Major League Fishing buys the FLW – Changes in the Bass Fishing Industry!
In this video I talk about the recent changes happening in the Bass Fishing Tournament scene. Major League Fishing (MLF) bought the Fishing League Worldwide (FLW) organization. The rumors have been circulating the industry for the past few months now. There was a lot of speculating about the future of FLW. 2019 has seen a bunch of things in the fishing industry change. From many of the top name pros leaving the Bassmaster Elite Series and forming a new tournament trial called the MLF. A totally new format as well. Instead of 5 biggest fish the new format will be as many fish you can catch. With the buy out of FLW it leaves some unanswered questions as of right now about my future. I break everything down in this video!

Here is some of the article by BassFan that was posted this morning…
Major League Fishing’s acquisition of FLW – a rumor that’s made the rounds in the bass fishing industry for most of 2019 – has finally become a reality.
MLF, which is jointly owned by Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and a group of angler/investors, has purchased the 23-year-old tournament organization that was started by the late Irwin Jacobs and was responsible for a significant infusion of money into the industry in the late 1990s when it rose up as a competitor to the long-established Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.).

The acquisition provides MLF a feeder system for its top-level Bass Pro Tour and the infrastructure for grassroots-level competition to utilize the MLF format (all scoreable bass count, real-time standings available to all competitors at all times, catch-weigh-immediate release, etc.).

FLW, which was operated by the Jacobs family since its founding in July 1996, has approximately 50,000 fee-paying members from 11 countries and will have sanctioned more than 300 tournaments across seven categories (FLW Tour, FLW Series, Bass Fishing League, College, High School, International and Charity) in 2019 by the time the calendar year is complete.

The move to acquire FLW is another bold step by MLF to fortify its position in the bass fishing tournament business. Launched in 2011 as a made-for-TV competition, MLF expanded its footprint a year ago by unveiling the BPT and attracting 80 of the world’s top anglers from the Bassmaster Elite Series and FLW Tour. Now, it’s positioned to serve tournament anglers from the youth level up through the pro ranks.

“This acquisition gives us a great opportunity to achieve all of our long-term dreams in one fell swoop,” MLF co-founder Boyd Duckett said in a conference call with BassFan.

The acquisition will trigger significant changes for the 2020 FLW Tour, which will be rebranded as the FLW Pro Circuit and will slot in beneath the BPT in the new hierarchy. The season will consist of seven regular-season events and a championship. The FLW Cup and its $300,000 top prize will be replaced by an Angler of the Year finale along the lines of the one conducted annually on the Bassmaster Elite Series. All of the Pro Circuit events will be six days long and the format will be a hybrid mix of the traditional five-fish-per-day tournament format and the MLF mode.

A full field of 150 anglers will fish the first two days for cumulative weights (combined maximum of 10 fish), then a cut to the top 75 will occur with weights zeroed. Day 3 will mirror a BPT Elimination Round (cut to 40) and days 4 and 5 will be Knockout Rounds that each feature half of the remaining field to achieve a cut to 10 for the final day.

The top 50 will each receive a check for at least $10,000 and the next 25 competitors will collect $5,000. Details on entry fees and payouts at the top of the field have not yet been released.

The modifications made to the FLW Tour for 2020 will pave the way for MLF fully integrating it with its top circuit the following year. Starting in 2021, plans call for the top 10 from the FLW Pro Circuit points list to gain berths on the BPT for the following season, with the bottom 10 BPT anglers (based on their average points finish for the 2019-21 seasons) dropping out.

Departures to both the BPT and Bassmaster Elite Series over the past year had put a considerable dent in the depth of the FLW Tour field, but standouts such as this year’s FLW Cup winner and two-time Angler of the Year Bryan Thrift, four-time AOY and former Cup winner David Dudley, former AOY and Cup winner Scott Martin and 2016 Cup champion and multiple-time Tour winner John Cox were still on board in 2019.
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