Will the John Higgins match fixing claims impact Snooker's sponsorship and marketing?
The marketing and sponsorship of Snooker are being questioned following allegations made by tabloid newspaper, the News of The World, that Snooker World Champion John Higgins is involved in match fixing.
The now suspended Higgins and his agent, Pat Mooney, were filmed by the newspaper apparently agreeing to £261,000 in return for arranging the outcome of four frames within the next year.
Both have denied any wrong doing, with Barry Hearn, chairman of Snooker’s governing body declaring that a decision would be due in the coming days.
Questions have been raised about Hearn’s future within the sport too, with Hearn looked upon as the possible saviour for marketing the ailing sport. He had admitted that the revelations this morning were ‘a body blow’ to his plans to revitalise the sport.
Already recommendations have been made that the sport should somehow distance itself from the betting world, a very difficult option for any sport to take, especially with bookmaker BetFred acting as headline sponsor of The World Championships, the final of which is being played on the same day as the video has been released.
“The fact that there is a bookmaker acting as a sponsor really doesn’t come into it,” says Gary McCall, director of sports marketing agency Banana Kick, who has attended this year’s World Championships, describing them as ‘fantastic’ and ‘very family friendly’.
“There are hundreds of thousands of bookmakers, and, of course Snooker is a global game now. Some of the Far East markets are extremely heavy betting markets. You cannot prevent betting on the game. That is impossible. But the game will need to make the decision as to whether they may seem to take themselves away a little bit from bookmaking.”
McCall continues, stating that he did not believe that sponsors, both current or potential sponsors, would look to walk away from Snooker as it turns the corner, even should the current allegations against its world champion prove to be founded.
“In every sport you get the odd bad apple and in the main, as a very family orientated sport, I would have thought that they would still be looking to secure additional sponsorship going forward. There will still be sponsors out there for snooker because there are not many global games you can sponsor and clearly when you look at football, the money is just absolutely ridiculous there. Because the Snooker authorities have acted very decisively I think that will probably secure sponsorship – be that the current or new sponsors.”
As to how important the continued involvement of sporting events promoter, Barry Hearn is in marketing the sport, McCall indicates that this is the most crucial factor in the situation, that he remain on board.
“If he was to remove himself because of what has happened, snooker will take a few steps back. He is a very dynamic individual. Obviously he’s gotten involved in snooker having had a great deal of experience in Sport, having also worked in darts and Boxing. It needs a charismatic character to take it forward really, so it would be a real shame if he was to remove himself from the game.”