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World Snooker is the commercial entity responsible for the commercial side of professional snooker. It is owned by World Snooker Holdings Limited, the custodian of the sport's commercial rights.
The WPBSA (World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association) is the regulatory body responsible for rules, drugs testing and billiards.
World Snooker is responsible for running and administrating snooker's professional circuit, including prestigious ranking tournaments such as the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship, UK Championship and the World Open, as well as invitation events such as the Masters.
The 2010/11 season saw several innovative new tournaments added to the calendar, such as the Players Tour Championship - a series of 12 events culminating in a televised finale - the German Masters, World Seniors Championship and the World Snooker Shoot-Out.
World Snooker also negotiates sponsorship for tournaments as well as television contracts. Snooker is one of the most popular sports in the United Kingdom and is played by over 4 million adults. It attracts vast television audiences; the 2011 Betfred.com World Championship final attracted a peak audience of 6.6 million on BBC. In China, a staggering 241 million people watched at least 5 minutes of the tournament.
The sport's popularity is also growing rapidly in many countries around the globe. In 2004, World Snooker signed a deal with Eurosport to beam snooker into over 66 different territories. Snooker programming on Eurosport now reaches over 100 million individuals each season. Viewing figures are particularly high in countries such as Germany, Belgium, Poland, Romania and Holland. Six of the PTC events will be staged in Europe during the 2011/12 season in order to capitalise on this burgeoning interest.
In the Far East, the snooker boom is developing at pace. The China Open staged in Beijing in 2005 was enthusiastically received by Chinese fans. A massive 110 million people watched live on television as Ding Junhui beat Stephen Hendry in the final to elevate himself to the status of national hero. In 2007/08, there were two ranking tournaments in China for the first time, with both events fully-funded under five-year agreements with local promoters with each event being shown on national broadcaster CCTV 5 as well as other regional broadcasters.
Those events - the China Open and Shanghai Masters - have been supplemented by an invitation event, the Wuxi Classic, since 2008.
World Snooker has also taken the sport into the Middle East, with the first ever ranking event in the Kingdom of Bahrain staged in 2008.
The World Snooker Tour is made up of 99 professional players, including household names such as Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Stephen Hendry, Judd Trump and Steve Davis. It's a multi-national tour with players from countries including China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Brazil, Malta and Belgium. In 2010, Australia's Neil Robertson became only the third non-British player to win the World title.
Amateur players also have the chance to compete in the PTC series.
The World Snooker board has seven directors: Barry Hearn (Chairman), Brandon Parker, Eddie Hearn, Steve Dawson, Nigel Oldfield, Miles Pearce and Jason Ferguson.
The WPBSA board has four directors: Jason Fergsuon (Chairman), Nigel Mawer, Steve Davis and Alan Chamberlain.
