The tournament returns to the calendar for the first time in 17 years this August.
ITV will provide live coverage of the revived British Open in the UK, with tickets on sale now for the ranking event at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
It will be the first snooker event of the 2021/22 season to welcome a crowd, with the World Snooker Tour continuing to work closely with its tournament partners and the UK government on COVID-19 regulation.
The announcement that ITV will screen the week’s action brings the broadcaster’s tally of snooker tournaments next season to five.
In addition to the British Open, ITV will also air live coverage of the Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship, and Tour Championship.
Each tournament will carry significant prize funds with massive amounts of money available, and with a chance to win a jackpot of your own, avail of the various sign-up deals and bonus offers that these online casinos in Ireland have to offer.
The British Open, meanwhile, returns to the schedule for the first time since 2004 and will feature 128 of the world’s best players battling for the trophy.
It was formerly a regular annual fixture for two decades, with the likes of Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Mark Williams among the winners.
Scotland’s John Higgins is the reigning champion of sorts, having been the last player to capture the title when it was most recently staged in Brighton 17 years ago.
WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “We are delighted to give snooker supporters the opportunity to watch the best players on the planet in what will be a fabulous week of top class sport.”
“Following our discussions with our partners and public health bodies we are thrilled to be able to open our doors at the start of the 2021/22 season, carrying on the momentum we achieved at the World Championship in the Spring. For the players, to have a crowd and an atmosphere makes such a difference.
“We know there is a huge amount of interest in snooker in Leicester and the surrounding area, with Mark Selby and several other tour players from the city proving to be great role models. The Morningside is an excellent venue and I hope to see it packed out for the seven days.”
Details on the line-up of players will be announced closer to the event.
Click here for information on how to buy tickets.
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OK they call it ‘British Open’, but that’s just a name. Unless you have a constant location or special format, it’s really just another tournament. And not a very worthy one either: best-of-5 matches until Saturday’s Q-finals and semi-finals (best-of-7), and a best-of-11 final on Sunday evening (probably to keep the afternoon ITV schedule clear for other sport).
This ‘British Open’ and Gibraltar are now the only tournaments where all the professional players can come together under one roof – everything else has qualifying rounds for players outside the top-16. It seems like players ranked further down are valued less and less with every change.
Clearly this is the way snooker is going: shorter matches and 4-table set-ups, whilst promoting showpiece events for the elite players with accelerating prize-funds for them.
Before it was suspended, I travelled to 5 ranking tournaments in the 2019-20 season. I can’t justify going to any this season, as many of the players I want to see aren’t likely to qualify.
The problem with the events covered by ITV is that the second table is not available to watch, like it is when BBC or Eurosport are the main media
Why are we listening to chat when there is still snooker playing!
Maybe ITV think we like listening to Jill Douglas ask the same old questions day after day, with the usual “sigh” halfway through each question.