Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen recap- The Hearn Family rises in the sports promotions industry

Netflix's latest six-part docuseries Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen follows Matchroom Sport, one of the most successful sports events promotion companies in the UK. Run by the powerhouse duo of Barry and Eddie Hearn, each episode of the docu-series explores how the father-son duo took their company to new heights, while also maintaining a healthy competition with each other. The docu-series does not focus on any one sport, but rather on the sports events promotions company, which promotes and invests in multiple sports (and their athletes) like boxing, darts, snooker, pool, bowling, golf, fishing, etc.

Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen also explores how the company's rivalry with Queensberry, another promotions company, made them invest in Katie Taylor, a budding boxing player. Taylor rose to stardom after she went against Amanda Serrano during the highly televised and livestreamed fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Katie Taylor managed to win that fight, which brought immense popularity and success to Matchroom. However, behind the scenes of this fight were messy as Eddie Hearn was denied entry backstage.

Here is the complete recap for Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen.

Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen recap- The inner workings of the company

Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen begins by giving us a sneak peek inside the workings of the company. The first episode takes place inside the Matchroom headquarters in Bretwood, Essex, where we learn a bit about the company's history and its rise to power in the sports events promotions industry. Started in 1980 by Barry Hearn, the company initially invested only in pool and snooker events. Matchroom became popular after one of their snooker players, Steve Davis, became the most celebrated athlete in the UK.

While Matchroom is currently run by both Barry and Eddie, the father-son duo has maintained a healthy competition. When Barry was struggling with some health issues, Eddie was eager to take control of the company, but his father still maintained his control. While Eddie has proved his worth time and again, Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen is essentially a son's effort to show the world that he is ready to take on his father's legacy after he retires one day.

Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen recap- The CEO of Multisport took the company to new heights

While Matchroom is essentially the brainchild of the Hearn company, Emily Frazar, the CEO of Multipsort, played a huge role in its expansion. As explained by Frazer in the docuseries, Multiport is a department that oversees more than one sport and does not typically focus on boxing, but on pool and fishing. Frazer explained how she followed Barry Hearn's footsteps and had impressive business plans to take the company to new heights, but in the field of pool. While boxing and darts already have a special place in the UK, she wanted to promote pool and make it an equally watched and followed sport in her country.

To achieve this, Emily had two strategies, as she explained in Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen. She primarily targeted the US Open Pool Championship in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Barry Hearn was himself debuting in the sport. It was revealed that the Matchroom founder had a special place for the sport and always wanted to participate in a pool competition on an International stage. While he was no match for the professional athletes, his participation became the talk of the town and many people tuned in to watch the championship.

Secondly, Emily came up with a new tournament called the Reyes Cup in Manila, Philippines, which has only been held once (in 2024). The goal of the tournament was to find out which continent has the best pool players by pitting European players against Asian ones. The event was successful for Matchroom and was almost sold out every day. Emily plans to expand her department even further in the company and make pool just as popular as other sports in the UK.

The main focus of the Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen is the possibility that Matchroom could get a huge investment by the sports promoter and the Minister of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, Turki Alalshikh. While Turki's deal with Matchroom will be beneficial for the company, it will also make him the sole decision-maker as the largest shareholder.

However, the final moments of Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen revealed that Turki is more interested in investing partly in the darts department. That way, Matchroom will get a huge investment and Barry and Eddie will continue to make decisions for the company in the future. A win-win!

Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen is now streaming on Netflix.

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