Broadcast Sport speaks to Matchroom Multi Sport chief Emily Frazer about her plans for the organisation

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“We’ve got to try and find the balance where we don’t p*** off the hardcore fans, but we do bring in a load of new fans that help really maximise our sport.”

Matchroom Multi Sport CEO Emily Frazer was speaking to Broadcast Sport at the Mosconi Cup earlier this month, where the company is showing off its latest steps in growing pool. 

Taking place at Alexandra Palace, the Ryder Cup-esque tournament which Europe won for the sixth year running boasted an enhanced production this year, with Matchroom Media taking over the majority of duties from Sky Sports - while the latter still broadcast the competition.

While previous editions have had around seven cameras, this year saw 12 in use, with two locked on the table, two super slow motion cameras covering play, a jib in the arena, a shallow depth of field RF camera for walk ons, remote cameras in the practice room and players’ sofas, and another in the fan village. A team of 40, including the on screen team and commentators, ran it, with Sky providing a director, DA and producer. 

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However, while these production enhancements are sure to help bring in new fans, Frazer is aware that a wider effort will be needed to continue the World Nineball Tour’s growth. “Our job isn’t just putting together the arena, getting the TV cameras there, and putting the event on. Our job is so much more than that.” 

As an example of how far the organisation has had to com, when Frazer took leadership of Matchroom Multi Sport five years ago, the players, “didn’t even have social media accounts. They had some Facebook accounts, but it was very, very unprofessional.”

Emily Frazer Matchroom

The first steps, such as “trying to get them to realise that actually your social media account is your brand,” have now been taken, and the tour and players are beginning to see the resulting success. Frazer reveals, “Now a lot of the players have got sponsors off of the back of their social media following,” and the sport has spawned the likes of TikTok star AJ Manus. 

In the process of reaching new fans on social media, Matchroom Multi Sport isn’t afraid of covering controversial moments. During the Mosconi Cup it put out a clip of Europe captain Jayson Shaw, “a great guy off the table, with brilliant family,” arguing with fans. “If you’re not jumping on things like that and sharing, then you’re just hiding away from it,” Frazer explains, adding that the moment had already gone out live on Sky, so if they didn’t cover it then someone else easily could have done. 

This entertainment factor is part of the Matchroom formula, which has seen such success across the likes of darts, boxing and more, but Frazer isn’t just looking to copy other parts of the company’s stable. While, “we’re in such a fortunate spot, because we have these other sports we could look towards,” they know, “Not everything that works in darts will work in pool.” The company has looked outside of Matchroom events too, taking trips to see WWE among others, looking for what could work for them. 

There have been some isolated missteps, and a feature where fans could choose one of the Europe and USA players at the Mosconi Cup, “was becoming very gimmicky,” but Frazer is clear that won’t stop the team from trying new things. Eventually those missteps can evolve into successes too - the Fan’s Choice became a fan prediction feature which is now shown in broadcasts. 

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Now the World Nineball Tour and Matchroom are looking for where to expand next, including in broadcast. It launched D2C platform WNT TV earlier this year, and, “been really blown away with the success of it.” In particular, “One thing that we’ve noticed that we can see, compared with the other sports under our roof, is that our engagement time and our minutes watched is really high.”

In the UK, looking at snooker’s success with the BBC and now Channel 5, Frazer also added, “If we could get an opportunity to go free to air, we could really do something different.”

The Tour won’t stop there, though, with continued global expansion on the agenda: “Now I look at those WNT subscribers on a map and think, ‘where can I go next?’”