Tour Championship

Citywest Hotel, Dublin · 8–13 April 2026

The Tour Championship is the final ranking event of the World Snooker Tour season — the last opportunity for the sport's elite players to accumulate ranking points before attention turns to the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible. Restricted to the top 8 players in the ranking list at the time of the draw, the Tour Championship guarantees an unmatched quality of field and consistently produces some of the most compelling snooker of the entire campaign.

The 2026 Tour Championship is held at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin — a fitting location for a high-end end-of-season showpiece, bringing world-class snooker to the Republic of Ireland. With a total prize fund of £750,000 and the winner taking home £150,000 plus a significant haul of ranking points, the stakes at the Tour Championship are enormous. Players entering the week near the bubble of the top 8 can transform their entire season — and their ranking position — with a strong run to the final.

Venue — Citywest Hotel, Dublin

The Citywest Hotel is one of Ireland's largest and most prestigious conference and event venues, located just outside Dublin city centre on the southwest side of the city. Its expansive facilities have hosted major sporting events, concerts, and conferences, and its main arena is well suited to snooker, with comfortable seating and excellent sightlines.

The Tour Championship has moved venues over the years. Earlier editions were held at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales, which established a loyal local fanbase for the event. The move to Dublin has opened the Tour Championship to a new Irish audience and adds an international dimension to the WST's season-closing event. The Irish snooker public has embraced the tournament warmly, with tickets consistently in strong demand.

Tournament Format

The Tour Championship features just 8 players — the top 8 in the WST ranking list — competing in a straight knockout draw. With so few players involved, every match is a genuine clash of the season's best performers. The format rewards longevity, consistency, and the ability to perform in long-format matches under the highest pressure:

  • Quarter-Finals: Best of 19 frames
  • Semi-Finals: Best of 25 frames
  • Final: Best of 25 frames

The best-of-19 quarter-finals are among the longest first-round matches of any ranking event in the calendar, ensuring that results accurately reflect form rather than a single session's play. The semi-finals and final — both best of 25 — are marathon contests that can extend across two days and produce some of the most dramatic snooker of the season. Only the very fittest and most mentally resilient players thrive at the Tour Championship.

Prize Money

The 2026 Tour Championship carries a total prize fund of £750,000, making it one of the most valuable ranking events outside of the Triple Crown. The breakdown is as follows:

Round Prize
Winner£150,000
Runner-up£75,000
Semi-finalists (x2)£45,000 each
Quarter-finalists (x4)£25,000 each
Total£750,000

Because only 8 players compete, even a first-round exit at the Tour Championship comes with a quarter-finalist prize of £25,000 — reflecting the level of achievement required just to qualify for the event.

What Channel is the Tour Championship On?

The Tour Championship is broadcast live in the UK and Ireland across multiple platforms:

  • Channel 5 — Free-to-air coverage of selected sessions, making the Tour Championship one of the few non-Triple Crown ranking events to receive any free-to-air broadcast in the UK.
  • TNT Sports — Comprehensive live coverage of all sessions throughout the week on TNT Sports channels, available via Sky, Virgin Media, and EE.
  • discovery+ — Full streaming coverage via the discovery+ platform, bundled with TNT Sports or available as a standalone subscription.

The inclusion of Channel 5 coverage makes the Tour Championship more accessible than most mid-season ranking events, and its position just ahead of the World Championship helps build momentum and audience interest going into the sport's biggest event of the year.

Past Champions (2019–2026)

The Tour Championship was introduced to the WST calendar in 2019 as a season-ending elite event. In its short history, it has already produced a remarkable array of champions and memorable finals:

Year Champion Runner-up Score
2026Mark SelbyJudd Trump13–11
2025Judd TrumpRonnie O'Sullivan13–9
2024Ronnie O'SullivanKyren Wilson13–7
2023Mark SelbyJudd Trump13–10
2022Neil RobertsonRonnie O'Sullivan13–9
2021Judd TrumpNeil Robertson13–8
2020Ronnie O'SullivanMark Selby13–11
2019Neil RobertsonJudd Trump13–11

The Tour Championship & the World Championship

The Tour Championship occupies a unique and strategically vital position in the snooker calendar — it is the final ranking event before the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible. For players on the fringes of the top 16 seedings, a strong run at the Tour Championship can dramatically alter their seeding position for the World Championship draw, potentially avoiding a difficult first-round opponent in Sheffield.

For the sport's elite, the Tour Championship also offers an invaluable opportunity to build form, rhythm, and confidence in long-format matches in the weeks immediately before the World Championship. Several past Tour Championship champions have gone on to make deep runs at the Crucible in the same year, suggesting that the long-match format at the Tour Championship provides ideal preparation for the Crucible's demanding schedule.