Barry Maurice William Hearn, born on June 19, 1948, in Dagenham, Essex, England, is a British sports promoter, chartered accountant, and the founder and president of Matchroom Sport.
He built one of the most successful sports promotion companies in the world, transforming snooker, boxing, and darts from niche pursuits into globally televised spectacles. In 2021, he received an OBE for services to sport in the New Year Honours List.
Who is Barry Hearn?
Barry Hearn is an English sports promoter and businessman best known as the founder and president of Matchroom Sport, the promotions company he established in Romford, Essex, in 1982.
Through Matchroom, he organized and promoted events across boxing, snooker, darts, pool, golf, table tennis, tenpin bowling, and fishing over a career spanning more than five decades.
He became prominent during snooker’s 1980s boom, guiding six-time world champion Steve Davis and building a stable of top professionals known as the Matchroom Stable.
From there, he expanded into boxing in 1987, darts in the 1990s, and eventually a global sports business.
Barry served as chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation until April 2021 and chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association until July 2010.
He also chaired Leyton Orient F.C. from 1995 until July 2014.
In April 2021, he stepped aside from day-to-day control of Matchroom, handing the chairman role to his son Eddie Hearn. Barry became President of the Group, focusing on event strategy and global development.
Early Life of Barry Hearn
Barry Hearn grew up on a council estate in Dagenham, Essex, in east London, and has spoken publicly about coming from a working-class background.
As a teenager, he ran small enterprises to earn money, including washing cars, picking fruit and vegetables, and window cleaning. Those early experiences shaped the entrepreneurial drive he carried into his professional career.
He attended Buckhurst Hill County High School before training as a chartered accountant. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1970, he spent several years working for a major firm of international accountants.
That financial training gave him the business grounding he would later apply to the world of sports.
His entry into the commercial world came through the fashion industry and property development before a pivotal change in direction.
In 1974, he became chairman of Lucania Snooker Clubs, a UK-wide chain of snooker venues, and that role introduced him to the sport that would launch his career as a promoter.
He grew up alongside Steve Davis in the same part of east London. Davis later described them as “two guys from council estates in Dagenham and Plumstead conquering the world” after Davis won his first World Snooker Championship in 1981.
Barry Hearn Age
Barry Hearn is 78 years old as of 2026, born on June 19, 1948. His zodiac sign is Gemini.
He stepped back from the chairmanship of Matchroom Sport in April 2021 after almost 40 years running the company and became President of the Group in an advisory capacity.
Barry Hearn Ethnicity and Nationality
Barry Hearn is English by nationality, born and raised in Dagenham in the county of Essex. His ethnic background is White British.
He grew up on a council estate and has spoken openly about his working-class roots in Dagenham throughout his public life.
That background shaped his approach to sport as a vehicle for changing lives, which became a central part of his public philosophy during his years at the helm of snooker and darts.
Barry Hearn Height and Weight
Barry Hearn stands 6 feet tall, which equals approximately 1.83 meters. His weight is approximately 70 kg, which equals about 154 lbs.
He has maintained a public presence at major sporting events throughout his career and is recognized instantly by fans of snooker and darts across the UK and internationally.
Barry Hearn Education
Barry Hearn attended Buckhurst Hill County High School in Essex for his secondary education.
After leaving school, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1970, which he achieved through professional training rather than a university degree program.
He then worked for a major international accounting firm before moving into the commercial world.
His accounting qualification remained the foundation of his business approach throughout his career, and he has credited it with giving him the financial discipline to build Matchroom Sport into a sustainable empire.
Barry Hearn Career
Barry Hearn’s career in sports began through an unexpected route. After working in accountancy and finance, he took the position of chairman of Lucania Snooker Clubs in 1974, managing a chain of snooker halls across the UK.
That role led him into promoting amateur snooker tournaments and brought him into contact with the players who would define his career.
Snooker and the Matchroom Stable
In 1976, Steve Davis began playing at the Romford Lucania Club, and the two struck up a friendship that changed British sport.
Hearn became Davis’s manager and, in 1982, Riley Leisure acquired the Lucania Snooker Club chain for £3.1 million, freeing Hearn to concentrate entirely on sports promotion.
That year, he formally established Matchroom Sport, with offices in Romford, Essex.
The company became the pre-eminent management company in snooker and created the Matchroom Stable, a roster of top professionals that included Steve Davis, Tony Meo, Tony Knowles, Dennis Taylor, Willie Thorne, John Virgo, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Terry Griffiths, and Jimmy White at various points.
Between them, stable members won 12 World Championship titles, 15 UK titles, and 11 Masters titles.
Hearn drove snooker into becoming the UK’s number-one televised sport during the 1980s. He negotiated television rights deals and structured events to maximize audience appeal, transforming a niche pursuit into mainstream entertainment.
Steve Davis won the World Snooker Championship six times during the years that Hearn managed him.
When Davis won his first World Championship title in Sheffield in 1981, Hearn publicly celebrated with his famous line about two guys from council estates in east London conquering the world.
Boxing Promotion
In 1987, Hearn moved Matchroom into boxing with a major heavyweight showdown between Frank Bruno and Joe Bugner, staged at Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane ground in front of 35,000 spectators.
He sold the television rights for the event, demonstrating the commercial approach he applied across all his sporting ventures.
Matchroom Boxing went on to promote many of Britain’s top fighters over the following decades, with Hearn himself managing events before handing boxing promotion responsibilities to his son Eddie in the 2010s.
Eddie Hearn signed a landmark $1 billion deal with DAZN in 2018 to broadcast 32 UK and US Matchroom shows, which built on the commercial framework his father had established.
In 1990, Matchroom Sport TV began trading, moving the company firmly into event ownership, promotion, and television content production.
Darts, Leyton Orient, and Leadership Roles
Hearn entered darts promotion during the 1990s and became a pivotal figure in the growth of the Professional Darts Corporation. Under his chairmanship from 2001, the PDC grew into a mainstream sporting property, with prize funds escalating dramatically.
He helped transform darts from a pub game into a television spectacle with sell-out arenas and dedicated broadcast partnerships.
He took over as chairman of Leyton Orient F.C. in 1995 and held that role until 2014, helping to save the club from serious financial difficulties during his tenure.
He later served as the club’s President until 2018 before stepping away.
In 2009, he took over as chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and in 2010 made World Snooker a subsidiary of Matchroom Sport.
During his eleven years leading snooker’s governing body, the sport grew from six ranking events and £3.5 million in prize money to more than 30 tournaments and a prize fund of £15 million.
In late 2020, he received an OBE for services to sport in the New Year Honours List. In April 2021, Hearn stepped aside as chairman of Matchroom Sport, the PDC, and World Snooker, with son Eddie taking control of the chairmanship.
Barry retained the title of President of the Matchroom Group, remaining involved in event strategy and global development.
In May 2026, Bruin Capital acquired a 15% stake in Matchroom Sport, providing the company with major new capital to accelerate international expansion, particularly in the United States, across boxing, darts, and snooker.
Barry Hearn Awards and Recognition
Barry Hearn received an OBE for services to sport in the 2021 New Year Honours List. He also received an honorary doctorate from a UK university in recognition of his contributions to the sports industry.
He spent almost 40 years as chairman of Matchroom Sport and chaired the Professional Darts Corporation for two decades, two of the most significant leadership tenures in British sports promotion history.
Barry Hearn Wife
Barry Hearn is married to Susan Hearn. Susan stood beside him during a difficult period in the early 1990s when he faced serious financial difficulties close to bankruptcy. Their marriage has remained stable throughout his long career in sports.
In 2002, Barry suffered a heart attack, a life-altering experience that led him to reassess his priorities.
Despite that health challenge, he continued to grow Matchroom Sport into one of the world’s leading sports promotion businesses over the following two decades.
Barry Hearn Children
Barry Hearn and Susan have two children: a daughter named Katie and a son named Eddie Hearn. Eddie Hearn, born on June 8, 1979, is now one of the most prominent boxing promoters in the world and serves as chairman of Matchroom Sport, succeeding his father in April 2021.
Eddie built Matchroom Boxing into a global force and in 2018 signed the landmark $1 billion deal with DAZN. He has promoted major fights involving Anthony Joshua, Canelo Alvarez’s opponents, and other top-ranked boxers across multiple weight classes.
Barry Hearn Net Worth
Barry Hearn’s estimated net worth is $600 million as of 2026. His fortune ties closely to the enormous value of Matchroom Sport and the family-controlled sports empire he built over five decades.
In May 2026, Bruin Capital acquired a 15% stake in Matchroom Sport, providing a major financial milestone that reflected the company’s growth and scale.
His income flows from decades of television rights deals, live event promotion, boxing purse shares, darts tournament revenues, snooker event ownership, and the Fish-o-Mania fishing competition, which he sold to Sky Sports.
Matchroom Sport also produces sports content for broadcasters worldwide, creating ongoing commercial relationships across multiple platforms.
Barry also invested in real estate, and Matchroom’s headquarters in Brentwood, Essex, sits on a substantial property portfolio.
He has also reportedly invested in farmland in the UK, which he cited publicly as part of his estate planning approach.
Barry Hearn Social Media
Barry Hearn does not maintain personal social media accounts publicly in his own name. His professional legacy is carried forward through Matchroom Sport’s platforms.
Where his son Eddie and the wider Matchroom operation maintain a large global presence across boxing, darts, and snooker audiences.
The Bottom Line
Barry Hearn founded Matchroom Sport in Romford, Essex, in 1982 and over four decades built it into one of the world’s leading independent sports promoters, covering boxing, darts, snooker, pool, and table tennis across more than 30 countries.
In 2021, he received an OBE for services to sport and stepped back from the chairmanship after almost 40 years.
He grew up on a council estate in Dagenham and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1970 before finding his path in sports promotion through snooker clubs in the mid-1970s.
His management of Steve Davis through six World Snooker Championship victories in the 1980s became one of the most celebrated partnerships in British sporting history.
In May 2026, Bruin Capital acquired a 15% stake in Matchroom Sport, marking the latest major financial milestone in the company Barry built from a Romford office more than 40 years ago.
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