Ex-World Snooker Tour (WST) chairman Barry Hearn has insisted that he would not have brought in the new minimum guaranteed salary for lower-ranked players in the sport. All 130 players on the tour have been promised at least £20,000 for the 2022/23 season in a trial that amounted to a £2.6million cash injection.
Several of the top snooker players had been calling for the prize money to be redistributed across the game. If a player collects more than £20,000 over the season, the payment will be deducted from their overall earnings.
The move has been praised but Hearn has admitted that he would not have made the same call if he was still in charge of the WST. The Matchroom Sport president believes that the drive to earn money in snooker can help produce incredible scenes, but they have now lost a “brutal” element that he was fond of.
“I probably would never have brought that in (£20,000 basic expenses for contracted players),” Hearn told BettingSites.co.uk. “Because I like death and glory. Get in there and win, and make a lot of money. Or you starve, and that’s brutal, but sport is brutal. And I always felt that you need to put that thought in people’s heads. Ruthlessness. This is not a world for losers. We can’t all win, but we can all try to win.”
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Barry Hearn is against a new snooker minimum wage after a star said that “90% of players are skint.”
Former World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn has spoken out against the sport’s new minimum guaranteed wage.
JACK MCEACHEN wrote this.
13:57, November 3, 2023 | UPDATED: 13:57, November 3, 2023
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Ex-World Snooker Tour (WST) chairman Barry Hearn has claimed that he would not have introduced the new minimum guaranteed salary for lower-ranked players in the sport, according to Mark Selby. In a trial that amounted to a £2.6million cash injection, all 130 players on the tour were promised at least £20,000 for the 2022/23 season.
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