The World Pool League (WPL) was a nine ball pool tournament promoted by Matchroom Sport and PartyGaming,[1] and sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). All of the events were held in Warsaw, Poland, annually from 1999 to 2006.[1] Six notable players were selected to participate in each event, which lasted for three days.[1] Despite its name, the events were invitational tournaments, not a league in the usual sporting senses. The victor in the final event was Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines, 8–5 over Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, for a US$20,000 first-place prize.[1]
Format
Round robin stage
The players were arranged such that each on the others once, in round-robin fashion. Unlike most matches in the sport where a player has to score a required number of racks to win, players in this round play in an assigned number of racks (for example: 10 racks or 12 racks). If a player won more racks than those remaining in the match, 2 points were earned. If the match ended with two players in the same score, then both settled for a point each. The leading 4 players in the field proceeded to the semi-finals.
Semi-finals and final
The semi-finals were single-elimination (knock-out). The final was played as a race (such as race-to-nine or race-to-eight).
Winners
| Year | Location | Winner | runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Warsaw, Poland |  Jim Rempe[1] |  Fabio Petroni |
| 1999 | Jim Rempe (2) |  Efren Reyes | |
| 2000 |  Steve Knight | Francisco Bustamante | |
| 2001 | Efren Reyes[1] | Steve Davis | |
| 2002 | Efren Reyes (2) | Earl Strickland | |
| 2003 | Rodney Morris[1] |  Thorsten Hohmann | |
| 2004 | Francisco Bustamante[1] | Alex Pagulayan | |
| 2005 | Thorsten Hohmann[1] | Francisco Bustamante | |
| 2006 | Dennis Orcollo[1] |  Niels Feijen[1] |