Mosconi Cup


The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested between teams representing Europe and the United States since 1994. The trophy is named after American player Willie Mosconi, and has been compared to the Ryder Cup in golf. It can also be compared to the Weber Cup in bowling.
Team USA beat Team Europe 11–8 on 28 November 2019. By winning their second straight Mosconi Cup, USA regained the lead in the overall series, 13–12, with one tie.

Player selection

In its earliest days, the Mosconi Cup was created by Sky Sports and Matchroom Sport as an exhibition event to increase public awareness of pool in the United Kingdom. In the first year of competition some of the WPBA's top players played alongside the men in their respective teams. These included Franziska Stark from Germany, Allison Fisher from England, Jeanette Lee and Vivian Villarreal from the United States.
As time progressed, the event evolved from its exhibition nature into a much more serious and professional tournament, and earning a place in the event has acquired a great deal of prestige. In early runnings of the event, many famous snooker players participated, but only Steve Davis continued into the event's more serious era, bowing out when the event began to clash with snooker's UK Championship.
After Davis' withdrawal, all players had to earn an invitation through their performances at other events, meaning that no more snooker players appeared until 2007, when Tony Drago earned a place by virtue of his performance on the European Pool Tour, and won the tournament's Most Valuable Player award for his unbeaten run in the singles matches.

Player appearances

The players to have appeared in the Mosconi Cup:

European players

American players

European nations

Players from sixteen nations have represented Europe. Sorted by number of different people,, and alphabetically, these are:
15 6 4 2
2 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

American states

Players from twenty-two states have represented the United States. Ordered as above, these are:
4 4 4 3
3 3 3 2
2 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1

Tournament modifications

There have been rule changes and format changes throughout the tournament's brief history. These include, but are not limited to: "Non-playing captain" roles were introduced in the 2003 event; however these were removed in the 2004 tournament. In 2004 the doubles matches were re-formatted to be. In 2005, a 30-second shot clock was introduced, and caused controversy due to timing malfunctions. The 2006 tournament started with a team-versus-team match followed by two trebles matches. That year also saw the reintroduction of the non-playing captain role.
The 2009 tournament included several new features:
YearVenueWinnersScoreLosersMVPRef
1994Romford, London, England16–12Europe
1995Basildon, Essex, EnglandEurope16–15
1996Dagenham, London, England15–13Europe
1997Bethnal Green, London, England13–8Europe
1998Bethnal Green, London, England13–9Europe
1999Bethnal Green, London, England12–7Europe
2000Bethnal Green, London, England12–9Europe
2001Bethnal Green, London, England12–1Europe
2002Bethnal Green, London, EnglandEurope12–9
2003Las Vegas, Nevada, USA11–9Europe Mika Immonen
2004Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands12–9Europe Rodney Morris
2005Las Vegas, Nevada, USA11–6Europe Earl Strickland
2006Rotterdam, NetherlandsEurope
12–12 Corey Deuel
2007Las Vegas, Nevada, USAEurope11–8 Tony Drago
2008St. Julian's, MaltaEurope11–5 Mika Immonen
2009Las Vegas, Nevada, USA11–7Europe Dennis Hatch
2010Bethnal Green, London, EnglandEurope11–8 Darren Appleton
2011Las Vegas, Nevada, USAEurope11–7 Niels Feijen
2012Bethnal Green, London, EnglandEurope11–9 Chris Melling
2013Las Vegas, Nevada, USAEurope11–2 Niels Feijen
2014Tower Circus, Blackpool, EnglandEurope11–5 Niels Feijen
2015Las Vegas, Nevada, USAEurope11–7 Niels Feijen
2016Alexandra Palace, London, EnglandEurope11–3 Albin Ouschan
2017Las Vegas, Nevada, USAEurope11–4 Joshua Filler
2018Alexandra Palace, London, England11–9Europe Skyler Woodward
2019Las Vegas, Nevada, USA11–8Europe Skyler Woodward