On August 22, in Hanoi, the Korean Professional Billiards Association (PBA) introduced to Vietnamese fans the PBA LPBA SY Bazzar Hanoi Open 2024. Hanoi is the first location PBA chose to host the tournament in global PBA Tour system.
The tournament takes place from August 21 to 26, at the Grand Plaza Hanoi Hotel.
PBA Tour is the world's leading 3-cushion carom tournament system in terms of professional quality, organization, entertainment model, prize value and top participating players.
At the tournament in Hanoi, there were 192 players participating, with top names from Korea, Japan, Türkiye, Belgium, and Spain. There are 27 Vietnamese players competing for the first time in the 3-band Carom tournament system at home.
128 male players will compete for a total prize value of up to 4.7 billion VND - the champion receives 1.9 billion VND. Meanwhile, 64 female players compete for a total prize of 1.9 billion VND, of which 750 million VND is awarded to the winner.
PBA Korea has been preparing for the PBA LPBA SY Bazzar Hanoi Open 2024 for the past 2 years.
According to Mr. Lee Hee-jin - Vice President of PBA and CEO of FMG (PBA's tournament operating company), the 3-band carom market in Vietnam ranks second in the world, after Korea. He also called Vietnam an "emerging powerhouse" of 3-band carom with world-class players. And as Vietnam is a constantly growing market, PBA decided to choose Vietnam as the starting point for its global tour.
Statistics show that Vietnamese people love and watch billiards, with "among people accessing Korea's YouTube channel (PBA TV) from abroad, Vietnamese people account for nearly 60%".
In the future, a representative of the Organizing Committee said, PBA plans to organize 3 tours in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang, including 1 team tour.
During the press exchange, referring to the recent issue, the Asian Billiards & Snooker Federation (ACBS) sent an official dispatch to the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation stating that a number of international tournaments held in Vietnam are not located in Vietnam. within this system, and at the same time prohibit Vietnamese members and athletes from participating in tournaments that do not belong to their system for 6 months, Mr. Lee Hee-jin said, that is unreasonable and shows disrespect. agree, especially when the ban affects free athletes.
He also said that he was quite surprised that the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation did not speak out to fight and protect the rights of athletes.
