The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters will welcome 144 gamers when its inaugural staging takes place in Riyadh this summer season.
The World Snooker Tour made the announcement on Wednesday together with different particulars regarding the 2024/25 season.
The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters would be the nation’s first ever rating occasion, coming only a few brief months after the invitational Riyadh Season World Masters.
Ronnie O’Sullivan gained that title with a 5-2 victory over Luca Brecel within the closing, the Rocket pocketing a cool £250,000 winner’s share within the course of.
The inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters at The Inexperienced Halls in Riyadh will likely be much more profitable, nonetheless.
Whereas the precise breakdown of the pot is but to be revealed, the general prize fund is anticipated to be within the area of £2,000,000.
That may present each participant within the event with an enormous alternative to earn vital cash and rating factors.
The choice to open the sphere as much as 144 gamers places the occasion in step with the 2 most prestigious rating occasions on the calendar – the World Championship and the UK Championship.
There have been no additional particulars regarding the format.
But it surely counsel that it could observe an analogous guise to the 2 vital tournaments in Sheffield and York.
Within the World and the UK Championships, the highest 16 seeds are seeded via to the final 32 of the competitors.
The remaining gamers enter in staggered rounds underneath a tiered system that’s changing into more and more widespread on the schedule once more.
All 144 contenders will moreover be welcomed on the venue itself, which is a considerably shocking transfer contemplating qualifying rounds are nearly at all times held first within the UK.
Who will likely be added to the sphere, with solely 125 professionals presently competing on the principle tour, can also be unsure.
But it appears possible that numerous positions can be taken up by native wildcards from Saudi Arabia and different international locations within the area.
Saudi Arabian Omar Alajlani and Ali Alobaidli of Qatar had been invited to take part in March’s World Masters, as an example.
However, it’s the most recent indication that the promoters are eager on dwelling as much as their promise to make the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters a “fourth main” and one of many sport’s most vital tournaments.
The rating occasion runs from August thirtieth to September seventh.
2024/25 snooker season calendar
Notice: Dates are provisional and topic to alter
MAY
Twenty first to June 1st
Q Faculty
(Mattioli Enviornment, Leicester)
twenty second to June 2nd
Asia/Oceania Q Faculty
(BSAT Academy, Bangkok)
JUNE
tenth to Fifteenth
Championship League Snooker Week 1
seventeenth to twenty second
Championship League Snooker Week 2
twenty fourth to twenty ninth
Championship League Snooker Week 3
JULY
1st to third
Championship League Snooker Closing Phases
Fifteenth-Twenty first
Shanghai Masters
(Shanghai, China)
twenty fifth to August third
– Xian Grand Prix qualifiers
– British Open qualifiers
– Wuhan Open qualifiers
(Mattioli Enviornment, Leicester)
AUGUST
nineteenth to twenty fifth
Xi’an Grand Prix
(Xi’an, China)
twenty sixth to twenty ninth
– Wuhan Open qualifiers
– British Open qualifiers
(Mattioli Enviornment, Leicester)
thirtieth to September seventh
Saudi Masters
(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
SEPTEMBER
twelfth to twenty second
English Open (together with qualifiers)
(Brentwood Centre, Brentwood)
twenty third to twenty ninth
British Open
(The Centaur, Cheltenham)
twenty eighth to thirtieth
Northern Eire Open qualifiers
(Ponds Forge, Sheffield)
OCTOBER
1st to third
Worldwide Championship qualifiers
(Ponds Forge, Sheffield)
sixth to twelfth
Wuhan Open
(Wuhan, China)
twentieth to twenty seventh
Northern Eire Open
(Waterfront Corridor, Belfast)
twenty eighth to thirtieth
Scottish Open qualifiers
(Canon Medical Enviornment, Sheffield)
NOVEMBER
third to tenth
Worldwide Championship
(Tianjin, China)
eleventh to seventeenth
Champion of Champions
(Toughsheet Neighborhood Stadium, Bolton)
sixteenth to Twenty first
UK Championship qualifiers
(Mattioli Enviornment, Leicester)
twenty third to December 1st
UK Championship
(York Barbican, York)
DECEMBER
4th to seventh
Shoot Out
(Mattioli Enviornment, Leicester)
ninth to Fifteenth
Scottish Open
(Meadowbank Sports activities Centre, Edinburgh)
sixteenth to twenty second
– German Masters qualifiers
– World Open qualifiers
(Canon Medical Enviornment, Sheffield)
JANUARY
twelfth to nineteenth
The Masters
(Alexandra Palace, London)
twenty seventh to February 2nd
German Masters
(Tempodrom, Berlin)
FEBRUARY
tenth to sixteenth
Welsh Open
(Venue Cymru, Llandudno)
TBC
World Open
(Yushan, China)
MARCH
TBC
World Grand Prix
(TBC)
seventeenth to twenty third
Gamers Championship
(Telford, England)
thirty first to April sixth
Tour Championship
(Manchester Central, Manchester)
APRIL
seventh to sixteenth
World Championship qualifiers
(EIS, Sheffield)
nineteenth to Might fifth
World Snooker Championship
(Crucible Theatre, Sheffield)
Featured photograph credit score: WST
