Perform Signs World Snooker Deal
World Snooker has signed a new five year agreement with digital sports media company Perform, to live stream all professional tournaments online across its new website and via bookmaker sites through Perform’s Watch&Bet service – opening the sport up to a global audience.
A new website, www.liveworldsnooker.tv has been launched and will be the online home of World Snooker events.
All tournaments will be streamed, including ranking event qualifiers and Players Tour Championship events.
Streaming will not be available in territories where live broadcast of the tournaments are accessible.
Fans will be able to sign up to the site on a subscription basis, for a fee of £2.99 per month or £29.99 per year.
This will give them access to live matches, with high quality streaming, reliable content and match commentary.
The service will feature over 800 World Snooker matches per year, which will be made available across Watch&Bet, PERFORM’s live broadcasting service for bookmaker websites.
World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said: ‘This is a hugely significant deal in terms of getting snooker out to the furthest corners of the globe. For people who love snooker but live in territories like North America or South America where there isn’t much of it on TV, they can go online and see every tournament’.
‘It doesn’t matter if you live in the Arctic Circle or the darkest corner of Africa, all you need is a computer, an internet connection and a credit card and you can watch top class snooker with excellent, reliable quality and commentary. The pricing is very reasonable and I believe £29.99 a year to watch up to 30 events is phenomenal value’.
‘Perform are leading experts on streaming and I have worked with them on other sports including darts, with great success. They will also play a role in the production of content and we have no doubt about their capacity to deliver’.
Oliver Slipper, Joint-CEO at Perform, added: ‘We’re delighted to add the World Snooker tournaments to our portfolio of LIVESPORT events and across Watch&Bet. These platforms provide snooker with an opportunity to reach millions of fans globally and also provide an opportunity to commercialise content in regions and sectors that were not previously available’.
The first tournament to be streamed live will be the Shanghai Masters qualifiers, which started on Monday, 1st August.
A full schedule of events and details of how to sign up for the service are available at www.liveworldsnooker.tv
