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Kozoom news, official announcement

02/10/2020

Published by frits bakker

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© © Kozoom
Xavier Carrer with his official announcement about World Cup Antalya and other events

SAS Kozoom Group

10 av des Frères Montgolfier 33510

Andernos-les-Bains (France)
GROUP

Andernos-les-Bains (France), February 10th, 2020

To all 3-Cushion lovers and Kozoom.com users,

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

For a year now, you are witnessing an international crisis that divides the sport's promoters, players and fans. This division is the result of the brutal launch, without consultation with the federations, of a new so-called professional league in Korea. Two companies, Kozoom International and Bravo&New support respectively the UMB and the PBA with the same ambition: to make 3-Cushion a major professional sport. But our strategy is different: Kozoom is supporting international competitions and organizers of UMB events while Bravo&New owns exclusively private competitions in Korea. On each side, millions of dollars are invested to organize more tournaments with a Prize Money never reached in the history of the sport. The champions are winning more money and that's well deserved.

However, this is an absurd situation because the winners of this conflict are the big Korean sports channels that benefit from cheap broadcasting rights while, united, the promoters of 3-Cushion could raise TV rights to the level of Premium sports in Korea.

In 2016, when we created the subsidiary Kozoom International, we had one ambition: signing a contract with a Korean TV channel to finance the explosion of UMB's media rights value and to keep the internet rights of world cups and world championships outside Korea for Kozoom viewers. Within the last 4 years, the price of UMB rights has been multiplied by 30. The price of the Premium Pass has not increased by one cent. So this strategy has worked. The MBC Sports+ channel began to broadcast hundreds of hours of matches per year, which in fact aroused the interest of the entrepreneurs behind the PBA.

Today, this situation is no longer tenable. We no longer wish to co-finance a 100% Korean war that is tearing apart the world of billiards and affecting the reputation of our brand, the fruit of 20 years of commitment to promoting billiards. Kozoom Group (France), 50% owner of Kozoom Intl., disagrees with the strategy and behavior of its Korean partner (an independent company using our brand and specialized in the sale of billiards equipments). For many months now, despite all our efforts of dialog, information remains exclusively in Korea and decisions are imposed on us, we have not been able to co-manage our subsidiary Kozoom Intl. as it was dealt with Kozoom Korea. As a result, the first World cup of the season in Antalya will not be broadcast on Kozoom.com. It will probably be broadcast for free on Youtube.

For our part, we will do our utmost to assert our rights within Kozoom Intl. and to broadcast again the UMB competitions that we still wish to develop. At the same time, we will support any initiative to bring the UMB and the PBA closer together. But everyone should understand that the solution is not only in the hands of the UMB who is facing a Korean conflict who should be solved first in Korea. The Korean federation cannot be excluded from this solution otherwise this conflict can be a never ending story and there will be no winner.

In spite of this turbulent period, good news is still to come for the faithful of Kozoom.com. According to our agreement with the CEB, we will broadcast this week the European 3-Cushion Women's and National Team Championships. The new Kozoom website is under construction and will be launched within two months. It will contain a new video section with champion tips and many more new features.

More than ever, thank you for your trust and loyalty.

Xavier Carrer
President of Kozoom Group Co-founder of Kozoom International

 

 

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