Snooker is becoming a much more popular sport attracting many more spectators and participants each year. The world snooker championships held each year in Sheffield, see the world’s most talented snooker players from around the globe battle it out in front of sell out crowds. Many more people are joining snooker teams and beginning to play snooker in their local areas, the popularity stems from the fact that snooker is a social sport, doesn’t take up too much and can be played at almost any time of day or night.
Despite what many people think snooker is actually a relatively new sport compared to other similar activities such as billiards. As a sport, billiards dates back to the early 1300’s and snooker wasn’t derived until the early 1800’s. The first ever snooker tournament actually didn’t take place until 1916 with the first English amateur championships. World snooker was then later introduces in 1927. Similarly to billiards snooker quickly become the most popular sport of the 1930’s and 40’s era. In the late 60’s the hype for the cakhiatv sport continued to increase when the BBC began televising live snooker championships and in the late 70’s rankings of the top world players were a popular craze for spectators.
For many years the UK was the most popular country for snooker, however in recent times China have shown a large interest in the sport and have some of the world’s top players. Experts have said that the future of snooker belongs to China, as Britain is beginning to struggle with the sport financially in terms of sponsorship. However, this is debateable and despite the slight decline in professional snooker, amateur snooker will no doubt retain its popularity in pubs and clubs across the country.