Attempts to monetize social media by pool players and instructors are a recent trend that may draw more interest and investment in the game.

By Nicholas Leider

In pool, cash is still king. But looking at society in general, a massive shift has taken place over the past quarter century. At the end of the 20th century, the most valuable companies in the world, in the simplest sense, used to make stuff or sell it. By the end of the 1990s, General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and Wal-Mart were the most valuable companies on earth.

But now, surprising to no one with a phone in their pocket, the global megacorporations are more interested in people's attention than transactions of money. Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Amazon and Alphabet (Google) profit from grabbing attention and keeping it.

To this end, the pool world is adjusting. On all social media platforms, players, instructors, commentators and fans are looking to build a brand, find a following and monetize that attention.

As Facebook, Instagram and Twitter grew to become part of billions of people's daily lives, pool as a whole didn't dive headfirst. Players posted, fans followed, companies developed online presences – but only more recently did it seem like these parties aimed to cash in directly from activity on social media. The destination had always been the table, but some people in the pool world are now looking to make their business as influencers, with pool as the message.

To understand the current state of pool on social media, six case studies – from world champions to a cue-flipper turned talking head – show the difference in strategy, goals, investment and outcome when looking to leverage social media.

World Champs & Brand Builders

In many ways, Fedor Gorst was built to be pool's biggest online influencer. He's handsome, affable, ungodly talented and, perhaps most importantly, young. It's a hack joke to say older folks don't get technology, but it's undeniable that Gorst is part of a generation that grew up with social media. It's second nature.

The American transplant has always had an interest in building an online following. In his teens in Russia, he built the Billiard Brothers YouTube channel with three buddies, eventually amassing more than 15,000 subscribers and 4.7 million views.

In the next few years, as he developed into an international star, Gorst continued to build his social media presence and engage with fans.

“The more I was travelling, I just started thinking and I'm still thinking of a long-term plan,” he said. “Social media is not going away – it's only getting bigger and bigger, so you have to start thinking about building a brand.”

That brand is, literally, Gorst himself. In monetizing his engagement on various social media platforms, he has to aggregate a following, continue to create content, and interact with his fans. These efforts also bolster a second aspect of his brand, with his website offering pool equipment and apparel.

Those interests aren't necessarily competing, but balancing efforts on brand awareness and marketing for the Ghost brand with monetizing social media can be difficult.

“It's always both,” Gorst said, about the goals for his online content. “You're always trying to raise your own profile, because if you have 5 million followers on Facebook, suddenly people from outside the sport will be looking at us. We'll get attention from outside pool.”


Gorst has been the most active of the pros working social media.

One bright spot came in 2023 when Gorst traveled to Vietnam for the Hanoi Open. He was blown away by the rabid fanbase for pool in the country.

“That trip was an eye-opener for me in terms of the fanbases overseas,” he said. “If you look at the metrics for my pages, for instance on Facebook, Vietnam is like 60 percent of my followers, which was never really something I expected.”

The efforts on the business side of Fedor Gorst, Professional Pool Player include an impressive amount of investment in time, effort and manpower. In addition to a business manager, Gorst works with a filmmaker who often travels with him to major tournaments, an assistant, a handful of contracted graphic designers and two marketing advisors.

While engagement has been impressive, with Gorst's YouTube channel alone boasting more than 14 million views, he notes calculating a return on investment is tricky because of the long-term nature of building this brand.

“We don't really generate much income [on social media],” Gorst said. “We're getting something back, but really, we spend a lot [in production costs]. I would say we're close to breaking even.”

For Alex Pagulayan, social media wasn't a consideration when he was Gorst's age. In fact, the Filipino Canadian star was 26, a year older than Gorst is now, when he won his World Pool Championship in 2004, the same year Facebook was launched.

But as one of the most entertaining and charismatic players in the game, Pagulayan launched his apparel and accessories brand in November 2023. In an effort to bolster business and attract attention, he also enlisted a team to help increase online engagement.


The always entertaining Pagulayan provides plenty of comic relief.

Greg DeBora, the director of operations for the Pagulayan brand, noted that the efforts on social media aim to capture Pagulayan's big personality along with his skill on the table.

“Alex is playing and competing at the highest level around the world,” he said. “We want to capture and highlight those events and that footage. It creates a connection with our audience and a reminder for them about our pool brand.”

DeBora estimated that he spends 20 hours a week on creating content, with Pagulayan dedicating 10 hours a week. The efforts on backend, including producing, developing, editing and posting, are handled by hired professionals.

Like Gorst's team, Pagulayan's team can't help but look at engagement metrics, but the additional marketing value in these efforts is difficult to calculate.

“It's hard to judge engagement but generally it is by the amount of views, likes and comments,” DeBora said. “But it is more than that. It is also an awareness that the viewer may have about a person or brand.”

Virtual vs. IRL Learning

Players are natural candidates to become the sport's leading content creators and influencers. But instructors and teachers may be right behind them in line. Andre Schickling, aka Sharivari, is undoubtedly the most prominent online pool instructor in the world. His more than 100 million views on YouTube speak for themselves.

A 35-year-old living outside Munich, Germany, Schickling is a full-time YouTuber who left a career in software engineering and design to support himself through his online activities, with additional efforts including in-person instruction. Supporting himself almost entirely with income from YouTube and other social media, he keeps his focus where it always has been.

“My main goal, still, is to make a living,” he said. “So of course, it's about monetization and getting views, but I just want to coach people and to show them cool tricks on the table. I always remember when I started out and I used to watch a couple of videos on YouTube.”

With a staggering following compared to other pool personalities – 563,000 subscribers on YouTube, 242,400 followers on TikTok, and 121,000 fans on Facebook – Schickling is hardly slowing down, posting videos to YouTube a few times a week. He's also a one-man shop, where he handles all the duties in turning raw video into slickly produced content ready for millions of views online.

Considering the depth and width of knowledge required to play pool, he has noticed a slight change in his focus.

“In the beginning it was [creating content with] the broadest appeal, trying to reach people who are maybe just starting getting into pool or just interested in the game,” Schickling said. “Then it changed a bit because the big topics were basically all covered, and I tried to dive a bit deeper into it, to also have good content for above average players.


Schickling is still a social monster and a full-time Tuber.

“In some ways, I aimed to become more like a pool coach, like the pool YouTuber, which is kind of a distinction, in my opinion.”

Schickling tries to make an annual pilgrimage to the Derby City Classic. At this year's event, he was chatting with pool superstars Joshua and Pia Filler, when they had a few questions for pool's leading YouTuber.

“They just asked, ‘Hey, Andre, how much work is a YouTube channel?' I said, ‘How much time do you have?'” Schickling joked. “They said they were interested in having their own YouTube channel, but they are professional players. They can't work 40 or 50 hours a week on it.”

Those discussions eventually led to a crash course in recording, with the three spending long hours at the table compiling 15 videos that will be rolled out throughout the year. The Killer Fillers channel has already garnered 193,000 views and 6,670 followers.

The endeavor is especially interesting considering Joshua Filler is an introvert, at least away from the table. But Schickling noted how the couple grew into their roles as on-screen talent as time went on.

“If [Joshua] thought about the camera, he can seem nervous, but he was more fluent, more relaxed as things went on,” Schickling said. “It could be an interesting way for them to build a channel and give their fans, not necessarily new pool players, some insights on how they train, what it's like at tournaments, and what they are thinking for certain shots.”


An unlikely contributor to social media, Josh and wife Pia clearly realize the opportunity.

Chris Reinhold makes (most of) his money teaching the game, but the 27-year-old American does it the traditional way, with in-person lessons to a variety of players from first-timers to one with a 700 Fargo rating.

The two-time member of the Mosconi Cup's Team USA, Reinhold has focused more on coaching and teaching than international competition in recent years. But even in focusing on IRL lessons, he has developed a healthy following on Instagram and Facebook.

“It just started [when I] posted a few cool shots, and then I got some positive feedback,” Reinhold said. “But I also noticed how social media was changing. Instagram started to monetize reels instead of posts, so they were actually making it less lucrative to just post photos. In order to get the same views, I started posting more videos and it took off from there.”

But unlike those looking to gain a massive following online, Reinhold sees his efforts as marketing tools for his fledgling profession as a coach.

“I don't even make much money off the posts, because I haven't done enough volume and my numbers aren't there yet,” he said. “But it's a way to reach people and interact with them that otherwise might not be possible.”

Based in New Orleans, Reinhold has attracted pool players from all across the Southeast U.S. and Great Plains, noting folks driving from Kansas, Mississippi and Texas for single lessons.

“It's crazy the amount of reach I can have,” he said. “It's not something I would've thought would be possible. But I think being approachable is key, letting people know they can talk to me.”

Aiming at Larger Audiences

Pool's never struggled with its supply of opinionated people who aren't afraid to share. But the professional talking head, a la Stephen A. Smith or Skip Bayless, hasn't traditionally been an avenue for those in billiards. But Michael Ortiz, aka Molina Mike, might be the exception.

The 39-year-old Texan has always been around pool, especially one-pocket, but his influence in the sport's media landscape has grown considerably in recent years. His Window's Open Facebook page boasts 103,000 followers. His podcast Doggin' It has more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

Ortiz has been able to establish himself as one of the go-to resources for information of all types in the game, but the work that goes into maintaining his various online outlets is seemingly never-ending.

“I've got these alerts that track how much time you spend on your phone,” he said. “So, like, I don't think I've gotten less than eight hours a day, every day, for a few years now.”

Launched in August 2021, Window's Open steadily grew as a catchall for pool information, from hard news to more subjective topics. With Ortiz traveling to so many national events, being on-site with players, railbirds and fans, he has carved a niche for himself as pool's everyman and his page is a place where everyone can chat about all things pool.

“My initial goal was to build a place where you could get breaking news and current information,” he said. “But now, that's shifted a bit because everyone wants to keep engagement and interaction on their own pages. From there, it's kind of evolved to where I'm become more of at talking head – where I'm sharing opinions and my point of view.”

Ortiz recalls spending December 2021 in a cold shop in Austin, Texas, working on cues. He was undecided if he could make it to the Derby City Classic the next month, where he wanted to launch his podcast. Unable to get any official space in the exhibit area, Ortiz heard from a sponsor who was interested in backing his trip to Louisville.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘Yeah, man, I want to go,'” he said. “And the sponsor said, ‘What are you going to be doing out there' And I thought that was a good question, because I got no idea.”

But he knew doing nothing wasn't it.

“I said I don't have a plan,” Ortiz said. “I'm going to be completely winging it, just trying to be everywhere and figuring out something different to do.”

The man-on-the-street approach worked, continued to build his following and his place within pool. Naturally, garnering a following as large as Ortiz's has allowed him sponsorship opportunities with industry companies, where he will post advertising content to his audience alongside his posts and videos. In an effort to bolster that healthy audience, Ortiz has been trying to build engagement with pool players who may not necessarily be the biggest fans of the professional game. Finding a balance between content targeted at the hardcore fan and that which is more accessible to the casual player is a work in progress.

“If I can help grow the professional game, that is great,” he said. “But the reality is, [league players] are the ones spending money on cues, –they are the ones buying from this retailer or that one. If I can get them interested, if I can get them engaged, the page will be a bridge for them to become a bigger fan.”

Across the Atlantic, Spanish pro player Jonas Souto Comino also keeps his sights set on casual fans as a way to introduce pool (and himself) to larger audiences. One of the few players who focuses on TikTok, the 23-year-old has millions of views of videos that are explanations of basic rules and some fundamental lessons.


Souto is making big strides both on and off the table.

One video explaining a misconception about 8-ball in Spain, where some play that the other player gets two shots after an opponent's foul, went viral.

“I said this rule never existed and a lot of people started asking, “How do you know? Who are you to tell us?” Souto said. “And it had 5 million views on Instagram and 4.6 million views on TikTok. A big newspaper here in Spain put the video on their website.”

That helped launch a self-admitted amateur career on social media. With his cousin, David Ortega, handling all the production, editing, and posting duties, Souto keeps all his efforts for content siloed to Monday. The two produce three videos that will roll out through the week, until they run it back on the next Monday.

“Social media can help people watch you more and more, but I just do it for fun,” he said. “If we can make money, of course that's welcome, but right now, I'm making a lot more money playing in tournaments and through sponsors than social media.

“My job is to be a professional pool player.”

Media Matters

However the next generation of pool players, influencers, and content creators use social media, this latest trend in more professional approaches to building engagement and profiting from it looks to be gaining momentum, with international stars like AJ Manas, Mickey Krause, and Robbie Caputo starting to level up their operations.

What remains to be understood, however, is the secret sauce to making something go viral.

“You have to be lucky, because not all video is going to be viral,” Souto said. “I have videos that are viral and the good, but really bad videos go viral too.”

“You never know what's going to work and you never know how those formulas or algorithms on social media work,” Gorst said.

“It's ever evolving, for sure,” Ortiz said. “I'll have some stories or posts where I feel like, 'This is good. People love this.' And it doesn't do anything. Then there's some filler content I just throw up to keep the day going and it'll take off. I still have no idea why.”

Social media, just like an open table of 9-ball, doesn't have a single correct answer, but they do have a million ways to get the job done.

 

Top