As the world Nineball looks excitingly towards the World Pool championship commencement with the release of full prize fund breakdown of the prize money for epic event which will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from June 3-8, with the tournament boasting a $1million purse for the first time in its history.
Fransisco Sanchez Ruiz pocketed $60,000 for becoming world champion last February in Poland but this year’s winner will receive more than four times that amount as they take home a life-changing $250,000 for the top prize.
The 2024 world champion will receive the highest first prize since Darryl Peach and Ronnie Alcano earned $100,000 after winning the 2006 and 2007 titles in the Philippines.
Whoever finishes runner-up will trouser the same six-figure sum that Peach and Alcano received back then, while the semi-finalists will earn $50,000 and the quarter-finalists will receive $27,000.
All 128 players will receive prize money of some kind, with those who endure back-to-back losses in the double elimination phase still pocketing $1,000, while there will also be a bonus of $2,000 for the players who compiles the most break and runs.
In addition, Matchroom have announced that this year’s final will be extended from race-to-13 racks to race-to-15 racks, while the last 64 through to the semi-finals will remain race-to-11 racks.
This year’s World Championship marks the beginning of a ten-year association between the World Nineball Tour and the Saudi Ministry of Sport, with the crown jewel of nineball to be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia until at least 2033.
The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual professional nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1990. The championship is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and principally sponsored and organised by Matchroom Sport, who provide the event’s official website branded as World Pool Championship. The championship is divided into men’s, women’s and wheelchair divisions.
In March 1990, the inaugural WPA World Nine-ball Championship was held in Bergheim, Germany. The playing field included 32 men and 16 women in separate divisions, and has since become an annual event. The event was organised solely by the WPA from this inauguration through 1999.
In July 1999, Matchroom Sport attempted to get involved with the organisation of the event, but their bid failed. The WPA event was played in Alicante, Spain, and won by Nick Varner of the United States. Broadcast on ESPN, it was the first pro nine-ball championship to be televised. Matchroom Sport, meanwhile, instead organised tournament called the “World Professional Pool Championship”, a competing and non-WPA-sanctioned event in Cardiff, Wales, which was won by Efren Reyes of the Philippines
In 2000, Matchroom and the WPA agreed that tournaments would merge into a single official world championship. The WPA also agreed to recognise the results of the 1999 Matchroom event, meaning that official listings show both Varner and Reyes as 1999 world champions. Matchroom changed its promotional name for the event to the “World Pool Championship”, dropping the word “professional” from the title. The event remained in Cardiff through 2003.
Despite the perceived disagreement between the World Pool Association and Matchroom Sport, the 2024 World Pool Championship remains a WPA sanctioned event on it’s calendar but sole organized by Matchroom Sports. We recalled that the WPA had in mid 2023 threatened to sanction any Pool Licensed player who participated in any non sanctioned event starting from Aprill 2024 but the reaction of players and other stakeholders in the sport forced a rethink of the association decision which led to the release of list of events sanction that include 6 competitions solely organized by Matchroom.
WORLD POOL CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
Prize Fund
Champion – $250,000
Runner-up – $100,000
Semi-finalists – $50,000
Quarter-finalists – $27,000
Last 16 – $15,000
Last 32 – $7,000
Last 64 – $3,500
Losers Qualification – $2,000
98-128th – $1,000
Highest break and run bonus – $2,000
Total – $1,000,000
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