Power Snooker

Players competed in time-limited matches based on total points scored, instead of the number of racks won.

Power Snooker had to receive sanction from the WPBSA to allow their players to take part in the cue sport tournament.

Power Snooker was created by Rod Gunner and Ed Simons, both producers with backgrounds in the entertainment industry.

Gunner had been involved with Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance, while Simons was co-producer of the film The Lawnmower Man.

Boxing promoter Frank Warren, a longtime business partner of Simons, also has a non-controlling stake in Power Snooker.

[1] According to Simons, the pair had "liked snooker but wanted to create their own game a cue sport which was both fast and exciting".

[1][3] According to The Guardian, Hearn sees Power Snooker as "an element of [the WPBSA's] ongoing attempt to overhaul the sport and introduce it to new audiences".

The winner is the player who has scored more cumulative points by the end of the fixed game play period, with ties settled with a single re-spotted black.

The Power Ball is dark red and is placed in the centre of the diamond rack, identified by a special logo, and is worth two points.

[2][7] According to the creators, the Power Snooker format "isn't about sitting quietly watching, it's about noise and interaction; we want the audience to feel a part of it and enjoy themselves.".

[7] In order to "add glamour" to the Power Snooker tournaments, players are encouraged to wear designer outfits, while the referees were exclusively female and were "dressed to impress".

[8] The Guardian, while reserving judgement on whether the revamped Power Snooker could emulate the success of Twenty20 cricket, pointed out that on the eve of the inaugural tournament the format had yet to find a bookmaker partner, and also drew an unfavourable comparison with the failure of PowerPlay Golf to generate much money.

[1] They also described Ronnie O'Sullivan's comments on launching the format, that the current WPBSA organised World Championship was "really boring", as being "not quite a Gerald Ratner moment", referring to the time when Ratner inadvertently devalued his jewellery business after he publicly criticised his product's value.