Former 2010 World Snooker Champion Neil Robertson says he can see lots of opportunities with 7ballrun, even when it was suggested the idea of a video game could be made in the future.

As Brand Ambassador for the new cue sport, Robertson, who lifted another ranking snooker title last year this season at the Scottish Open, after being well behind to China's Cao Yupeng, said the list of possibilities for this game was endless.

“It’s fun to play and interesting to see the way different players go about clearances, the 35-year-old Aussie added in a face to face interview in London.”

7ballrun is for pure gamblers and eliminates the break-off shot from the start so players are faced with having to make clearances from balls in set patterns on a pool table.

Watch Vinnie Calabrese in this video giving you an example down in Cambridge last year of the potential of 7ballrun.

Ice 2018

Robertson was at the Ice Totally Gaming show 2018 this week at the Excel Centre in London which runs from 6 - 8 February.

He was with former World Snooker tour player Vinnie Calabrese, Chief Operating Officer of the company Singleshot Entertainment Inc, both there to establish a deal with Betradar (pictured), a top sports betting data and statistics company.

The plan for 7ballrun in the future is to go 24/7 with 360 games per day as the purest form of cue sports.

The Thunder from Down Under doesn’t see why there can’t be a similar game format for snooker, where certain canons and shots which require an element of luck are taken out of the equation.

For example, in snooker, the split the pack from the blue shot heavily relies on luck to land perfect on a red ball.

The game is based on the pure skill of the player and there are 1000 different "patterns" that have been tested in 7ballrun.

The game was surveyed by analysts, and it’s likely to be a hit in places such as Asia and Russia where the passion and love for cue sports is growing year on year - booming even.

Already the Chinese love their Chinese 8-Ball, particularly the northern Chinese, whereas the southern Chinese enjoy their snooker.

Robertson was a quarter-finalist in the Chinese World 8-Ball Championships in 2015 and narrowly lost out to UK pool player Darren Appleton, who narrowly went onto beat three-times World Snooker Champion Mark Selby in the final 21 – 19 In Yushan.

Chalking up success

Big Robbo, as he is also nicknamed, said Chinese 8-Ball suited snooker players because the pockets are tighter – whereas, on 9 ball tables, pockets are much wider.

In snooker on the amateur game, Robertson said the governing body had done a lot to try and improve the game in the UK, but it was difficult in an era where kids can stay in the warm of their homes and play video games.

He said it was crucial to keep promoting the game in schools as much as possible and catch them young.

Finally, on the revolutionary new chalk, Taom, Robertson is a fan.

He reckons though, if your opponent is using the old Triangle chalks, and you are using Taom, there's a likelihood you'll receive a bad contact or kick.

However, if both players are using Taom, then there's 99% you won't get one, he reckoned.

Tons of confidence

The man from Melbourne is confident about his chances going into the World Championships this year and is expecting to hit great form by the time Sheffield comes.

Robertson is famous for making 103 tons in a season, and, when asked if that feat would ever be repeated, he said he hoped one day he would be able to do it again.

However, he said the players most likely to achieve the same level of tons in a season as he would be the likes of Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan providing they played in everything.

Judd Trump has the most number of tons this season – 55. O'Sullivan has 49.

Robertson has 44.

On O’Sullivan, he said he enjoys playing him the most because “you know you’ve come far in a tournament when you end up playing Ronnie.”

He added "huge crowds" when playing Ronnie just make it a buzz to play.

Mark Selby and John Higgins are the toughest to play because of their great tactical game said the Aussie.

And, on his recent win at the Scottish Open, Robertson said he was proud to have won it because he had “never won a match like that before.”

After Yupeng lost the first two frames or so when ahead Robertson expected he might have a chance of winning the title.

Calabrese and Robertson are pals and it was Calabrese who had dropped off the tour, so was looking for something to do and discovered 7ballrun and then showed it to Neil.

With his love/addiction for video games, something which has been well documented in the press before, Robertson admitted he is the World Number One for a certain stat in the game of World of Warcraft.

7ballrun had a small launch at the end of last year, down in Cambridge where he plays with Joe Perry, but there's expected to be a major launch in the middle of this year.

What Betradar say about 7ballrun

On their website, they say: "7BallRunTM is a new kind of cue sport that enables you to enrich your sportsbook with thousands of matches. Its revolutionary style of play is an ideal way to unlock billiards betting’s full potential by offering a selection of markets, such as ‘Will the player clear all balls on the table in order?’ or ‘Will the player miss a certain ball?’'

In terms of esports, the market is booming, and according to Statista, a statistics portal website, by 2020 the esports market is expected to rise by 32% with a $1.48 billion dollar revenue.

Since 2016, the number of esports enthusiasts has skyrocketed to 323 million and is projected to nearly double by 2020.

SEE ALSO: New revolutionary cue sport to sweep globe in 2018
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