Top 5 scandals in cue sports
It's a beautiful game but some folks just have to spoil it.
CHEATING, SANDBAGGING, SHARKING, and other ways a member of the cue sports community can tarnish the game — we’ve probably seen ‘em all. But of course such incidents aren’t limited to cue sports. In any game or sports, at a professional or amateur level, as long as there’s a reward then there’s bound to be someboy looking to gain an advantage unethically. Just recently a news went viral about a couple of anglers stuffing their haul with lead weights. They were caught after the tournament director suspected the fish weighed heavier than they looked. The perps served a short stint in jail and forfeited a $100k boat they’d won before.
Here are five scandals in cue sports which you may or may not have heard of:
The International Pool Tour (IPT) fiasco. This story needs to start with an introduction of Kevin Trudeau, alternative diet promoter and fraudster extraordinaire, who was convicted of fraud in the 1990s and sentenced to federal prison in March 2014 (released in January 2022). He started the IPT in 2005 and surprisingly, its events were quite successful in the first year. Back then it’d paid out prize funds that were unprecedented in the sport, and matches were on broadcast TV and/or DVD for fans to purchase. Signs of trouble surfaced at the conclusion of the IPT World 8 Ball Championship in September 2006 which had 200 players competing for a slice of the $3 million prize fund. Winning players were told that there would be a short delay in the payout, but in the end it took over a year and nine installments for players to receive their moneys due to the tour’s major financial and sponsorship problems. The IPT folded soon after. To this day there are still people who blame Trudeau and IPT for professional pool’s demise in the subsequent decade.
IPT founder Kevin Trudeau The 1991 International Challenge of Champions dumping? The final between Mike Lebron and Buddy Hall in Las Vegas. There’s never any investigation or evidence of Hall dumping in order to reap the rewards of Lebron’s 20/1 betting odds. Most people understood Hall to be the better 9 Ball player, but the match went hill-hill, with Hall missing a straight 8-9 combo to the corner pocket — would’ve been the $50,000 winning shot. Speculation remains that there were several other players involved in the scheme, but nobody’s been able to prove anything. One thing is certain, however — casinos ended betting on pool since.
Snooker pro Stephen Lee banned for match-fixing. Lee ranked as high as #5 in the 2000-2001 season and had won multiple titles. In 2013 he was charged and found guilty with fixing several matches in 2008 and 2009, and a 12-year ban was imposed. It was the longest ever ban until the recent scandal involving Chinese pros (see #5 below).
The 2012 U.S. Open 9 Ball Championship prize fund shortfall. The U.S. Open has always been the most prestigious pool tournament attracting international talent. Barry Behrman had owned the tournament and ran it for years with great respect and gratitude from players and fans. However, in 2012 Behrman encountered a shortfall in receivables plus extra expenses, and therefore unable to pay winnings to the top six finishers. Some foreign players had incurred airfare and other travel expenses on top of the entry fee, only to find out they weren’t getting a check for their tournament performance. (Matchroom acquired the rights to the U.S. Open in 2018.)
Ten Chinese snooker pros suspended for match-fixing. Perhaps the most scandalous of them all: just a few weeks ago the WPBSA imposed fines and bans on ten Chinese pros for match-fixing and other unsavory actions. Two of them, Liang Wenbo and Li Hang, were given lifetime bans, essentially ending their competitive careers. It was truly heartbreaking when the news broke, especially when the majority of these ten players ranked in the top 100 and became friends living in the U.K. because they couldn’t return to China due to Covid restrictions. Zhao Xintong, just 25 years old, ranked #9 and had won the 2021 U.K. Championship and 2022 German Masters.
ROUND 1 OF WORLD CUP OF POOL CONCLUDES. Fan and bookmaker favorite Team Spain A (Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide) fell to Team Philippines (James Aranas and Johann Chua) in the first round, 5-7. The rest of round 1 results weren’t surprising as the seeded teams comfortably advance to the next round. Team Austria (Albin Oschan and Mario He) had a close call against Team Australia (Justin Sajich and James Georgiadis), 7-6. There will be some great matchups in the next round, and the possibility that one team (Philippines) can eliminate both host country teams (Spain A and Spain B).
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