World Snooker Tour

World Snooker is the commercial entity responsible for the commercial exploitation and promotion of professional snooker events and is the custodian of the sport's commercial rights. World Snooker Limited's primary objective is to organise, promote or sanction all professional snooker events globally. This is done through either direct promotion for major UK events like, the World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters; co-promotion for International events like the German Masters; and through sanctioned events like the International Championship, China Open, Yushan World Open and China Championship. World Snooker's ultimate holding company is World Snooker Holding Limited which is controlled by Matchroom Sport Limited, Barry Hearn's private sports promotion and TV production company.The WPBSA, the sport's Governing Body, is the next largest stakeholder in World Snooker Holding Limited. Following Matchroom Sport Limited's acquisition in June 2010, the World Snooker Main Tour has grown rapidly from having prize money of £3.5million to £14million and having gone from 8 main tour events to a calendar of nearly 30 events. Not only has prize money on the tour grown but also there has been substantial increase in global viewing figures, with over 400 million viewers worldwide.