The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters will welcome 144 players when its inaugural staging takes place in Riyadh this summer.
The World Snooker Tour made the announcement on Wednesday along with other details concerning the 2024/25 season.
The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters will be the country’s first ever ranking event, coming just a few short months after the invitational Riyadh Season World Masters.
Ronnie O’Sullivan won that title with a 5-2 victory over Luca Brecel in the final, the Rocket pocketing a cool £250,000 winner’s share in the process.
The inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters at The Green Halls in Riyadh will be even more lucrative, however.
While the specific breakdown of the pot is yet to be revealed, the overall prize fund is expected to be in the region of £2,000,000.
That will provide every player in the tournament with a big opportunity to earn important money and ranking points.
The decision to open the field up to 144 players puts the event in line with the two most prestigious ranking events on the calendar – the World Championship and the UK Championship.
There have been no further details concerning the format.
But it suggests that it would follow a similar guise to the two important tournaments in Sheffield and York.
In the World and the UK Championships, the top 16 seeds are seeded through to the last 32 of the competition.
The remaining players enter in staggered rounds under a tiered system that is becoming increasingly common on the schedule again.
All 144 contenders will additionally be welcomed at the venue itself, which is a somewhat surprising move considering qualifying rounds are almost always held first in the UK.
Who will be added to the field, with only 125 professionals currently competing on the main tour, is also uncertain.
Yet it seems likely that quite a lot of positions would be taken up by local wildcards from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.
Saudi Arabian Omar Alajlani and Ali Alobaidli of Qatar were invited to participate in March’s World Masters, for instance.
Nevertheless, it’s the latest indication that the promoters are keen on living up to their promise to make the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters a “fourth major” and one of the sport’s most important tournaments.
The ranking event runs from August 30th to September 7th.
2024/25 WST calendar
Note: Dates are provisional and subject to change
(NR = Non-ranking event)
COMPLETED
Championship League Snooker
Champion: Ali Carter
Shanghai Masters (NR)
Champion: Judd Trump
Xi’an Grand Prix
Champion: Kyren Wilson
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters
Champion: Judd Trump
English Open
Champion: Neil Robertson
British Open
Champion: Mark Selby
Wuhan Open
Champion: Xiao Guodong
Northern Ireland Open
Champion: Kyren Wilson
International Championship
Champion: Ding Junhui
Champion of Champions (NR)
Champion: Mark Williams
UK Championship
Champion: Judd Trump
Snooker Shoot Out
Champion: Tom Ford
Scottish Open
Champion: Lei Peifan
DECEMBER
16th to 22nd
– German Masters qualifiers
– World Open qualifiers
(Canon Medical Arena, Sheffield)
18th to 20th
Riyadh Season Snooker Championship (NR)
(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
JANUARY
12th to 19th
The Masters (NR)
(Alexandra Palace, London)
27th to February 2nd
German Masters
(Tempodrom, Berlin)
FEBRUARY
10th to 16th
Welsh Open
(Venue Cymru, Llandudno)
24th to March 2nd
World Open
(TBC, China)
MARCH
4th to 9th
World Grand Prix
(Hong Kong)
17th to 23rd
Players Championship
(Telford, England)
31st to April 6th
Tour Championship
(Manchester Central, Manchester)
APRIL
7th to 16th
World Championship qualifiers
(EIS, Sheffield)
19th to May 5th
World Snooker Championship
(Crucible Theatre, Sheffield)
Featured photo credit: WST
