Saudi Arabia’s generous effort will now make billiards bigger and introduce a new Ballon d’Or

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Saudi Arabia will host its first major invitational billiards event in March, as the kingdom continues to invest in a growing number of sports.

The “Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker” will be held from March 6 to March 6 at the Boulevard Arena in the capital, Riyadh.

The inaugural event will feature some of the world’s billiards players, including Ronnie O’Sullivan, widely recognized as one of the most talented players in the game’s history, 2019 World Champion Judd Trump, and 2023 World Champion Luca Brecel.

The pool games, a very popular pool game in the UK and China, will be played according to the existing rules of World Snooker, but with the arrival of a number 23 ball called the “Riyadh Ball of the Season”. This golden ball will have a value of 20 numbers but can be collected after making a maximum break.

It isn’t clear when this ball would be introduced to the standard table set-up, but it does mean the highest possible break at the event will be 167 — rather than the traditional maximum score of 147.

“We are very happy to host our first billiards tournament in the Kingdom,” said Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.

“Billiards is watched and played by millions of people around the world and we look forward to welcoming some of the biggest billiards players and enthusiasts to our country and showing them what Saudi Arabia and the Riyadh season have to offer,” Alalshikh said in a January release.

Saudi Arabia has spent an extraordinary amount on sports investments in recent years, pouring money into soccer, Formula One, golf, tennis and boxing.

Critics have continually accused the kingdom of “game washing,” or gambling to distract attention from human rights abuses in the country. Saudi officials have consistently denied those claims.

Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan spoke of his excitement at the prospect of betting on Saudi Arabia shortly after winning the World Grand Prix title for the third time on Sunday.

“How much is a 167 worth? O’Sullivan said in an interview posted on the World Snooker Tour’s YouTube channel. “I’m sure it will be a great reward. “

He added: “Listen, the Saudis can do what they like — they’re a powerful outfit. I think it’ll be good, it’d be great to get out there and play, every other sport seems to be doing stuff in Saudi so it’d be great to get out there.”

Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plans to turn its domestic soccer league into a foreign hub for superstars suffered a setback last week.

England foreigner Jordan Henderson ended his playing time in the Saudi Pro League on Thursday and opted to sign for Dutch side Ajax on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

Henderson’s early departure from Saudi Arabia has led many to speculate about the potential damage to the reputation of the country’s most sensible domestic league.

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