Major revisions being considered for the World Bowling Tour

24 October, 2016

World Bowling Tour

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World Bowling, the governing body for the sport of bowling, has announced that three World Bowling Tour events to be staged in the Middle East for November have been cancelled for the 2016 season.

The withdrawal of the 2nd Abu Dhabi Open to be held at the Khalifa International Bowling Center in Abu Dhabi, UAE (Nov. 1-8, 2016), the 13th Kuwait International Open at Cozmo Bowling Center in Kuwait City, Kuwait (Nov. 10-16, 2016), and the 10th Kingdom International Open at Universal Bowling Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Nov. 18-23, 2016) leave the VIII PBA World Series of Bowling and the Qatar Bowling Open to finish off the remainder of the 2016 World Bowling Tour season.

“We regret to inform our fans of the late cancellations but our supporters can rest assured that the same events will take place in 2017, with the full list of host cities and dates being announced next month,” said World Bowling CEO Kevin Dornberger (pictured left), United States.

The PBA World Series of Bowling VIII takes place at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev., USA (Nov. 27 – Dec. 11, 2016) and the Qatar Bowling Open will be held at Qatar Bowling Center in Doha, Qatar (Dec. 10-16, 2016).

Dornberger also commented on a transformation of the tour being planned for 2018. “We are currently working hard to completely revamp the tour for its 2018 instalment.

“World Bowling are involving many parties and industry specialists to bring a more professionalized tour focusing on better performance conditions for the athletes and more viewership opportunities to increase our growing fan base and partnership prospects.”

The changes will follow a modernized rebranding of the tour, the first stages of which will be launched next month with a new World Bowling Tour logo being released.

The World Bowling Tour is the premier international bowling series that is hosted in numerous, unique cities around the globe. Men and women compete for points to earn places on The World Bowling Tour rankings.

The points system is based on a continuous two-year cycle, where points include every event from the previous two years format. The top three men and top three women in the points list at the end of the 2016 season will compete in the season-ending World Bowling Tour Men’s and Women’s Finals which will be part of a live ESPN doubleheader on Feb. 26, 2017.

The WBT Finals will be immediately follow the United States Bowling Congress Masters which will be held from Feb. 19-26 at the The Orleans Hotel and Bowling Center in Las Vegas. Nev. This will mark the first time in PBA history that two separate events will air back-to-back as live telecasts.

World Bowling provides governance to international bowling and is made up of 115 member federations within three geographical zones. For more information on the World Bowling Tour, click here.

2016 World Bowling Tour – Schedule, Champions, Men’s and Women’s Ranking Winners
2016 WBT Point Rankings – Men and Women

Herbert Bickel