According to Telegraph, The BBC has retained the UK rights to snooker’s three biggest and most prestigious events – the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters. The deal is worth 6.5 mil €.
In recent months, the BBC has been forced to offload rights to rugby’s SixNations, golf’s OpenChampionship, tennis’s AustralianOpen, and, most recently, Formula One. Snooker rights was also under threat, but broadcster has decided to retain snooker rights.
Snooker has been invented in India by British Army officers and is popular in many of the English-speaking countries, with top professional players attaining multi-million-pound career earnings. The sport is now increasingly popular in China.
Proffesional era began with Joe Davis in the 1930s and continued up until nodern era which is marked with a domination of Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Betferd World Championship 2016
The World Championship, sponsored by Betfred until 2017, is snooker’s most important event.
Each Spring, the very best snooker players in the world are trying to lift the most prestigious snooker trophy.
Since 1977, the tournament as been staged at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and it will be also staged from the 16 April until 2nd May 2016.
The Current Champion is Stuart Bingham and he will try to repeat Ronnie O’Siullivans succes from 2013 and defend the title.
Host broadcaster is BBC Sport and the event is watched by nearly 400 million people worldwide.