Conspirators - about 50 snooker players (8)

Here is my best explanation:

'conspirators' is the definition.
('plotter' can be a synonym of 'conspirator')

'50 snooker players' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'50' could be 'l' (roman numeral) and 'l' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'potters' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'about' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?