Finland has gone ‘berserk’ for snooker as big names head to Helsinki

Eight of the best snooker players in the world will all be in Helsinki this weekend as the sport’s popularity in Finland continues to blossom.

Not known as one of the traditional hotbeds of snooker, Finland has shown in recent years that there is a serious appetite to watch the star names in action.

Top players have been brought over for exhibition events and have performed in packed arenas, which will again be the case this weekend.

Last summer saw the first TAOM Helsinki International Snooker Cup, which saw Ali Carter beat Kyren Wilson in the final. The event returns this week with those two players joined in the draw by Judd Trump, Mark Williams, John Higgins, Mark Allen, Zhang Anda and Shaun Murphy.

There is a prize pot of €250,000, which is attracting the big names, and shows that the ticket sales at the Helsinki Culture Centre are expected to be healthy enough to cover the substantial offering.

Wilson, who played last year’s event shortly after winning the World Championship, told Metro: ‘It’s mega!

‘I think something like 10 per cent of their population watch snooker. I think there’s something like 2,000 in for every session. It’s a really good venue, good place to go and play.’

The country’s greatest ever player, Robin Hull, who played on the professional tour on-and-off from 1993-2019, explains that a long-standing television audience has finally been exposed to live action.

‘In Finland, well I suppose in a lot of countries, they have been protected for a long time from live snooker,’ Hull told Metro.

‘On Eurosport it’s been pretty popular and now they started showing snooker on a free channel here. I think during the season it’s about every other tournament they show the semi-finals and final on the weekend, and that’s free view. I think that’s made a difference with the general public over here.’

The popular exhibitions in Finland began with Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham in 2023 and has since seen the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson all travel to perform as the size and scale of the shows grow.

‘I think what kicked it off was that Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham came over and did a little exhibition,’ said Hull. ‘It was about a 200-seater, but it was very popular and could have been a lot bigger and still sold out.

‘From there onwards a company who do music events took hold of that and tried to push the snooker forward. Then you had the TAOM Cup, which the first year was very good, they had 10,000-plus tickets overall to sell, and sold out on that one.

‘I was involved with a couple of exhibitions also, which went very well.’

One such exhibition Hull was involved with was O’Sullivan playing Gary Wilson over three nights in Tampere, attracting 6,000 fans last year.

‘That was unbelievable really. It was mental,’ said Hull. ‘It was like having a big rock band over here. The tickets were flying out. The first night was good, second night was even better and the last night was brilliant.’

This weekend in Helsinki sees the eight star names assembled play a Super Shoot Out on Friday, before the International Snooker Cup over Saturday and Sunday.

Hull is interested to see how long the appetite for exhibition events will last, with the hunger growing for a step up to a professional tournament in Finland.

‘I think it’s sort of levelling out, now, over the next year it’ll be very interesting how it settles down,’ he said. ‘We have had this initial boom where people…there’s only one way to put it, people went berserk over here!

‘Now over the next year I think people definitely are thirsty for tournaments, actually seeing a longer version, whether it be five days or seven days, with a lot of players.’

The 50-year-old is well aware that any move to a pro tournament would have to make financial sense, but is optimistic that it can happen, given the level of interest.

‘I suppose it comes down to mathematics,’ he said. ‘If we’re talking about a ranking tournament the whole thing is an extremely big operation. We’re talking venues, sponsors, TV. It is possible if there’s a green light from some direction and somebody has to take the initial risk.

‘I definitely hope that something big happens in the Nordic region, there’s no reason not to. Maybe I’m too optimistic but I would love to see a big tournament up here.’

Kyren Wilson entirely agrees, saying: ‘It would be fantastic. I’d love to see some more tournaments spread out across Europe and obviously Finland would be a great addition.’

Wilson will hope to go one better than the runner-up spot he managed last year, and as for Hull’s playing days, he is happy in the amateur ranks now.

‘I play at my own will, really,’ he said. ‘I enjoy playing, but I might have two months off and then I might play a bit more for a month. Sporadically enter tournaments if they come along, but the standard is…I’m amateur standard now.’

He will be bidding for a 16th Finnish National Championship in August this year, later than usual in another nod to the success of the sport in Finland as the tournament awaits the opening of a new club in Helsinki this summer.

The Helsinki International Snooker Cup this weekend is being broadcast through the subscription platform of one of Finland’s most prominent newspapers – IS Extra.