2026 Tour Championship

2026 Sportsbet.io Tour Championship

Part of the Players Series
Tournament information
Dates	30 March – 5 April 2026 (2026-03-30 – 2026-04-05)
Venue	Manchester Central
City	Manchester
Country	England
Organisation	World Snooker Tour
Format	Ranking event
Total prize fund	£500,000
Winner's share	£150,000
Defending champion	John Higgins  (SCO)
← 2025

The 2026 Tour Championship (officially the 2026 Sportsbet.io Tour Championship ^[1] ) is an upcoming professional snooker tournament that will take place from 30 March to 5 April 2026 at the Manchester Central in Manchester, England. It will feature the top 12 players on the one-year ranking list, as it stands after the 2026 World Open. The eighth consecutive edition of the Tour Championship since it was first staged in 2019, it will be the 17th and penultimate ranking event of the 2025–26 snooker season, following the 2026 World Open and preceding the 2026 World Snooker Championship. It will be the last of three events in the season's Players Series, following the 2026 World Grand Prix and the 2026 Players Championship. The winner will receive £150,000 from a total prize fund of £500,000.

John Higgins will be the defending champion, having defeated Mark Selby 10–8 in the 2025 final.

Overview

The event will take place at the Manchester Central in Manchester, England.

The Tour Championship originated in 2019 as a tournament for the top eight players on the one-year ranking list. It is the only event on the professional tour besides the World Snooker Championship to feature multi- session matches throughout the entire tournament. ^[2] The inaugural edition, staged in Llandudno, Wales, was won by Ronnie O'Sullivan, who defeated Neil Robertson 13–11 in the final. ^[3] The field of players was subsequently expanded from 8 to 12, beginning with the 2024 edition. ^[4]

The 2026 edition of the tournament—its eighth consecutive staging since the inaugural edition in 2019—will take place from 30 March to 5 April at Manchester Central in Manchester, England. ^[5] It will be the 17th and penultimate ranking event of the 2025–26 snooker season, following the 2026 World Open and preceding the 2026 World Snooker Championship; it will also be the last of the three events in the season's Players Series, following the 2026 World Grand Prix and the 2026 Players Championship. ^{[6] [7]} John Higgins will be the defending champion, having defeated Mark Selby 10–8 in the 2025 final to win the title for the first time. ^[8] As with the previous edition, there will be a free fan zone at the venue. ^[9]

Format

The top four seeds will receive byes to the quarter-finals. Players seeded 5 through 8 will face players seeded 9 through 12 for the other four quarter-final places. All matches, including the final, will be played as the best of 19 frames , held over two sessions . ^[10]

Seeding list

The event will feature the top 12 players on the one-year ranking list, as it stands after the 2026 World Open. Unlike other events where the defending champion is seeded first, the reigning World Champion second, and the rest based on the world rankings, the qualification and seedings in the Players Series tournaments are determined by the one-year ranking list.

The below list shows the top 12 players who earned the most ranking points from the beginning of the 2025‍–‍26 season until the conclusion of the 2026 World Open: ^[4]

Seed	Player	Points
1	Neil Robertson  (AUS)	620,300
2	Mark Selby  (ENG)	399,350
3	Shaun Murphy  (ENG)	364,900
4	Mark Williams  (WAL)	309,800
5	Judd Trump  (ENG)	304,350
6	Zhao Xintong  (CHN)	293,500

Seed	Player	Points
7	Wu Yize  (CHN)	271,300
8	Ronnie O'Sullivan  (ENG)	251,750
9	Chris Wakelin  (ENG)	239,800
10	Xiao Guodong  (CHN)	213,000
11	Mark Allen  (NIR)	202,350
12	Elliot Slessor  (ENG)	190,300

Chasing Players

Seed	Player	Points
13	Zhou Yuelong  (CHN)	170,000
14	Barry Hawkins  (ENG)	168,800
15	Zhang Anda  (CHN)	165,400
16	Jack Lisowski  (ENG)	165,400
17	John Higgins  (SCO)	163,600
18	Gary Wilson  (ENG)	156,900
19	Si Jiahui  (CHN)	135,200
20	Stephen Maguire  (SCO)	132,800

Broadcasters

The event marks the second time that Channel 5 in the United Kingdom will broadcast professional snooker tournaments having previously been broadcast by ITV.

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below: ^[5]

• Winner: £150,000
• Runner-up: £70,000
• Semi-final: £35,000
• Quarter-final: £25,000
• Last 16: £15,000
• Highest break: £10,000

• Total: £500,000

References

1. "Tour Championship". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
2. Day, Michael (12 April 2024). "Tour Championship Snooker - Information and a Potted History". Totally Snookered. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
3. "Tour Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Neil Robertson to become world number one". BBC Sport . 24 March 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
4. "Provisional Tour Championship Rankings". snooker.org. 8 February 2026. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
5. "Sportsbet.io Tour Championship". World Snooker Tour . Archived from the original on 25 March 2025. Retrieved 25 March 2025.
6. "Tournaments 2025–26". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
7. "Calendar 2025/2026 - snooker.org". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
8. "Vintage Higgins beats Selby in Tour Championship final". BBC Sport. 6 April 2025. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
9. "Free Snooker FanZone at Manchester Central". World Snooker Tour . 21 March 2025. Archived from the original on 27 March 2025. Retrieved 27 March 2025.
10. "2026 Sportsbet.io Tour Championship". snooker.org. 30 March 2026. Retrieved 8 February 2026.