The 2025 Champion of Champions (officially the 2025 Sportsbet.ioChampion of Champions) is a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that is taking place from 10 to 16 November 2025 at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England. It features 16 participants, all of whom have won significant tournaments since the previous year's event. Part of the 2025–26 snooker season, it is the 15th edition of the Champion of Champions since the tournament was first held in 1978 and the 13th consecutive edition since it was revived in 2013. It is being broadcast domestically by ITV4 and internationally by other broadcasters. The winner will receive £150,000 from a total prize fund of £440,000.
The Champion of Champions is a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that was first held in 1978, when it was contested by four players at the Wembley Conference Centre in London.[1][2] The inaugural winner was Ray Reardon, who defeated Alex Higgins 11–9 in the final.[2] After its second staging in 1980, the tournament was not held again until 2013, since which time it has been staged annually.[3] The most successful player in its history is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who has won the title four times and been runner-up twice.[4]
The 16qualifiers are split into four groups of four players; each group competes on a different day, with the group finals (event quarter-finals) played on the same day as the corresponding first-round matches. Opening round matches are played as the best of 7 frames , while the group finals and semi-finals are the best of 11 frames, and the final is the best of 19 frames, played over two sessions .[4]
Qualification
Players qualified by winning events throughout the previous year. Controversy arose over the qualification criteria after Matchroom Sport announced a preliminary line-up for the tournament on 20October that did not include the reigning World Seniors Champion Alfie Burden but did include the highest ranked player in the snooker world rankings who had not otherwise qualified, which would have been the world number five O'Sullivan.[9][10] Noting that the World Seniors Champion had been invited to the tournament every year since the 2019 event, the World Seniors Tour chairman Jason Francis objected to the omission of Burden, claiming that he had a "contractual right" to play.[11] Burden was subsequently included in the confirmed field of participants, released on 30October.[12][13] O'Sullivan, having last won a title at the 2024 World Masters of Snooker in March 2024, did not feature in the final event lineup.[14][15]
The full list of competitors is below. Events shown below in grey are for players who had already qualified for the event.[12]
Player also qualified by winning another tournament
Broadcasters
The tournament is being broadcast domestically in the United Kingdom on ITV4.[17][18] It is being broadcast on DAZN in Germany; on Viaplay in Iceland, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia; on Maincast in Ukraine; on AMC Network in Hungary; on TV Nova in the Czech Republic and Slovakia; on Sportklub in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, and Slovenia; on TV3 in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; on BG Sports in Thailand; on Rigour Media in China; on StarHub in Singapore; on FanDuel in the United States; on Fox Sports in Australia; and on Sky Network in New Zealand. In territories without a broadcast option, the tournament is being streamed on the Matchroom Pool channel on YouTube.[19][18]
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this event is shown below:[20]
Winner: £150,000
Runner-up: £60,000
Semi-final: £30,000
Group runner-up: £17,500
Group semi-final: £12,500
Total: £440,000
Summary
Group stages
Group 2
Shaun Murphy(pictured in 2015) lost to Lei Peifan and complained of "despicable" treatment over the match schedule.
The tournament began on 10 November with the matches from Group 2, which comprised Shaun Murphy, Lei Peifan, Judd Trump, and Bai Yulu.[19] In the first group semi-final, the 2025 Masters champion Murphy faced the 2024 Scottish Open champion Lei, who won the first frame with a 72 break and also took the second. Murphy won frame three, but Lei moved 3–1 ahead with a 61 break in frame four and completed a 4–1 win in frame five.[21] Following the match, Murphy criticised the tournament organisers, Matchroom Sport, for scheduling his match on the first day of the tournament, since he had just returned from the 2025 International Championship in China. "The way I’ve been treated by Matchroom in this tournament is nothing short of despicable," Murphy said, claiming he had been informed of the match schedule just 48 hours previously, midway through a 36-hour trip from China. Murphy stated that players who had not travelled to the International Championship should have been scheduled to play first in the event, but the organisers responded that the match schedule had been based on the players' seedings. "Scheduling is always a challenge every year, but we take on board the points and always strive to improve for next year and the future," Matchroom Sport said in a statement.[22][23] In the second group semi-final, the 2024 UK Championship winner Trump faced the 2025 World Women's Championship winner Bai. She took the first frame, but Trump then won four consecutive frames, making breaks including 50, 84, and 71, as he also secured a 4–1 victory.[24][22]
In the Group 2 final, Trump faced Lei. Trump won the first frame with a 60 break, and Lei took the second with a century of 101. Trump then won four consecutive frames, making another 60 break in frame five, as he took a 5–1 lead. Lei won frame seven with a 72 break, but Trump completed a 6–2 victory with a 71 break in frame eight.[25][22][26]
Matches in Group 3, which comprised Zhao Xintong, Mark Allen, Jack Lisowski, and Kyren Wilson, took place on 11 November.[19] In the first group semi-final, the 2025 Shanghai Masters champion Wilson faced the 2025 Northern Ireland Open champion Lisowski. Wilson made breaks including 88, 115, and 60 as he moved into a 3–0 lead, but Lisowski responded with breaks including 61 and 115 as he tied the scores at 3–3. Wilson won the deciding frame with a century of 122.[27] In the second group semi-final, the 2025 English Open winner Allen scored only one point in the match as the reigning World Champion Zhao made breaks including 60, 78, and 76 to record a whitewash victory.[28][29] Zhao had returned that morning from China, after reaching the semi-finals of the International Championship. He landed in Manchester at 8 a.m. and then travelled to Leicester for the tournament.[30]
In the Group 3 final, Zhao made breaks of 73, 99, and 78 as he took a 3–1 lead, but Wilson won four frames in a row, making breaks of 104, 62, 120, and 88, as he moved 5–3 ahead. Zhao then won two consecutive frames with breaks of 136 and 64 to tie the scores at 5–5. Zhao went ahead in the decider with a 58 break, but Wilson responded with a 54, and the match was decided on the last black ball . After Wilson missed a pot to the corner pocket , Zhao potted the black to secure victory.[31] "When I was 3–1 up I missed a few shots and he came out to go 5–3 and I was just thinking I don't [want] him to win so easy," Zhao said afterwards. "I was a little lucky in the last two frames and got away with a couple of misses."[29]
The draw for the tournament is shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the top four seeded players, and players in bold will denote match winners.[34]
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Mark Williams (WAL)
