Barry Hearn Announces 10-Year Deal with Eurosport

World Snooker and Eurosport have agreed a 10-year deal to broadcast the snooker season in its entirety.

World Snooker supremo Barry Hearn made his second annual press conference at the Crucible today and the eagerly awaited “huge” announcement is a continued relationship with the continental sports broadcaster.

The deal includes the rights to broadcast the new Home Series, as well as for the first time providing coverage of the World Championship qualifiers in Sheffield.

The agreement is fantastic news for the sport as it secures its long-term partnership with one of the fastest growing European outlets – highlighted by its landing of the rights to provide coverage of the Olympic Games.

Without doubt, Eurosport has been and will continue to be one of the key components to snooker’s sustained efforts to become global.

The relationship between the two parties began more than a decade ago and led to popularity spurts in countries previously untapped and unknown to have even any potential.

In recent years, extremely well-attended and successful events have been staged in the likes of Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia – to name just a few – and this arguably would not have been possible if it wasn’t for Eurosport.

The importance of its dedication to snooker over such a prolonged period shouldn’t be underestimated.

The addition of the World Championship qualifiers is a particularly exciting prospect, as that week of hard-fought snooker is typically one of the most intriguing on the entire calendar.

So plenty more Dave Hendon and Joe Johnson to enjoy over the coming decade then.

You can watch the press conference in full below.