RONNIE O’SULLIVAN, Judd Trump and the world’s best snooker players are on their way to Leicester this week for the Championship League group stages.
Defending champion Mark Selby and world champion Kyren Wilson are also part of a field featuring most of the world’s very best players.
The non-ranking event is seen as the perfect place for top snooker stars to get their eye in for the Masters – which starts on January 12 at Ally Pally.
But how much is up for grabs at the Leicester Arena?
The total prize pot for the Championship League stands at a minimum of £152,800 and maximum of £205,000.
That’s because there are prizes for winning frames that means matches that go to 3-0 pay different to those that go to 3-2.
It’s a relatively small prize pot – especially with the Masters topping £1million in a couple of weeks.
But as mentioned above, the tournament is more about players trying to find form rather than earn big prizes.
A top prize of £10,000 will be banked for the overall win, but the winner will have earned other frame bonuses.
The breakdown is as follows:
Groups 1-7
Winners’ Group
BELOW is a list of snooker World Champions by year.
The record is for the modern era, widely considered as dating from the 1968-69 season, when the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) took control of the sport.
The first World Championships ran from 1927 – with a break from 1941-45 because of World War II and 1958-63 because of a dispute in the sport.
Joe Davis (15), Fred Davis and John Pulman (both 8) were the most successful players during that period.
Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan share the record for the most titles in the modern era, with seven each.
Most World Titles (modern era)
There is no TV coverage to watch O’Sullivan and Co in the Championship League in the UK.
However, fans can stream all the action live and for FREE on Matchroom Sport’s YouTube channels.
Table one will be on Matchroom Multi Sport and table two is on the Matchroom Pool channel.
Alternatively, SunSport will blog select matches and provide the latest news from the group stage and will then blog the entire Winners’ Group and play-offs.
