not all ideas have passed through HQ as yet though, to Frazer's apparent amusement: "We created the golden buzzer. They hit on that at netball and get double points for two minutes. In that event it works so well. We tried it in the gymnastics and in the ping pong, I keep getting crucified by my team about getting it into pool, they say the day we do that they'll quit."
Frazer's Matchroom contribution has now extended beyond a decade, and arguably, a female in a high-profile sports management role could be seen as a triumph for equality. But it's a notion that the supremo herself hasn't even considered.
“I’ve never thought about it whatsoever," she said. "When I first came in I was given an opportunity because I was a hard worker, so as far as I was concerned it didn’t matter who you were. Working for someone like Barry (Hearn) is really motivational and inspirational. Every time I come out of his office I feel like I’m ready to go to war."
Her work has undoubtedly opened opportunities for female pool players though, seemingly not before time. “All of our nine ball events our now open to everyone which is a a big thing for women players. And Nineball is a sport where you can have crossover. I’m very much a girls’ girl, I’m always championing girls coming in."
And what of the future? Where will the sport of pool be in 12 months time? “You’ll know the rules of Nineball, 100%!" she joked. "It’s a global, professional sport. We have the likes of Joe Rogan interviewing our players on his podcast, CBS did a feature for 60 minutes in December. We are ticking the right boxes and moving in the right direction. We have to keep pushing and be relentless, and provide a platform for these players so they can earn the type of money that snooker and PDC players are earning. It will happen because I won’t quit until it does. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”
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With Frazer at the wheel, the smart money would be on sooner.
The World Pool Championship will be shown on Sky Sports between the 1st and 5th of February