The Hard Rock Cafe
150 Old Park Lane
London
W1K 1QZ
www.internationalpooltour.com
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UPDATED: 12:00 Thursday
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31 May 2006
Vincent Facquet, Nick van den Berg, Gerda Hofstatter, Ronnie O'Sullivan
and IPT Founder Kevin Trudeau, watch a new IPT promotion film on the big screen.
International Pool Tour Press Conference in London
You can read about it in tomorrow's papers, but you can see all the photos at Pro9.co.uk today!
More photos in the morning, and details of how YOU could win loads of cool IPT swag in Pro9.co.uk's "IPT Goodie Bag Give-Away".
Click on "Read More..." for the photos and press release.
The celebrity players in front of a beautiful IPT specification Diamond table.
INTERNATIONAL POOL TOUR TO AIR LIVE ACROSS EUROPE
Major deal with Eurosport Gives Pool its Biggest Live Platform Ever
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
London UK (May 31st, 2006): The International Pool Tour has announced the most comprehensive live broadcast rights package in the history of the sport with its newly-minted deal with Eurosport, the leading tv sports network and multimedia platform throughout Europe. Eurosport and British Eurosport will show live, prime-time coverage of every round of all major IPT events in 2006. The Pan-European network will also air a number of produced IPT highlights programs, including the recent “King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout.” Plans call for approximately two hours nightly of live coverage.
The announcement was made by IPT Founder Kevin Trudeau at a major press conference held today at the Hard Rock Café in London. The press event was attended by most of the major UK media, as well as a number of IPT players such as snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, Gerda Hofstatter, Nick Van den Berg, Vincent Facquet, and a number of other players from the UK. The Hard Rock Café cleared out their main dining room to make room for the pool table, reporters, and television cameras. For pictures of the press conference, please visit www.internationalpooltour.com.
Eurosport, the first pan-European sports channel created in 1989, is now available in 19 different languages, reaches over 107 million homes and over 240 million viewers across 54 countries. British Eurosport, which will also provide live coverage of the IPT, is the most widely available sports channel in the UK, reaching over 10 million homes.
“Eurosport is proud and excited to welcome the International Pool Tour to our line-up of prestigious, world-class sports and sporting events,’ said Arnaud Simon, Eurosport’s Head of Programs. “The IPT clearly is the leader in worldwide pool and we believe our commitment to air its major events live will generate a huge amount of interest in both the sport and its players all across Europe.”
The International Pool Tour joins other major sports franchises on Eurosport including the Winter & Summer Olympics, soccer’s World Cup, Grand Slam Tennis, The Tour De France cycling championship and other top sports organizations such as the PGA Tour. The comprehensive live coverage of the IPT will introduce 8-ball and pool to millions of sports fans in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the UK and across Europe.
“This broadcast deal truly signals the emergence of 8-Ball as a major, world-class sport,” said IPT Founder Trudeau. “Eurosport has the most prestigious events and the best TV coverage and now sports fans throughout Europe can experience the live drama, pressure and excitement of the International Pool Tour.”
The IPT, the pool world’s unrivaled leader in both quality of play and prize money, features the world’s most acclaimed players, including many from Europe such as Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Soquet, Finland’s Mika Immonen, Austria’s Gerda Hofstatter, Nick Van Den Berg and Neils Feijen of the Netherlands, the UK’s Raj Hundal and British snooker stars O’Sullivan and Jimmy White, amongst many others. For the complete IPT player roster, click here.
The first live IPT event to be aired on Eurosport will be the North American 8-Ball Open Championship held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas from July 22nd-July 30th. Players will be competing for $2 million, the largest prize money in the sport’s history. For the complete IPT schedule, including tournament formats and prize money payouts, visit www.internationalpooltour.com.
IPT Executive Director Jon Denny promises unprecedented and exciting production value on the live broadcasts. “Simply put,” said Denny, “No other cue sport will match it.”
Other major worldwide broadcast deals are expected to be announced shortly by IPT officials.
Best regards,
Deno J. Andrews
Tour Director,
International Pool Tour
www.internationalpooltour.com
IPT Founder, Kevin Trudeau, talks to the gathered press.
There were only a couple of photographers, but plenty of press with their laptops open taking notes and interviewing the IPT staff after the presentation of a new, superb looking IPT tour promotional film with clips from the King of the Hill event and some cracking quotes from the players. The video was similar to the one on the IPT website, but with alternative quotes and extra footage and did look fantastic as all the IPT generally does. If there's one thing the IPT do well, it's create an incredible amount of hype and excitement, and everyone was left feeling very positive about this tour and very excited about the promise of LIVE TV coverage across Europe of the IPT events.
Kevin Trudeau answers questions from the press.
Gerda Hofstatter listens as Ronnie O'Sullivan talks about his future playing 8-Ball.
Ronnie O'Sullivan showed some beautiful skill shots while he ran out two racks
against Gerda Hofstatter, playing left handed occasionally too.
Ronnie played two exhibition quality racks not missing a shot and generally looked hot and pretty unbeatable at the table.
You should have been there to see it, it was great!
Ronnie O'Sullivan made it all look easy.
IPT Tour Director Deno Andrews sets up the balls using the new Sardo M5000 rack,
it's smaller and lighter than the original Sardo rack.
Gerda Hofstatter says she's quite confident about playing and winning matches
against the men on the IPT tour.
Carl Morris, Gerda Hofstatter, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Raj Hundal, Nick van den Berg and Vincent Facquet - all about to make a deliberate foul in the name of publicity!
Raj Hundal and Ronnie O'Sullivan pose for photo after photo after photo.
The beautiful prototype IPT balls and new IPT cue-ball.
These prototype IPT balls are made by Aramith and are on a par with the best balls they've ever made. Raj Hundal loves them, especially as he said that the cue-ball seems to "float" across the table, and whilst doing a little solo practice at Victoria afterwards he showed what he meant as he potted several stupidly difficult 3 cushion kick shots back-to-back!
Note the return of the single spotted ball featuring the understated IPT branding.
The first cubes of IPT chalk arrive in the UK (that's NOT the table's cloth they're on!)
Keep reading for news of how YOU could be one of the first people in the UK to try the new IPT chalk, and how you could get your hands on some top quality IPT gear for FREE, courtesy of Pro9.co.uk
Former "English Pool" player and now IPT 8-Ball player/member, Mick Hill, meets Kevin Trudeau.
Close-up detail of the new IPT specification Gorina cloth and Diamond table.
I'm in love with the new balls, they're high quality and very beautiful,
whilst the cue-ball has a single IPT logo.
The Diamond table's pockets are much tighter than they appear here,
the balls spring away from the cushion at the pocket points.
Scotland's only IPT representative, Pat Holtz, made the 800 mile round trip
to support the IPT's press conference.
Afterwards Ronnie went to Victoria Rileys and practiced some more on his own and with Scotland's IPT member, Pat Holtz.
Pat showed why he is such good value to his sponsors by turning up smartly dressed after making the trip from Scotland simply to show support for the IPT. He's definitely a professional through and through, his professional demeanor and dedication shine though, unlike one of the other player's, who lives locally and who turned up half way through Kevin Trudeau's opening speech.