Four-time World Champion and three-time World Chinese 8-Ball Masters winner Gareth Potts will make his eagerly anticipated return to English 8-Ball Pool having become the latest addition to the Ultimate Pool Professional Series.
“The Golden Boy” - who will also be an Ultimate Pool ambassador - will make his brand debut on the £144,000 circuit during pro events 3 and 4 on the long weekend of the 17th-19th September.
A back-to-back European junior champion and a world junior champion in 2000, Potts appeared destined for greatness on the baize from an early age.
In 2005 he claimed the biggest title in the sport when he defeated Chris Melling 11-7 in the Blackpool final to win his maiden world championship.
Potts regained the trophy in 2007 when he denied Mick Hill 11-5 in the showpiece clash, and twelve months later he created history when he dispatched Jason Twist 11-4 to become the first player ever to defend the title and win it on three occasions. In all three of these finals, the Stoke-on-Trent sensation had got the better of previous winners.
As well as countless other major professional titles and number one accolades, Potts reached another world title match in 2010 before a fourth world crown – this time under a different ruleset – arrived in 2014 following victory over Clint I’Anson at the Lakeside Country Club. That title triumph seemed to close the book on Potts’ illustrious career on the 7 by 4 table.
Over the past several years, Potts has carved out a very successful and popular career in Asia playing Chinese 8-Ball, where he won the World Chinese 8-Ball Masters in 2013, 2014 and 2017, as well as the 2018 US Open in Los Angeles.
Success has come on and off the table in the far east with the iconic Potts signing sponsorship deals and gaining a huge following on Chinese social media.
“Ultra-Impressed with the vision”
However, having seen the success and development of Ultimate Pool over the past 12 months, Potts feels now is the right time to make a serious return to his smaller table roots.
“After winning in 2014, the English pool world was in a bad way with politics. I sort of said to myself that was me done; I’m not the type of person who would be making a comeback every other month – that was genuinely the chapter done for me,” said Potts.
“Over the last year or so, though, I’ve been watching what Ultimate Pool have been doing and the direction they’re taking the game. The live television, the whole product they have put together and the way they are going with it. I think they are moving the pro game to where I envisaged and dreamt it would be when I started out playing as a 7-year-old. I am ultra-impressed with it and the vision of those involved; I think it has got a chance.
“The live tv is massive. Even in the days when we had Sky it wasn’t live, it was pre-recorded and shown a few weeks later, but everyone already knew the result. Back then you needed to qualify for tv stages and with only three events, if you had a bad year, you would get no exposure at all.
“With the weekly Monday night shows and weekend professional events that Ultimate Pool has got, it’s a serious amount of exposure for all the pro players – it's unprecedented.
“It’s very different now, the people involved are very professional and they have the vision and know where they want to take it. They have a plan and that’s not something I have seen before in this sport.”
“You don’t gain an advantage from making a mistake”
One of the big pulls for Potts returning is the introduction of International 8-Ball Rules into the English/UK-style game. Almost identical to the rules that he has had success with in China and elsewhere in recent years, the 38-year-old feels the rules are the perfect vehicle for the sport to reach its global potential.
“We were the only 8-ball discipline that were playing different rules. People in China, America, Brazil etc. basically play International 8-Ball Rules.
“The rules are so attacking and it’s a different mindset for those English 8-Ball players that have played other sets for many years. People don’t like change but once they start to learn, they’ll fully understand all the benefits.
“International 8-Ball Rules are without doubt the best rules for 8-ball and from the point of view of taking the game forward – they are exciting, fast and they can be marketed to anywhere in the world.
“It doesn’t matter what sport you watch, but if it is on TV, it has to be simple for people to understand.”
“I see it as a new challenge again”
Despite cementing his legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greats a long while ago, Potts appreciates that he almost has to start again in order to be in the mix for major honours on the Ultimate Pool scene.
“I’ve been away from it for so long, but I’ve always watched and kept an eye on it. Some of my closest friends are top professional players.
“I’m excited and I see it as a new challenge again. When I left to play Chinese 8-Ball, I saw that as a new challenge, a new chapter, and wanted to see how much I could achieve. I now see my return as a reverse of that!
“I’ve got to learn how to play the game again – the equipment, the mindset, the physics of the cueball. Patterns, for example, are very different.
"I’m able to give it a proper go instead of a half-hearted one. Realistically it may take me a season or the rest of this year to get back – it doesn’t matter how much you practice; it’s about feeling comfortable in the match environment and how the human body handles itself under pressure and what it reverts to.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge, we’ll see what happens."
You can watch Potts’ return and Ultimate Pool debut on FreeSports and via ultimatepoolgroup.com between the 17th-19th September for Professional Series Events 3 and 4.
Potts becomes the 33rd player on this season's Professional Series.
