Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy both feel snooker is lacking when it comes to promotion and marketing, saying it is often hard to tell a tournament is on when you arrive in a host city.
Both were underwhelmed at the recent World Grand Prix in Hong Kong, which Trump felt was less impressive than its debut year on the calendar in 2025.
The event moved from Leicester to the brand new Kai Tak Arena last year, enjoying a big boost in prize money in the process.
The world number one spends a lot of time in Hong Kong as his girlfriend lives there, but he does not feel the Grand Prix lived up to his expectations.
‘It was a little bit disappointing because obviously the Hong Kong one kind of feels like a home event, but it’s very flat in the arena,’ said Trump.
‘The crowds were poor. It felt like it had gone downhill from the year before, I think.
‘My first game was built up in the first year of that tournament. I remember walking in and it was a great atmosphere, but this year it just felt like a bit of a secondary event, compared to the year before.’
On why that may have been, Trump suggested: ‘I just think from the people I speak to, my girlfriend and friends, people just don’t know about the event.
‘The marketing is just very, very poor, I think. There’s still not enoughexposure for that kind of thing. Not enough money is spent. I think it’s something that snooker’s always struggled with around the world, a lack of willing to spend money to make money back, I think.
‘A lot of times I go to places in the UK and people are like, “What are you doing here?” Just silly things like that.
‘It’s disappointing because I think that Hong Kong event should be massive and it’s just a little bit half-hearted at the moment.’
Crowds were disappointing at times during the World Grand Prix, with the South China Morning Post reporting that during the semi-final between Zhang Anda and Zhou Yuelong there were ‘roughly 300 spectators out of a maximum 3,500.’
A World Snooker Tour spokesperson said: ‘Hong Kong has proved to be a tremendous destination for the World Grand Prix. We saw strong crowds this year with multiple sessions hosting attendances of over 1,000 fans, which would be a record for many UK events.
‘We are proud to work with F-Sports and look forward to growing the event even more in the future.
‘Ticket sales for the tour as a whole are on track for a 42 per cent increase over the last three years. The demand to watch live snooker and attend our events has never been higher.’
Murphy shared Trump’s view that the World Grand Prix was disappointingly under the radar in Hong Kong and even tournaments in the UK can go unnoticed by locals.
However, he recognises that it is not all doom and gloom by any means, noting the good crowds at the Players Championship in Telford last week.
‘I’m very old-fashioned with promotion. I still believe in good old-fashioned advertising and there was no evidence in Hong Kong that a snooker event was going on,’ said the Magician.
‘We were only in Hong Kong 48 hours, but there was no evidence that anything was going on there.
‘The amount of people who stopped me in the hotel where [fiancé] Jo and I were staying and asked for a picture or an autograph and then said, “What are you doing here?” It was quite interesting.
‘To be honest, I think that’s something that runs throughout the tour. The amount of times we go to places and the public say, “What are you doing here? It’s great to see you. Is there an event on?”
‘I don’t know. I’m not a marketeer. It’s not my world. But great crowds here [at the Players Championship], and I think by whatever metric you want to use, everything’s going in the right direction. That’s definitely the case, so I don’t know what the answers are, to be honest.’
