Billiards in China
The 10-day China·Yushan 2015 CBSA “Deerle” Cup First Chinese Billiards World Championship ended successfully in Yushan, Jiangxi. The Chinese white pigeon won the women’s championship, while the men’s championship was won by British athlete Albert Ebelton. This tournament not only brought together many domestic Chinese billiards players, but also attracted many foreign snooker masters and nine-ball masters. More importantly, taking this as an opportunity, Chinese billiards with China’s independent intellectual property rights opened a new page for going abroad and spreading across the world. It can be said that China’s billiards has made a milestone.
Once upon a time, from the vagrant sports on the street to the elegant sports in the clubhouse today, when it comes to billiards, the picture in people’s minds is no longer the dusty tattered table on the corner of the street, but the gentleman in suit and leather shoes in the ball room club. The population of 65 million billiards has surpassed the three major billiards. The situation of billiards in China is quietly changing…
On Friday night rush hour, Beijing’s Fourth Ring Road was blocked by long queues of vehicles in both directions. A few blocks away, the crowd at the Star Billiards Club was bustling with noisy sounds, and the hall of thousands of square meters was filled with smoke. People who had experienced a week of hard work started their venting and indulgence on the billiard table. Sleepless at night, in the name of billiards.
At this moment, the same scene is happening in countless ballroom clubs in China. If this scene is defined as the narrow Chinese billiards market, it is indeed booming, at least many people outside the billiards who stand on the threshold would think so. So, what is the current status of the real Chinese billiards market?
sports spawn the ball market
Billiards has entered the lives of ordinary people. It has been recognized as a “city gangster” activity in the streets and lanes since the 1980s. From the early black eight, pool eight ball, sixteen lottery, middle eight and other play styles, to the gradually enriched snooker, American nine ball, etc., it has gradually formed the rich form of billiards nowadays. According to data released by the Small Ball Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports in 2014, for more than 30 years, under the vigorous promotion and guidance of relevant authorities and the Chinese Billiards Association, billiards has grown from an entertainment project for street youths to 6,500 A popular sports with a population of 10,000 billiards, there are also two national training teams with high achievements and professional stars Ding Junhui and Pan Xiaoting with high selling points and popular popularity.
The rise of Chinese billiards gave birth to the ball market. With the ball market, there should be competitions as a platform or window for consumption. As a result, high-level, sophisticated, and cutting-edge events that the public can participate in and fans love to see came into being. Beginning in the 1980s, sporadic private events and manufacturer-oriented celebrity invitational tournaments have flourished. In recent years, there have been explosive breakthroughs. Billiards has become one of the most frequent events in the Chinese sports world. According to Wang Tao, secretary-general of the China Billiards Association, in 2012, for example, there were more than 70 international and domestic competitions registered with the Taiwan Association of China, with a total prize money of more than 40 million yuan. In terms of international competitions, Snooker Class A international professional competitions have increased from the original three stations in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuxi with two stations in Chengdu and Haikou; they continued to host the World 9-Ball China Open and the World Women’s 9-Ball Championship, and founded the World American billiards team championships, etc. The newly launched four-stop Chinese-style billiards ranking game a year (plus 20 qualifying rounds) is more popular with ordinary billiards fans.
With the increase in the billiard population and billiard competitions, related Chinese billiard companies have sprung up. The market capacity continues to grow, which drives the demand for products and promotes the growth of the company. There are dozens of small and medium-sized billiard equipment manufacturers in each province and city, which are mainly family workshops, with a relatively large market share concentrated in several companies such as Xingpai, Qiaoshi, Laili, and Shendi. At present, the official designated table of the domestic mainstream snooker events has long been occupied by Xingpai, and even in the international arena, it also has a place for Chinese companies. As a partner of the world’s snooker, Xingpai has completed the first step of Chinese billiards independent brand enterprises to the world.
Mass participation
Billiards has become a popular entertainment and fitness sport. Beijing’s billiards are relatively well-founded and have a high private penetration rate. It is said that 800,000 to 1 million people play more than twice a week. Billiards is a sports event rooted in the private sector, but the marketization requirements are also high. There are more than 600 companies in Beijing, most of which are self-employed and are under great pressure to survive. In order to gain a foothold in the competition, the ball room has long held various events on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis, and has certain event organization and operation capabilities.
In the past few years, the success of Ding Junhui and others has made the Chinese billiards market hot, and the TV ratings of billiards live broadcasts remain high. People are watching every game of Ding Junhui and admiring Pan Xiaoting’s oriental temperament in front of the nine-ball table!
Before, Beijing had established a 10,000-person billiards competition. There are more than a thousand billiard room clubs in Beijing, and only about 100 have good environment and can meet the competition standards. They are scattered in every corner of the city and the work is very difficult. In order to implement the land for the game, the Beijing Billiards Association held a work meeting for the community 10,000 billiards ranking competition. After the meeting, 29 venues signed on-site to increase the confidence of the organizing committee for successfully holding the game. After nearly two months of hard work, nearly a hundred billiard halls became the official venues of the tournament. As the organizer of the event, Beijing TV will follow up and report on a number of self-recommended or selected contestants from venues, and conduct live broadcast or recording during the final stage.
According to the 2011 China Billiards Market Grassroots Report: From the beginning of 2007 to the end of 2011, the total consumption of Chinese people on billiards was RMB 55.18 billion. Among them, the ranking according to the proportion is: playing 35.9 billion yuan, purchasing billiard equipment 18.1 billion yuan, training 770 million yuan, watching games 380 million yuan, and other consumption of 30 million yuan.
Snooker is coquettish
It is the snooker that Ding Junhui is engaged in that really makes the billiards sport concerned by all walks of life. Snooker is one of the most watched billiards in the world, especially in the United Kingdom, which has a solid foundation. It has been regarded as a mecca for snooker athletes. It is possible to set foot on the British Isles and have a perfect career. . For snooker fans, it is no regrets to watch a world snooker championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, UK.
If snooker was an imported product in the Chinese billiards market more than ten years ago, nowadays, the development of Chinese snooker is surging, making people feel that a new world of snooker has emerged in faraway China. Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Snooker Federation, once said in an interview with Chinese media that snooker, which has a history of 138 years, is related to this ancient place in China, and the result will be iconic. “I even thought Will this be your new national ball in the future”. In the 11 major points ranking matches of the 2013-2014 snooker season, mainland China accounted for half of the country, and Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Chengdu, and Haikou successively held high-level events.
As for Chinese professional athletes, the brigade brigade represented by Ding Junhui is expanding day by day, from single digits in the early years to dozens of people today. In the professional arena, the performance of Chinese athletes has steadily improved. The leader Ding Junhui has won 11 large-scale ranking championships and countless other honors and achievements in more than ten years. Other players, such as Liang Wenbo and Xiao Guodong, have also made considerable breakthroughs and have a place in the world of snooker.
With the help of snooker, the market is becoming more and more popular. The ratings of snooker events announced on CCTV Sports Channel show that billiards, football, and basketball have become the top three in ratings. The live broadcast of key events and key periods even exceeds that of popular basketball and basketball. The ratings of football matches.
Management is getting on track
The prosperous development of professional snooker competitions has flourished in China through several ranking competitions, and has cultivated a large number of billiards spectators. After the blowout period of the development of the event, both the audience and the organizers have become rational. Miles Pierce, Commercial Director of World Snooker Co., Ltd., stated in an interview earlier that with 5 ranking tournaments, the Chinese snooker market is saturated. Barry Hearn, chairman of the World Snooker Association, is currently actively exploring the Indian market. The reason is self-evident. The Chinese market alone is not enough to carry the heavy responsibility of the revival of the snooker movement and needs to find a new foothold.
Perhaps it is based on this starting point that the Chinese billiards industry has begun a path of change. On March 15, 2012, the Small Ball Sports Management Center of the State Sports General Administration announced that all the previous titles of Black Eight, Poole Eight, Sixteen Cai, and Middle Eight were renamed as Chinese billiards, and were issued in accordance with the 2009 National Standardization Committee. The “Billiard Industry Standard” drafted by Xingpai Group, selects uniform standard tables and balls. After more than 30 years of development, China’s local billiards sport has its own official name.
In the same year, the Small Ball Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports launched the first national Chinese billiards ranking competition. This official national competition sponsored by the Chinese Billiards Association and undertaken by Beijing Xingwei Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. adopts the points system and is included in the national ranking system. Player points are sorted.
In 2015, the first Chinese Billiards World Championship came into being. This is the first world-class Chinese billiards tournament in history. The total prize money is as high as 3 million yuan, of which the men’s champion is 600,000 yuan and the women’s champion is 400,000 yuan. Previously, Chinese billiards was only a sport in China. Now, the holding of the World Championships marks that Chinese billiards have moved to the world from now on. It has been accepted and recognized by the world billiards. The dream of Chinese billiards has since been gradually realized.
Xingpai Group Vice Chairman Gan Liantong often said that Chinese billiards are closest to the people and have the most mass foundation. It is quite interesting that the world’s top competition of Chinese billiards was chosen to be held in a small county called Yushan in Jiangxi, China.
Yushan County is rich in metal minerals. The bluestone reserves alone amount to 20 billion cubic meters. The world-renowned star billiards uses Yushan’s high-quality bluestone slabs. In recent years, Yushan County has built the largest billiard table plate production base in the country, with an annual output of more than 30,000 sets of billiard tables and 150,000 billiard tables. All are sold to Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States and other places. At the same time, billiards in the county have also developed vigorously. There are hundreds of billiard cities (clubs) distributed throughout the county, which regularly hold tournaments.
In this competition, the Yushan County Government also signed a cooperation agreement with Xingpai Group. The total investment is about 3 billion yuan. The construction of an international billiard industry cultural project covering an area of about 630 acres is grandly opened. The billiard capital of China and the world billiards The construction of the city has begun to be implemented. This is undoubtedly a happy event in the development of Chinese billiards.
After more than 30 years of development, Chinese billiards has gradually become the center of the world. Thanks to the endless emergence of outstanding athletes, it is also inseparable from the promotion of popularization by local sports departments, billiards associations, billiard companies and social forces. When a sport becomes a normal behavior of people, it takes root here, and billiards has fulfilled its mission.
