James Mercer

30 stories

Editor

James.Mercer@uaecuesports.com

James Mercer is the Founder, Owner, Publisher and Managing Director of UAE CUE Sports, where he oversees editorial direction and the publication's development across the Emirates. He writes about UAE sport, sports media, major events, venues, sports business and the wider relationship between participation, audiences and the country's sporting industry.

Updated: 30.09.2026

James Mercer was born in Manchester, England, in 1976 and developed an interest in journalism during a period when British sports media was beginning to move from a largely newspaper-and-broadcast environment towards faster, more fragmented forms of publishing. Sport was central to that interest, although Mercer was as curious about what happened around competition as he was about the result itself: how clubs communicated with supporters, how venues operated, how organisers presented events, how journalists verified information and why some sporting communities received sustained coverage while others remained difficult to follow. In 1995, he entered the University of Sheffield, joining its relatively new Department of Journalism Studies and studying reporting, news writing, interviewing, media law, editorial judgement and the practical disciplines involved in preparing information for publication. He completed his undergraduate studies in 1998, with journalism providing the foundation for a career that would eventually move from day-to-day reporting into publishing, editorial management and sports-media strategy.

After university, Mercer began working in regional publishing in the United Kingdom. His first years were spent around an English-language newsroom handling a broad mixture of local reporting, community affairs and sport, an environment where journalists were expected to move quickly between subjects and confirm basic information without the infrastructure available to a large national media organisation. Weekend fixtures, interviews, late results, venue changes and local sporting events taught him that accuracy often depends on getting seemingly small details right. He later moved further into sports publishing and commercial editorial work, taking on responsibilities that went beyond writing and included commissioning, editing, planning coverage, coordinating contributors and understanding how editorial products operate as businesses.

As Mercer's responsibilities expanded, he became increasingly interested in the relationship between journalism and the organisations surrounding sport. His work brought him into contact with event organisers, venue operators, commercial teams, independent publishers and sports-media projects, giving him a view of the industry from both sides of the press desk. That experience also reinforced a principle that would remain important to him later: access to an organiser or commercial partner should never replace independent editorial judgement. A press release could provide a useful starting point, but it was not the finished story, and promotional language was not a substitute for explaining what an announcement actually meant for players, spectators or the wider sporting community.

During the 2000s, Mercer began spending more professional time in the Gulf as the region's sporting calendar grew and the United Arab Emirates developed into a significant host market for international competitions, major venues and sports-related investment. He eventually made the UAE the centre of his publishing work, contributing to editorial and event-media projects connected with Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The sporting environment he encountered was unusually broad: football and cricket operated alongside motorsport, tennis, golf and racquet sports, while expatriate communities maintained their own competitive networks and smaller sports developed loyal followings that were not always well served by mainstream coverage.

Cue sports became particularly important to Mercer because snooker, pool and billiards exposed a broader information problem that he could see across the UAE sporting market. Useful information existed, but it was frequently fragmented between clubs, academies, federations, organisers, venue pages, tournament systems and social-media accounts. A player might find a tournament announcement without a clear explanation of qualification, a reader might see a ranking without enough context to understand its importance, or somebody looking for a place to play might encounter a venue page that said little about what was actually available. Mercer became increasingly interested in publishing that could connect those pieces of information and turn them into something a reader could use.

That thinking became the foundation for UAE CUE Sports. Mercer shaped the publication around cue sports as its specialist editorial core, with snooker, pool and billiards providing the depth of knowledge needed to establish a distinctive identity. The longer-term idea, however, was broader: apply the same disciplined approach to the wider sporting ecosystem of the United Arab Emirates. Rather than building another feed that simply repeated scores, announcements and press releases, the publication would try to answer practical questions around competitions, rankings, venues, academies, coaching, tickets, streaming, equipment, participation and major sporting events.

As Founder, Owner, Publisher and Managing Director of UAE CUE Sports, Mercer now oversees the publication's editorial direction, publishing strategy, standards and long-term development. His own coverage is deliberately broad and tends to concentrate on the areas where individual sporting stories connect with the wider industry: sports business, media, major events, venues and facilities, sporting infrastructure, sports tourism, participation, technology and the continued development of the Emirates as an international sporting market. He also contributes analysis and publisher-level commentary when a subject requires a wider view of the relationships between athletes, organisers, federations, venues, commercial partners, media and audiences.

Mercer's editorial approach starts with details that can be checked. Names, dates, venues, scores, schedules, competition formats and primary sources come before interpretation, and he is cautious about treating forecasts, sponsorship announcements or development plans as established outcomes. He prefers coverage that explains what changes for the reader: whether a new event creates a genuine opportunity for athletes, whether a venue is useful to participants, whether a tournament pathway is actually accessible, or whether a commercial announcement has consequences beyond its headline.

He applies the same thinking to service journalism. A sports publication should not only tell readers that something exists; it should help them understand what to do with the information. Someone searching for a tournament, academy, club, venue, broadcast, ticket or piece of equipment should leave an article with a clearer understanding of their options. That philosophy sits behind UAE CUE Sports' broader aim of turning fragmented sporting information into practical decisions for players, families, fans, coaches, event-goers and active residents across the Emirates.

Within the editorial team, Mercer's role is intentionally different from that of a specialist beat writer. Omar Rahman provides deep coverage of cue sports, while Layla Morgan follows the broader competitive sports landscape across the UAE. Mercer operates at publisher level, connecting those individual areas with the larger questions surrounding sports media, business, infrastructure, participation and the development of sport in the Emirates. His editorial voice is measured and analytical rather than promotional, with an emphasis on source quality, useful context and explaining not only what happened, but why it matters and what readers should understand next.

·

Education

University of Sheffield

Topics

  • Sports journalism Journalism focused on sporting competitions, athletes and the wider issues surrounding sport, ranging from results and event reporting to analysis and coverage of the business and institutions behind competition.
  • Sport in the United Arab Emirates The broader competitive and participation landscape of the UAE, including football, motorsport and the country's role as a host for domestic and international sporting events.
  • Tennis A racket sport played in singles or doubles, covering professional tours, tournaments, players, venues and major international competitions.

30 latest stories by James Mercer