The 2023 Predator WPA World 8-Ball Men’s Championship will pay its champion $75,000, the highest winner’s prize in tournament pool.
That marks an increase from the $60,000 earned by defending champion Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz when he took the title home from Puerto Rico last year.
The 2023 Predator WPA World 8-Ball Men’s Championship will take place this October 17-22 at Sportpark Klagenfurt in Austria, which will also be hosting the Predator WPA World 10-Ball Women’s Championship (October 18-22) and the Predator WPA World 10-Ball Junior Championships (October 19-22).
The 96-player invited field for the Predator WPA World 8-Ball Men’s Championship will be competing for a total prize fund of $250,000. A race-to-8 double elimination bracket will reduce the field to 32 players who will then face single elimination to determine the champion.
The Predator Pro Billiard Series, working alongside Richwert promotions, returns to the picturesque city of Klagenfurt, home of the Jasmin Ouschan Billiard Academy, for the third time but this year marks the first staging of the Predator WPA World 8-Ball Men’s Championship in the country.
Sanchez-Ruiz will be one of the favorites as he aims to defend his title but 2022 semi-finalist Mario He will be in his home country, while Albin Ouschan will have home-town support at Sportpark Klagenfurt, the base of his sister’s Jasmin Ouschan Billiard Academy.
This will be the ninth staging of the men’s World 8-Ball Championship. It had previously been played in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates before being revived from a ten-year hiatus in Puerto Rico last year.
Sanchez-Ruiz claimed his first World Championship title in San Juan, fending off an elite field and beating players including Fedor Gorst, Robbie Capito and Mario He before defeating Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski 10-6 in the final.
Cyrille Fournier, Chief Operating Officer of Predator Group, said: “It is important to us that we continue to grow and improve our events, and recognize champions for their achievements. Having both the World 8-Ball Men’s Championship and World 10-Ball Women’s Championship pay their winner a record amount reflects our commitment to investing and growing the sport and these WPA World Championship events.“We are grateful to our partners at Richwert Promotions, the city of Klagenfurt and region of Carinthia for their excellent support of the sport and these events. It is a huge task to stage five World Championships in the same place in one week but our previous experience working with our partners in Austria gives us the confidence that we will see another incredible week of billiards in Klagenfurt.”
Also taking place in Klagenfurt will be the Predator WPA World 10-Ball Women’s Championship (18-22 October) and the Predator WPA World 10-Ball Junior Championships (19-22 October), which has divisions for Girls, Boys Under-19s and Boys Under-17s.
The 48-player World 10-Ball Women’s Championship has also seen an increase to the winner’s prize. The 2023 champion will take home $45,000, an increase from the €30,000 prize paid in 2022.
All five World Championship events will be broadcast in full across Predator Pro Billiard Series broadcast platforms. The World Billiard TV YouTube channel and Billiard TV will host table 1 matches with multi-camera coverage and English commentary free to watch throughout the events. Kozoom.com will be the destination to watch every single match live.
男子8號球世錦賽冠軍獎金拉升至7萬5仟美元
男子8號球世界錦標賽曾於阿拉伯聯合大公國舉辦，直至去年在波多黎各復辦了中斷十年的賽事。Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 在 2022年決賽中擊敗波蘭年輕好手 Wiktor Zielinski 奪得第一個世界冠軍頭銜並收穫 6萬美元獎金。
美洲豹職業撞球系列賽 (Predator Pro Billiard Series) 與 Richwert 推廣公司再次攜手合作，一同將 “美洲豹” WPA 男子8號球世界錦標賽從波多黎各帶到 Jasmin Ouschan 撞球學院的所在地奧地利克拉根福 (Klagenfurt, Austria) 舉辦。比賽將於今年10月17-22日在 Sportpark Klagenfurt 舉行，屆時將有96名來自世界各國與地區的球員受邀參賽爭奪25萬美元的總獎金，而冠軍獎金將由去年的6萬美元提高至7萬5仟美元。屆時，Sportpark Klagenfurt 還將同時舉辦 “美洲豹” WPA 女子10號球世界錦標賽與 “美洲豹” WPA 青少年10號球世界錦標賽。
美洲豹集團首席營運長 Cyrille Fournier: “對我們來說重要的是不斷地發展和增進我們的賽事，並表彰冠軍的成就。男子8號球世錦賽與女子10號球世錦賽冠軍獎金破紀錄的金額，便是體現了我們對投資與發展這項運動，以及對 WPA 世界錦標賽賽事的承諾。我們感謝 Richwert 推廣公司、克拉根福市與克恩頓州地區的合作夥伴對這項運動和這些賽事的大力支持。於一周內在同一地方舉辦五項世錦賽是一項艱鉅的任務，但我們先前與奧地利合作夥伴們的合作經驗給足了我們信心，屆時克拉根福將上演為期一週撞球盛事。”