Emily Frazer talks tackling World Nineball Tour challenges with major streaming deal

The World Nineball Tour has secured a major streaming deal with ESPN, bringing the US Open and Mosconi Cup to the broadcaster. CEO Emily Frazer says the partnership aims to elevate nineball pool as a professional sport, overcoming broadcast and sponsorship challenges.

The World Nineball Tour has struck a major new streaming deal, hoping to ‘move the needle’ with the Mosconi Cup and US Open https://metro.co.uk/tag/us-open/ arriving on ESPN. The US Open in Texas this August will see the tournament make its debut on the broadcasting giant, while the Mosconi Cup returns to ESPN from Orlando, Florida in November. Emily Frazer, CEO of Matchroom Multi Sport, told Metro : ‘We’re super excited to get the news out to the pool fans, but also show ESPN our viewership for the pool. ‘Obviously I see it with our own subscription platform, WNT TV, I see it with our social media. ‘I know that there is huge potential for Nineball pool over here. I want to move the needle for them and this collaboration is really big news for the sport.’ Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. Streaming on ESPN+ is a US venture, but putting it into a UK context, Frazer said: ‘I see what it does when we do snooker events with coverage on a major broadcaster. This would be like the Mosconi and UK Open, going live on a BBC https://metro.co.uk/tag/bbc-2/ or ITV https://metro.co.uk/tag/itv/ sport. That’s how big it feels.’ Matchroom Sport unveiled the World Nineball Tour in 2023 https://metro.co.uk/2023/04/12/world-nineball-tour-unveiled-as-barry-hearn-aims-to-replicate-darts-breakaway-success-18600320/ , launching an attempt to replicate the success of the Professional Darts https://metro.co.uk/tag/darts/ Corporation on the pool table rather than the oche. There are significant challenges to the project, in a packed sporting landscape and specifically in pool, which sees a range of disciplines fighting for prominence. On those hurdles Matchroom are trying to leap over, Frazer explained: ‘One of the main things that we’re doing at Matchroom Pool is trying to showcase to the world that nineball can be a professional sport. ‘It has that image that’s not considered as professional as snooker, for example. But darts had that image years ago and it’s really turned around. ‘Nineball is the way forward and us partnering with ESPN, it puts more eyeballs on it as an actual professional sport. And I want to showcase my best two events, basically ESPN now has those two.’ She continued: ‘I would say broadcast and sponsorship are the real challenges when it comes to nineball and the growth towards being a mainstream sport. ‘Recent collaborations we’ve had, for instance, with talkSPORT, they’ve been taking one exclusive table at the UK Open, and they had some great numbers. TalkSPORT were never showing any pool before on their channels. ‘Broadcast has always been something that’s held us back in trying to get pool out there as a proper professional sport.But ESPN will open the doors to a lot more people. ‘I hope they will tune in to the Mosconi Cup this year. It’ll be an incredible atmosphere, and they’ll go, “Oh, my gosh, I need to get there How do I get there?” But it will be in Europe the following year. So then all of a sudden, it builds up the demand for when we head back to America in 2028. You need to create a demand for these events and that is what is happening.’ Darts continues to be an inspiration for what Matchroom want to do with pool, with Luke Humphries https://metro.co.uk/tag/luke-humphries/ beating Luke Littler https://metro.co.uk/tag/luke-littler/ in front of 5,000 fans to win the US Darts Masters at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden last month. ‘I was sat at MSG, Thursday and Friday for the US Darts Masters https://metro.co.uk/tag/the-masters/ and I sat in that arena looking around,’ Frazer says. ‘I’m looking at every single person in there: what age they are, who they’re with, is it a couple that’s come in? Is it a group of friends? Are they in fancy dress? How long are they there for? How tanked up they are? Who’s queuing up for the bar? ‘I look around at 5,000 people in there. The next morning, I wake up and I go, “How the hell do I do this with the pool? How do I imitate this?” I just find it exciting. ‘Something like this, partnering with ESPN gets us on the map and that’s even more motivation. It wakes you up, it excites you. ‘And it’s fun being here on the ground in America whilst it’s happening, because you’re thinking so much bigger picture, which really excites me, because we know the US is our market. Nineball originated here, it’s got the history here. This is our market.’