ETBF has opened for tournament organizers to apply for their tournaments to be adopted in the European Bowling Tour 2009, which is the 10th consecutive tour in Europe.

The ETBF Presidium has a strong believe, that the EBT 2010 will be yet another record breaking year for the tour in Europe.


News for 2009

The ETBF Presidium decided at its meeting, held in Barcelona for a few days ago, that only a few rule changes will be introduced for the EBT 2009. The few changes introduced are as follows:

Definition of whom will be allowed to enter/stay in the players area - To equalise the conditions for all players entering a tournament, to underline the individual nature of tour tournaments and to avoid an unnecessary (undefined) traffic in the player’s area, the follow-ing definition and delimitation will be in use, as of the first stop in the EBT 2009. For all stages of the tournament, only players, tournament officials and relevant centre staff mem-bers may be present in the player’s area, which means that no coaching in the player’s area may take place. It is the obligation of the organizer, if not physically obvious, to ensure that the player’s area is properly marked out.

Open bowling during squads and final stages - The ETBF Presidium strongly recommends all organizers not to have open bowling during any tournament activities in tour stops. The following new rule is introduced for the EBT 2009: During the final steps of the tournament open bowling is not permitted in the centre. It is also strongly recommended not to have open bowling during the qualification squads. Open bowling and /or other normal daily activities in the centre are permitted outside the periods of qualification squads and final steps.

Doubtful legal pull outs - It is obvious that the rules of illegal pull outs stopped a number of pull outs from ever occurring, but it is just as obvious that a number of the legal pull outs still are doubtful. A mild restriction related to legal pull outs are therefore introduces as of the EBT 2009. In case of a legal pull out (permitted by the tournament management) the player is not permitted to play in any qualification squads the same day and until 11.00 o’clock the next day.



Category criteria for 2009

Basic definitions
The total prize fund of a tournament is defined as all prize money allocated for individual players in the international part of the tournament.
The Entry value is defined as a ratio used to evaluate the interrelation between the size of the prize fund and the maximum entry fee.

EBT Challengers, also adopted in the EBT 2007 (2009 is the last transition year)
The total prize fund must be minimum € 35.000
The entry value must be minimum 200
The number of players per pair of lanes in qualification squads can be 2-6

EBT Challengers adopted for the first time in 2008 or 2009
The total prize fund must be minimum € 40.000
The entry value must be minimum 225
The number of players per pair of lanes in qualification squads can be 2-4

EBT Majors
The total prize fund must be minimum € 55.000
The entry value must be minimum 325
The number of players per pair of lanes in qualification squads can be 2-4
The tournament must have been adopted in a previous EBT

EBT Premiers
The total prize fund must be minimum € 100.000
The entry value must be minimum 500
The number of players per pair of lanes in qualification squads can be 2-4
The tournament must have been adopted in a previous EBT

In addition another number of detailed criteria for an EBT Premier exist, which all can be found in the EBT 2009 Rules - available at www.etbf.dk under the item Publications.


Bids for the EBT Masters 2010 and/or the EBT Masters 2011

It is now possible to bid for hosting the 3rd EBT Masters in 2010 and/or the 4th EBT Masters in 2011. It will be possible to conduct the EBT Masters on Monday-Wednesday just after the conclu-sion of a tour stop, but the host of an EBT Masters can also be a federation or a company, whom ever is providing a good hosting bid.

The EBT Masters will, preferably, be conducted in the interval of February - July, but exceptional good bids from a host can influence the decision of the dates, which then might be different.

The deadline

The deadline for organizers to apply for their tournaments to be adopted in the EBT 2009 as well as bids for organizing the EBT Masters 2010 and the EBT Masters 2001 is Monday 23 June 2008. No later deliveries will be accepted.

Soonest possible after the deadline, the composition of the EBT 2009 will be published and hope-fully at the same time the hosts of the 3rd and the 4th EBT Masters can be announced.


Kim Thorsgaard Jensen
EBT Director

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