The 2025 Championship League (officially the 2025 BetVictor Championship League Snooker) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 30 June to 23 July 2025 at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England.[1] It was the sixth staging of the ranking edition of the tournament, which was first held in 2020. Organised by Matchroom Sport, it was the first ranking event of the 2025–26 snooker season, preceding the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. The winner received £33,000 from a total prize fund of £328,000.
Ali Carter was the defending champion, having defeated Jackson Page 3–1 in the final of the previous ranking edition,[2] but he was eliminated in stage one.[3] By topping her group in stage one, Ng On-yee became the first woman to reach the last 32 of a professional ranking event.[4]Stephen Maguire won the tournament, beating Joe O'Connor 3–1 in the final to claim the seventh ranking title of his career and his first since winning the 2020 Tour Championship over five years earlier. Maguire's win secured him a place in the 2025 Champion of Champions tournament, while O'Connor's defeat meant that he had lost all three of the ranking finals he had played.[5][6]
The event produced 109 century breaks (86 in stage one, 19 in stage two, and 4 in stage three),[7] of which the highest was a maximum break by Fan Zhengyi in his stage one match against Xu Si. The second maximum of Fan's career, it was the first maximum of the season and the 218th official maximum in professional competition.[8]
Format
The competition began with 32 rounds of group matches with each group consisting of four players. Two groups were played to a finish every day using a two‑table setup in the arena. The groups were contested using a round‑robin format, with six matches played in each group. All matches in group play were played as best‑of‑four frames , with three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. Group positions were determined by points scored, frame difference and then head‑to‑head results between players who were tied. Places that were still tied were then determined by the highest break made in the group. If the highest break was also tied, the next highest break made by the players was used.[9][10]
The 32 players that toppped the group tables qualified for the group winners' stage, consisting of eight groups of four players. The eight winners from the group winners' stage qualified for the two final groups, with the final taking place later on the same day.[9] The winner received the Championship League title and a place in the 2025 Champion of Champions.
The event was broadcast by Fox Sports in Australia; Nova in Czechia and Slovakia; Maincast in Ukraine; Rigour in China; Viaplay in Iceland, and the Netherlands; Viasat in Scandinavia; and by Matchroom's YouTube channels in all other territories.[12]DAZN was not announced as one of the broadcast partners, contrary to the previous editions.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for the tournament is shown below.[12]
Stage one
Winner: £3,000
Runner-up: £2,000
Third place: £1,000
Fourth place: £0
Stage two
Winner: £4,000
Runner-up: £3,000
Third place: £2,000
Fourth place: £1,000
Stage three
Winner: £6,000
Runner-up: £4,000
Third place: £2,000
Fourth place: £1,000
Final
Winner: £20,000
Runner-up: £10,000
Tournament total: £328,000
Note: The champion received a total of £33,000 (£3,000 + £4,000 + £6,000 + £20,000).
Stage one
Stage one consisted of 32 groups, each having four players. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, and (a) indicates amateur players not on the main World Snooker Tour. Unlike other tournaments, where the defending champion is usually the top seed, the players were seeded according to their ranking, and the top 32 seeds were allocated to the 32 groups. One exception to this was Group 27, because Luca Brecel, seeded 27, withdrew.[11]
Note: Si Jiahui and Farakh Ajaib finished Group 4 equal on points and frame difference. Their head-to-head was a draw. Si made a higher break (114) and so was placed above Ajaib in the group.
Note: Gary Wilson and Bai Yulu finished Group 7 equal on points and frame difference. Their head-to-head was a draw. Wilson made a higher break (129) and so was placed above Bai in the group.
Note: Jiang Jun and Oliver Lines finished Group 14 equal on points and frame difference. Their head-to-head was a draw. Jiang made a higher break (123) and so was placed above Lines in the group.
Group 18 was played on 2 July.[16]Yuan Sijun won the group and advanced to Stage 2 Group B.[44][45] In his 3–0 win over Sanderson Lam, Yuan scored centuries in all three frames, of 104, 123 and 106.[46]
Note: Jamie Jones and Lyu Haotian finished Group 26 equal on points and frame difference. Jones won their head-to-head and so was placed above Lyu in the group.
Group 29 was played on 17 July.[13]Xu Si won the group and advanced to Stage 2 Group D.[59][57]Fan Zhengyi made a maximum break in the second frame of his match against Xu. It was the first maximum of the current season, the second 147 of Fan's professional career, and the 218th official maximum.[8]
Group 32 was played on 4 July.[16]Ng On-yee won the group and advanced to Stage 2 Group A.[62] By topping the group, Ng became the first woman to reach the last 32 of a professional ranking event.[4]
Stage two consisted of eight groups, each having four players. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, and (a) indicates amateur players not on the main World Snooker Tour.[11]
Note: Jack Lisowski and Artemijs Žižins finished Group D equal on points and frame difference. Their head-to-head was a draw. Lisowski made a higher break (69) and so was placed above Žižins in the group.
1 2 In the final frame of the match between Xu Si and Michał Szubarczyk, Xu made a break of 100 and then potted the final black ball , but the cue ball went into the green pocket , and was therefore a foul . This can be seen in the video of the match (at time-stamp 1:03:35). The in-off was not noticed by either player or by referee John Pellew who recorded the break as a 107, which is as shown in the WST match record and recorded by SnookerInfo.[7] This error, however, made no difference to the outcome of the match or the group.
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Fan Zhengyi (CHN) (147)
Stephen Maguire (SCO)
Joe O'Connor (ENG)
