In the year 2010, the Ballmaster Open tournament in Finland will celebrate its 40th anniversary. To underline the status as the longest running bowling tournament in Europe and the sole tournament which was on the European Bowling Tour schedule in every season since the tour's inception in the year 2000, tournament organizer Kimmo Lehtonen has applied for Platinum status in 2010 and has raised the total prize fund from 75.000 to 105.000 Euro.

Lehtonen, a long-time Finish national team member and 2005 World Ranking Masters champion, has also announced that the Ballmaster finals will feature 16-player Round Robin match play followed by a stepladder final.

The winner of the 2010 Brunswick Ballmaster Open will receive the 15.000 Euro top prize while the low-to-cash 48th place will be worth an astonishing 1500 Euro. “It means a lot to me that the last positioned finalist will get a good prize. I wish that many players from many different countries will come to Tali", said Lehtonen. The Ballmaster will be become the second tournament after the Ankara Open (2008, 2009) which received the highest status on the European Bowling Tour. In addition to the 105.000 Euro total prize fund, the Platinum tournament will offer fivefold ranking points.

In November 2008 the European Bowling Tour has decided to change the names of its three tournament categories and to add a fourth category. With the beginning of the 2010 season the EBT features Platinum (formerly Premier), Gold (formerly Major), Silver (formerly Challenger) and Satellite tournaments, a new category with minimum 20.000 prize fund plus some other requirements.

There will be a maximum of 3 tournaments from one federation in total for the categories Platinum, Gold and Silver. The schedule for the 2010 European Bowling Tour is supposed to be announced at the beginning of July 2009.

 

Related Articles

European Bowling Tour announces two important decisions for 2010