Home Nations Series

Whilst professional snooker tournaments were increasing in popularity throughout the British Isles during the 1980s, the events are largely uncoordinated; there was never a snooker season with all four home nations holding at least one open event within the same season.

On 29 April 2015, it is announced that from the 2016–17 snooker season on, a "Home Nations Series" would be added to the season's calendar. Being the home of snooker, the series includes tournaments of the four countries in the United Kingdom by combining the existing Scottish Open and Welsh Open with the newly created English Open and the Northern Ireland Open. There was a special bonus of £1 million on offer to the player who would win all four tournaments in the same season until 2020, when it was dropped in light of the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.^[4] As for the individual events of the series, they offer the second-lowest prize fund of all regular format snooker ranking events only ahead of the British Open (the Snooker Shoot Out has the lowest prize fund of all ranking events). The series received a new logo in line with WST's revised rebranding in 2024.

Timeline of Home Nations snooker open events v t e

The trophies of the individual tournaments are named after well-known snooker players of the respective countries:

• At the English Open: the Steve Davis trophy.^[5]
• At the Northern Ireland Open: the Alex Higgins trophy.^[6]
• At the Scottish Open: the Stephen Hendry trophy.^[7]
• At the Welsh Open: the Ray Reardon trophy.^[8]

Besides the prize money players could earn within an event, a bonus prize (named the BetVictor Bonus) of £150,000 is also awarded to the Home Nations Series champion, the player who earned the most cumulative prize money across all the Home Nations Series events. It was initially set up under the European Series banner since the 2021-22 season, where all Home Nations Series events were included; it was until the 2024-25 season when the European Series was discontinued, and the bonus prize is now won solely based on the performance within the Home Nations Series events.^[9]

Neil Robertson won the 2024–25 Home Nations Bonus in a closely fought Home Nations season, where each of the four champions did not make it to the other three series semi-finals. The outcome was decided when Luca Brecel lost his 2025 Welsh Open semi-final, as had Brecel gone on to win he would have won the Bonus on a count back, as his prize money would have been equal to Robertson's.^[10]

Five players remained in the running for the 2025–26 Home Nations Bonus as of the start of the 2026 Welsh Open. Mark Allen lead with £142,000 prize money, followed by the other two tournament champions Chris Wakelin and Jack Lisowski, with three potential outsiders Zhou Yuelong, Judd Trump and Chang Bingyu, however Trump decided not to play the Welsh Open.^[11][12] To overtake Allen, Wakelin and Lisowski would need to make the Welsh Open final.

Round one of the Welsh Open saw Series leader Allen defeated and so more vulnerable to losing his Series lead. Wakelin also lost in Round 1, then Chang lost in Round 2, and Zhou lost his Welsh Open quarter-final.

So on the eve of the Welsh Open semi-finals, only Lisowski remained to challenge Allen's lead, so the Lisowski-Higgins semi-final would be the effective Home Nations Series championship match.^[13] Lisowski won the Welsh Open semi-final with a frame-winning break in the final decider frame 6-5 against Higgins to win the Home Nations Series and it's £150,000 Betvictor Bonus prize.^[14] Allen responded, saying, "Fair play. [I’m] not sure I’m ever gonna win that bonus. [That’s the] fourth time in six years I’ve been second.”^[15]

Northern Ireland Open champion and Welsh Open runner up Jack Lisowski finished with £154,000 Home Nations winnings to overtake English Open champion and semi-finalist in the Scottish and Northern Ireland Opens Mark Allen's £142,000.

Season	Winner	Aggregate Winnings	Bonus prize	Ref.
2024–25	Neil Robertson (AUS)	£124,000	£150,000	[16]
2025–26	Jack Lisowski (ENG)	£154,000	£150,000	[17]

All tournaments within the series are ranking tournaments of the World Snooker Tour and are played with 128 players. After first nominating all professional players, the wildcard players will be nominated from the respective regional snooker associations, and finally top‑up players from the Q School order of merit. Up to and including the last 16, the matches are played as best‑of‑seven frames, in the quarter‑finals as best‑of‑nine, semi‑finals as best‑of‑eleven frames, and in the final best‑of‑seventeen.

In the 2021‍–‍22 season, the last 128 round was modified slightly by being turned into a mini‑qualifying round, where players outside of the top 16 have to win a match in order to play at the final venue. The top 16 still play in the qualifying round, but their matches are held over to be played at the final venue instead.^[18]

Starting from the 2024‍–‍25 season, all tournaments in the series were changed to adopt a tiered system from the flat-draw format, bringing them more into line with other events that have moved towards protecting higher-ranked professionals. The new format means that the Top 32 players on the world rankings at the designated cut‑off point are automatically sent through to the Last 64 round and will not play a qualifying round. Everyone below the Top 32 will play in a two‑round qualifying format: the first round will see those professionals seeded 65‍–‍96 playing in a match against those professionals seeded 97‍–‍128. The winners of that first round will play in a second round, where they will be facing professionals seeded 33‍–‍64, with the qualifying winners being placed randomly against the Top 32. The justification for the change in format was described by the World Snooker Tour as "giving the lower ranked players the opportunity to earn prize money through the earlier rounds and beyond, while ensuring that television audiences and ticket‑holders can see the leading players at the final venue."^[19]