Championship League

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VenueLeicester Arena
LocationLeicester
CountryEngland
Established2008
Championship League
Tournament information
VenueLeicester Arena
LocationLeicester
CountryEngland
Established2008
Organisation(s)Matchroom Sport
Total prize fund£533,000
£205,000[1] (invitational)
£328,000[2] (ranking)
Recent edition2026 (invitational)
2025 (ranking)
Current champion

The Championship League (officially the Championship League Snooker (CLS)) is a professional snooker tournament devised by Matchroom Sport, held in both ranking and non-ranking (known as Championship League Invitational) formats throughout the snooker season. It is one of the only main tour events that is not directly sanctioned by the World Snooker Tour, along with the Champion of Champions.

Mark Selby is the reigning champion of the invitational event, and Stephen Maguire is the reigning champion of the ranking event.

Format

The tournament was initially set up as an invitational qualifier to the Premier League Snooker series, where there are no audience and matches are played behind closed doors, matches are allocated in groups and spread over the course of a month. Despite the discontinuation of the Premier League in 2012, it remained as a standalone event and has since kept the unique format. The tournament was originally held at the Crondon Park Golf Club in Stock, Essex until 2016[3] and has since been held in Coventry, Barnsley, Milton Keynes and currently in Leicester.

In June 2020 there was a one‑off, round‑robin, non‑ranking edition of the tournament.

A ranking version of the tournament began in the 2020–21 season and is held alongside the non-ranking version. In contrast to the invitational event, which is usually held during the second half of the snooker season, it is held as the first event of the season since 2021 and has the smallest prize fund of all ranking events.

Invitational version

In the invitational, non‑ranking version, 25 players take part, although players often withdraw and are replaced by others. Players earn money for every frame won and there are also prizes for being a semi‑finalist, runner‑up and winner of each group, with more money involved in the winners' group. In the first two years all matches in the group stages were the best‑of‑four, meaning that the matches could end in a draw as all the four frames were played, and the semi‑finals and final were best‑of‑five.

The competition runs over eight groups, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a play‑off, the winner of which qualifies for the winners' group. The bottom two players of each group are eliminated and the remaining four move to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. In each group, the players are ranked by the number of matches won, then by most frames won, and then by least frames lost. If two players are tied by these criteria, the player who won the match between them is ranked higher in the table. The winners play in the final group with the champion taking a place in the following season's Champion of Champions (the same year's Premier League before 2013).[3]

Ranking version

In the ranking version, 128 players take part in 32 rounds of group matches with each group consisting of four players. All matches are the best‑of‑four with three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. The 32 players that top the group tables qualify for the second stage, consisting of eight groups of four players, and the eight winners from the second stage qualify for the two final groups. In each group, the players are ranked by points scored, frame difference and then head‑to‑head results between players who are tied. Places that are still tied are then determined by the highest break made in the group. If the highest break is also tied, the next highest break made by the players is used. The winners of the two final groups play a best‑of‑five final. The champion takes a place in the same season's Champion of Champions.

Maximum breaks

There have been 24 maximum breaks in the history of the tournament.[4]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for both the invitational and ranking versions of the Championship League is shown below.

Invitational version

  • Maximum possible tournament total (since 2013): £205,000 (if all match results are 3‍–‍2)[1]
  • Minimum possible tournament total (since 2013): £152,800 (if all match results are 3‍–‍0)[1]

Ranking version

  • Tournament total: £328,000[2]

Note: The champion receives a total of £33,000 (£3,000 + £4,000 + £6,000 + £20,000).

Winners

Notes

References

External links

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