‘What is going on’?… Emily Frazer tells crazy fishing and poker stories after another epic Reyes Cup

EXCLUSIVE: Emily Frazer has had a wild ride during her time as Matchroom Multisport CEO.

In her incredible journey, she’s gone from making the teas and ordering the pizzas to hosting another spectacular Reyes Cup, in which Team Asia dominated Team Rest of the World in front of a raucous crowd in Manila, Philippines.

Emily Frazer went fishing with Johnny Fisher

While Emily Frazer adores pool, in her role, she revels in the opportunity to explore various sports, with the promoter once having to deal with a fishing disaster, which ultimately gave her the chance to discover that she isn’t just talented with the mic, but also with the rod.

In an exclusive interview with Sporf, she reminisced: “We obviously do FishOMania, everybody loves it. It was my first ever event when I went into the new role at Matchroom. I turned up and one of the anglers was apparently using the wrong type of maggot. So, I’m in the office, which was a marquee outside, and The Angling Trust come in, and they’re like, ‘Are you going to disqualify him’? I’m like, I’ve got no clue what is going on right now.

“I’m pulling out the player contracts, and I’m like, ‘What’s happening, where are the rules’. I was so in over my head, 24-years-old, ‘Am I really going to disqualify someone who’s trying to earn, £50,000’? Then, Sky comes in and they’re like, ‘What are you going to do’. I’m like, I have no idea. I went out and was like, ‘We don’t want to be disqualifying anyone, he didn’t know he was doing it’. From then on, we did FishOMania every year, and I learned from that.

“Then, last year, Barry Hearn turns around, and he says, ‘Right, we do this Sports Star challenge, it’s a great day for a really good cause, you’ve got to come and fish in it’. I’m like, ‘I run FishOMania, but I don’t fish’. At FishOMania two weeks before, I’m like, ‘Someone give me a 15-minute crash course’. I’m in a dress and sandals. I’m there like, ‘What do I do’? And they’re putting the magot on. Listen, I can wear trackies and a hoodie, but I have long nails, I’m a girl’s girl.

“Sports Star Fishing comes along, I bring this book, ‘Fishing for Dummies’, and I was on a team with Johnny Fisher. There was this point where we were in the lead for half a day. I was planning for one of my next events, and then suddenly, a load of stuff went wrong. Bearing in mind, I was fishing for like four hours, Phoebe, who is my right-hand, she is sat there helping me do emails. I’ve got my earphones in, just making calls because stuff was going wrong.

“Within that hour of me trying to fix a load of stuff, I’d caught the most weight that anyone had caught all day. All of a sudden, the camera crew came over and were like, ‘Emily, you’re in the lead, I’m like, ‘I’m just trying to solve this problem’. I was having such a nice time, I found it really enjoyable, it was relaxing, I’m doing a phone call and then catching a fish. Lee, who is my bank runner, was like, ‘Emily, you’re doing great, just keep doing whatever you’re doing’.”

Emily Frazer solved poker disaster

Frazer is currently doing fantastic things in the world of pool, growing the sport at a rapid rate.

And in order to achieve what she has today, the promoter has enhanced her skill set by overcoming every bit of adversity placed in her way.

She chuckled: “I always remember this one story. I think all the best stories come from the poker days. I love poker. One of the best stories I have was back when we pre-recorded and things weren’t live, which is wild to think. I remember, we were at the PlayBoy Club, it’s a casino. We shut it down for Premier League Poker or The Big Game, and we were recording in this corner and there was a problem with the graphics, so we had to stop play for an hour. The players were fuming.

“We started again, and they were buying in; it was a cash game. This new player comes in from America. There were poker players and other players who were more businessmen who wanted to come in and play. He’s come in and his shirt was all stripes, so it was strobing. We’re sitting there, and we’re kind of like, ‘We don’t want to stop the game again, because they’re all going to be fuming’. So, we had to keep it going, but we couldn’t really record it because it was strobing on screen.

“I’ve had to go to his hotel room to go and get a new shirt, but that’s an insight, because you have to do whatever gets the job done, because at the end of the day, you don’t want to stop the show, but you’ve got to go and get something. I remember sitting in this taxi going around London, thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ I found the shirt; he’s in a navy shirt now, no strobing, everything is fine. That’s one of 1000 stories like that.”

Featured Image Credit: Matchroom Pool