I’ve enjoyed playing billiards literally since I was in elementary school and could barely see over the edge of the table. Though I haven’t actually played a game since middle school, so I’m not what you’d call a “good” player currently.
But my competitive nature won’t allow me to simply hit up a pool hall on the weekends and play a few games. I want to be ranked and be pitted against and beat people of similar skill levels.
The problem is I have no idea how billiards leagues work. Can you inform me of the various intricacies of competitive billiards play? Are the people who make a living only the the absolute best of the best or is it possible to make a living being a professional pool player without having to be a master of the game?
It looks like over the last 10 years the top earner has won between about $120k to $280k per year (not the same person every year). The top earner over the course of the last 10 years earned an average of $162k. So pretty good.
However the #10 player earned between $44k and $89k ($59k average over 10 years) and the #30 player between $17k and #37k (average for 10 years $25k). Still decent for the #10 player but not all that great for the #30 player.
Some of these people are relatively famous and bring in money from endorsements, appearance fees, instructional videos, etc and probably live a very comfortable life. And I think those just below the top level probably have some endorsements and also serve as teachers to supplement their winnings and probably do ok making a living shooting pool. Unless you’re consistently one of the top 25 players though I’d think it would be able to make a living just from pool. Especially since all those winnings listed don’t factor in the expenses of getting to tournaments, practice time etc. So keep your day job.
Just for comparison the #100 golfer last year earned over $900k. #100 on the LPGA still earned $40k. In tennis #100 for men earned $60k and women $44k (according to the site I checked).
The one aspect I’ve ignored is gambling. I honestly have no idea what players can win gambling or how you could possible track it. And I don’t know if the professional players are also gamblers or if that is a completely different group.
Personally I would think that unless you are one of the absolute best that you’d be better off with a day job and just enjoy shooting pool in a local league.
As for your questions about how the leagues work I really have no idea. Also note that I’m taking on faith that the numbers shown in my link are accurate. They seem reasonable to me though. There’s just no audience (TV mainly) for billiards like there is for golf or tennis (not to mention the major sports) so there is just not much money available to pay out for winnings.
That’s a very interesting link, I’ll take a closer look into it soon, thank you.
As far as expenses go for having to travel to tournament sites and what not, if pool is your only or primary source of income, could you write it off as a business expense come tax time?
I’m not an accountant, but I would think you probably could deduct them.
I always think of Sienfeld when I see write-off. Doesn’t that just mean they wouldn’t have to pay income tax on it as it’s a business expense. So that would only be say a 25% discount on travel expenses, entrance fees, etc.
I’m pretty sure that some tourneys get carried on ESPN, though I do suspect that they don’t draw good ratings, and might well be relegated to bad time slots.
There definitely is pool on ESPN on a semi-regular basis. Mostly either women’s tournaments or trick shot shows. None of it is live like other sports. And I doubt the ratings are good.
I really just meant that the TV coverage as compared to other sports is essentially nonexistent. I mean golf has it’s own channel and every men’s tournament is televised for all 4 days, for the majors sometimes there is 10-12 hours of coverage per day over the various channels. Most of the LPGA and Senior events are televised, even some of the NIKE Tour events (is it still called that?) are shown on the Golf Channel.
Tennis isn’t quite as ubiquitous, but I know tournaments are shown on a regular basis and that the majors have very extensive coverage.
There’s just not enough of an audience for billiards to get enough money for more than a handful of people to be able to make a living at it.
To get back to the OP’s question: poking around on that billiards forum site I linked to it seems that billiards (in the US anyway) may have a problem similar to boxing. There seem to be competing leagues and no overall unifying body to oversee things. I can’t imagine that helps things.
Unless they are top level tournament pros, the bulk of a pool player’s income comes from hustling. Pool players are notorious for not gambling. When a good pool player offers to play you for money, he has already seen you play and is sure he can beat you.
When a pool tournament is taking place in a Vegas casino, if you see a pool player at one of the gaming tables you can be pretty sure he is using one of those “First card is an Ace” or “Match Play (bet $5, win $10) or some such coupon … and he won’t tip – that would take away his edge.
One of the difficulties an aspiring player can run into is when you move into high levels of play your reputation makes it very difficult to find anybody who is willing to play you for a significant amount of money. You can’t make a living hustling drinks and big money players become well known. Playing ego matches with equally skilled opponents won’t make you any money and it can scare off the potential suckers when they see you playing at your best instead of playing just well enough to beat the locals.
These insights came from a guy I worked with in a Vegas casino in the late 1990s. He had been a top level pool player, both hustler and tournament player, for many years. He was working in the casino because he could no longer get enough action to earn a living playing pool. He hadn’t played pool at all for several years and on a whim took a few days off and went to Reno for the 9-ball Nationals – he won – and came back to work.
I misremembered the Reno and 9-ball thing – turns out it was Vegas and one-pocket. I found a couple of links you might find interesting regarding the life of a pool professional.
That smile wasn’t just for the camera. During the time I worked him Eddie was always quick to smile … a very easy going, fun to be around kind of guy with no trace of braggadocio or bitterness.
for lunch (me, them and one other person) during an international 9-ball tournament about a decade ago. At that time they were making a decent living from tournament prizes alone, but also had supplementary income from endorsements. I wouldn’t know exactly how much they made in total but from prize money alone they were both making over 100,000 p/a. Taxes would depend on where they were living, but I remember at the time Mika was based in NY - not a great choice for taxation purposes, I guess.