World Snooker has signed a new five-year television rights agreement with Eurosport that it hopes will boost the sport's profile across Europe and the Middle East.

Eurosport will show all World Snooker events - at least 300 hours of live snooker each year - across its network, which covers 107m homes.

The deal will ensure coverage of all of sport's major events such as the Grand Prix, the UK Championship, the Masters, the Malta Cup, the Welsh Open, the China Open and the 888.com World Snooker Championship.

"The many hours of coverage and extensive geographical reach that Eurosport provides is undoubtedly helping to build interest and participation in the sport in Europe and the Middle East," said Sir Rodney Walker, the chairman of World Snooker.

Eurosport's new agreement, which comes into effect from August 2006, was negotiated by TWI, which has a contract to represent world snooker in the sale of its international broadcast rights.

The pan-European broadcaster has covered the sport for several years and is currently featuring the World Snooker Championships on its TV channel.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".