2026 Tour Championship
Upcoming Snooker tournament
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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.
| |
| Part of the Players Series | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 30 March – 5 April 2026 |
| 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 | |
John Higgins will be the defending champion, having defeated Mark Selby 10–8 in the 2025 final.
Overview
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][9] As with the previous edition, there will be a free fan zone at the venue.[10]
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.[11]
Seeding list
The event will feature the top 12 players on the one-year ranking list, as it stands after the 2026 World Open.[12] 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. Ronnie O'Sullivan qualified to compete, having been ninth on the one-year ranking list after the 2026 World Open, but he elected not to enter.[12] This meant that Xiao Guodong, ranked 13th on the list, becomes eligible to participate.[9]
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) | 648,500 |
| 2 |  Zhao Xintong (CHN) | 466,550 |
| 3 |  Mark Selby (ENG) | 424,350 |
| 4 | Shaun Murphy (ENG) | 398,900 |
| 5 | Judd Trump (ENG) | 372,350 |
| 6 |  Mark Williams (WAL) | 347,800 |
| Seed | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Wu Yize (CHN) | 340,300 |
| 8 | Barry Hawkins (ENG) | 288,800 |
| 9 | Chris Wakelin (ENG) | 264,800 |
| 10 | John Higgins (SCO) | 259,600 |
| 11 |  Mark Allen (NIR) | 259,350 |
| 12 | Xiao Guodong (CHN) | 242,400 |
| Seed | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA) | 172,100 |
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: £60,000
- Semi-final: £40,000
- Quarter-final: £30,000
- Last 12: £20,000
- Highest break: £10,000
- Total: £500,000
Tournament draw
Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seedings and players in bold denote match winners. All matches were played as the best of 19 frames.
Seeds 1 to 4 receive a bye in the first round.
| First round Best of 19 frames | Quarter-finals Best of 19 frames | Semi-finals Best of 19 frames | Final Best of 19 frames | |||||||||||
| Neil Robertson (AUS) (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 30 March | ||||||||||||||
| Barry Hawkins (ENG) (8) | ||||||||||||||
| 3 April | ||||||||||||||
| Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA) or Chris Wakelin (ENG) (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 30 and 31 March | ||||||||||||||
| Judd Trump (ENG) (5) | ||||||||||||||
| Mark Allen (NIR) Or Xiao Guodong (CHN) (12) | ||||||||||||||
| Shaun Murphy (ENG) (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 5 April | ||||||||||||||
| Mark Selby (ENG) (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 31 March | ||||||||||||||
| Mark Williams (WAL) (6) | ||||||||||||||
| 4 April | ||||||||||||||
| John Higgins (SCO) or Mark Allen (NIR) (11) | ||||||||||||||
| 30 and 31 March | ||||||||||||||
| Wu Yize (CHN) (7) | ||||||||||||||
| Chris Wakelin (ENG) or John Higgins (SCO) (10) | ||||||||||||||
| Zhao Xintong (CHN) (2) | ||||||||||||||