Matchroom Sport is a sporting event promotions company founded by English
entrepreneur Barry Hearn
Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sporting events promoter and the founder and President of promotions company Matchroom Sport.
Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including snooker, darts, pool ...
and run by Hearn and his son
Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
and
boxing and is also involved in
pool,
bowling,
golf,
fishing,
darts,
table tennis,
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
and
gymnastics. The company is based in
Brentwood, Essex
Brentwood is a town in the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is in the London commuter belt, situated 20 miles (30 km) east-north-east of Charing Cross and close by the M25 motorway. In 2017, the popula ...
.
Matchroom has broadcasting agreements in the United Kingdom with
Sky Sports, the
BBC and
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
.
History
Matchroom formed in 1982 concentrating on snooker management with the likes of
Steve Davis,
Dennis Taylor, and
Jimmy White under contract before branching out into other sports with Hearn's first foray into boxing promotion being the Frank Bruno vs. Joe Bugner heavyweight clash in 1987 in front of 35,000 people at
White Hart Lane.
The range of sports increased in 1994 with the
Mosconi Cup, an event which sees teams from Europe and the United States compete in a 9-ball
pool tournament. It has become a major event on the professional pool calendar.
Over the years, Matchroom's portfolio under Hearn grew, taking a majority stake in the
Professional Darts Corporation
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World ...
in 2001, helping oversee a growth in the sport.
Matchroom Sport also promote the
World Cup of Pool, a national team event, and the
World Pool Masters The World Pool Masters is an annual international nine-ball tournament. Formerly, it was called the European Pool Masters (until 1995) until players from other parts of the globe were invited.
History
Throughout much of its history, the tournament ...
, an annual nine-ball event.
In 2002, the company formed
PGA EuroPro Tour
The PGA EuroPro Tour was a men's developmental professional golf tour. It was created in 2002 by the merger of two development tours, the EuroPro Tour and the PGA MasterCard Tour, as the Professional Golfers' Association and Barry Hearn's Match ...
, the UK's leading developmental golf tour, in association with the PGA. Later, in the 2000s, came ten pin bowling's
Weber Cup. In 2009, Barry Hearn became the majority shareholder in
World Snooker Tour Ltd. Since then the sport has grown, with prize money increased and new events introduced worldwide.
More recently, Matchroom has launched the
World Championship of Ping Pong, Superstars of Gymnastics, British Basketball All-Stars, and British Fast5 Netball All-Stars.
In April 2021, Barry Hearn stepped down as chairman with his son Eddie taking over the role. Barry will continue as president in an advisory role, while Eddie takes over as head of the PGA EuroPro tour, alongside overseeing Matchroom's wider operations and continuing to head the boxing division.
Boxing
Current stable
References
{{Reflist
External links
Matchroom Sport homepage
Leisure companies of the United Kingdom
Sports event promotion companies
Snooker event promotion companies
Boxing promoters