HOW SNOOKER BECAME BRAZIL'S SECOND MOST POPULAR SPORT

What if I told you Cue Sports is the second most played sport in Brazil? Most people there (or here since I write from Brazil) wouldn't recognize Snooker or the many variations of pool we play here as a sport, but the truth is that an estimated 10 million people play Cue Sports regularly in Brazil - that's more than London's entire population.

To have an idea of this phenomenon, the three most popular Brazilian YouTube channels have the following number of subscribers: 1,1 million, 611k (this one with nearly 200 million views), and 597k by the time I write this. World Snooker Tour's official channel, to have a comparison, have just 190k subscribers.

The most popular video uploaded has nearly 25 million views on YouTube and also went viral on other social medias. These viral videos are usually not professional matches, simply players playing for money in enviroments that are usually loud bars - recently, given the success, some matches have been held in arenas with a more professional environment. 

Nicknamed "Baianinho de Mauá", the biggest star of these videos have taken part in TV shows and popular newspapers all over the country. 

But of course, this is very different to snooker or any cue sport we know. Tables are the same or smaller than a pool table and pockets are extremely tight. You'll find different balls every corner as well - the most popular game played is a variation of 8-ball, but instead of potting stripes v solids, players have to pot odds v evens, and instead of having the 8 ball played last, the ball number 1 is played last.

Snooker as we know is very popular here as well. A video from the Brazilian channel "O Mundo da Sinuca" (the world of snooker) of Ronnie's fastest 147 from 1997 have over 2 million views. The video is the break we know commentated in Brazilian-Portuguese with the rules of snooker being explained. Pool is just much more popular though, a video of Ronnie playing pool in China uploaded by the same Brazilian channel has over 5,5 million views.

Traditional snooker is played a lot  here as well, but since most clubs' or snooker rooms' tables are 10ft instead of 12ft, the rule of Six-Reds is played much more than the normal rule with all 15 reds.

But since we have so many players and fans, why don't we see more Brazilian talents on tour or World Snooker events played in Brazil?

I can't explain exactly how the small tables became so popular in bars that everyone plays it, but maybe I can explain why we don't see Brazilian talents breaking through the snooker tour or even getting to know that there actually is a tour as big as there is.

Eveything started in the early 80's. As Snooker became Britain's most popular sport, a TV channel here called BAND started showing the World Championship highlights. Also, they got interested in holding national events, but we didn't have players good enough to compete with the best in the world at the time. That's when we adpated both the table and the rule: instead of 12ft, 10ft and instead of 15 reds, 1 red and what we call "national rule". In this rule, you only have one red on the table but you can take a free-ball at any time, given if you miss you lose 7 points. 

It was a total success, and the first character of the game in Brazil was born: Rui "Chapéu". He was the dominant best player in Brazil for a while and his success was so big that Brazil managed to bring Steve Davis to play Rui Chapéu in 1987. They played the adapted rule and the Brazilian was victorious. That match is well remembered to this day and their names can be heard around bar's baizes all over the country.

As the 90's came around, other talents emerged and as Rui was begining to be overtaken, TV Band lost their interest and the "official" local tournaments, although they kept going, never attracted the same media interest again.

What started to happen then was the transition from the national rule to the official snooker rule, but playing it on 10ft tables would never be the same.

Soon another adaption was created, the "Mixed Rule" which was used for the official events in Brazil for many years (it's the normal rule, but with 10 reds and instead of "foul and a miss" there was "foul and free-ball"). 

It went on for over a decade, but is no longer played. Around 5 years ago the six-reds rule was adopted and the official tournaments are played under this rule now. "National Rule" is still played a lot though, and even have its organized events still played around Brazil.

In 2011 the World Snooker Tour came to Brazil for an invitational event that, among other stars, the Brazil Masters had in its field Stephen Hendry, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Graeme Dott, Stuart Bingham, Ali Carter and Steve Davis. The tournament was never held again though.

I believe World Snooker might have found a lack of interest in terms of local media coverage and crowd attendance. But back then, the main tour wasn't as popular worldwide as it is now 10 years later, and they played the tournament in a touristic city where the game isn't as popular as in the metropolises.

These rule adaptations through history are why, even though so popular in Brazil, snooker is not as respected as it should be and their talents get wasted since no one believes in the sport enough to support a local player's career.

The game is seen as a hobby, people tend to not know the tour unless they get really involved in the game. And when they do, it's too late. Even if they have a great talent - as Brazil's only professional Igor Figueiredo has - they have spent too much time playing adpated rules on smaller tables, so the transition to Snooker puts them several steps behind of Europe / Asia where you have the sport on TV everyday and several facilities available to play the game.

To make a change now is very difficult. Local associations struggle for money since the media interest is not big, so to install full-size tables facilities in clubs that hold official tournaments is unachievable at the moment. This could only change, in my view, if either a Brazilian player is so successful on tour that the interest in the professional game is reborn, or if the World Snooker Tour sees the potential in Brazil and start to work here as they do around Asia in order to develop these talents.

As a snooker enthusiast from Brazil, I would love to see this potential being unravelled. The World Snooker Tour is getting more popular here as time goes on, with events being shown on sporting apps and also with these YouTube channels getting so big and often uploading videos about the tour, and I'm sure there's a scenario with outside investment where the sport would trend in Brazil as it does in China. Brazil does not have 1,5 billion people, but 210 million could still do wonders to keep the sport growing.

Follow Down the Rail on Instagram and like our page on Facebook for all things snooker!