Ronnie O’sullivan Signs With Eurosport

Eurosport has signed an exclusive deal with reigning World and Masters Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan to become its global ambassador for snooker, in a bid to help drive the international appeal for the sport.

The role will see Eurosport and O’Sullivan team up to create “The Ronnie O’Sullivan Show”, a series of snooker programmes looking at all aspects of the game with the five-time World Champion.

The programmes, which will be broadcast in 54 countries across Europe, will include tournament previews and reviews, snooker techniques and Masterclasses as well as interviews with snooker players and other sporting stars and take a lighter view of the sport.

The first episode of the show will be broadcast on Tuesday 25th March, the opening day of the Players Championship Grand Final, when Ronnie will reflect on the season to date including his win at the Masters in January.

The second show is then scheduled for Wednesday 16th April when Ronnie will be in Sheffield to look back on his fifth World Championship win at the Crucible last year, but also to look at the future of the sport at the Star Snooker Academy in the city as well as catching up with some of the Asian players based there.

O’Sullivan said of his new role: ‘I am really excited by this new development in my career and the opportunity to work with Eurosport who are working hard to generate international interest in snooker.’

‘This project allows me to keep playing, but also to do something a bit different. Eurosport is helping to grow the game in Europe, so I can demonstrate the skills of the game and share my passion for the sport with a new audience, which is something that really motivates me. I also have the chance to share what it’s like to be a professional snooker player and look at some of the characters on the Tour.’

‘This series of programmes is something I have wanted to do for some time, Eurosport is the best place to develop the ideas and we are all really keen to get started.’

Arnaud Simon, Eurosport Group’s TV content director added: ‘We want to work with the best experts in every sport. Ronnie is snooker for millions of fans across Europe, he is the player they see as the superstar of the game and we have worked hard to create this opportunity with him to produce an exclusive series of programmes for our passionate and increasingly knowledgeable snooker audience.’ 

In his ambassador role O’Sullivan will also contribute a blog on the Europsport.com network of websites during the 2014 World Snooker Championships.