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Snooker world rankings

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For the previous season's world ranking lists, see 2023–24 snooker world rankings.
List of World Snooker Tour ranking and non-ranking tournaments in the 2024-25 season
Tournament Winner's share (£)
Championship League 33,000
Shanghai Masters† 210,000
Xi'an Grand Prix 177,000
Saudi Arabia Masters 500,000
English Open 100,000
British Open 100,000
Wuhan Open 140,000
Northern Ireland Open 100,000
International Championship 175,000
Champion of Champions† 150,000
UK Championship 250,000
Shoot Out 50,000
Scottish Open 100,000
Riyadh Season Championship† 250,000
Masters† 350,000
German Masters 100,000
Championship League† 205,000
Welsh Open 100,000
World Open 175,000
World Grand Prix 180,000
Players Championship 150,000
Tour Championship 150,000
World Championship 500,000
† Non-ranking events are highlighted; winnings in those tournaments will not be added to the world ranking list.

The snooker world rankings (officially the Johnstone's Paint World Rankings due to sponsorship reasons) are the official system of ranking professional snooker players to determine automatic qualification and seeding for tournaments and invitational events on the World Snooker Tour. First introduced in the 1976–77 season, world rankings are maintained by the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Each player's world ranking is based on their performances in designated ranking tournaments over the preceding two years; the world rankings are based on cumulative prize money earned throughout the tournament since the 2014–15 season, where every professional member of the WPBSA is assigned a ranking disregarding their activeness on the circuit.[1][2][3]

Tournament players are decided by their ranking to determine their stage of entering into different events, with some involving qualification matches. Whilst lower-ranked players have to go through the early and untelevised rounds of the tournament, the top 16 ranked players automatically qualify for the final stages of tournaments such as the World Championship and the Masters; Therefore, there is typically a lot of interest in which players are likely to maintain or acquire "top 16 status", as well as the number one in snooker. Conversely, players whose rank is below 64 at the end of the season are deemed relegated, being unable to retain professional status in the following year by ranking position.

History

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Prior to the introduction of the world rankings, the previous year's winner and runner-up were allocated the top seedings in the World Championship, held annually. As more tournaments were added to the calendar and more players joined the circuit in the 1970s, it became increasingly necessary to seed the tournaments, precipitating the "Order of Merit" for the 1975–76 season. The system was very basic, with seedings based on the results of the last three World Championships, and rankings were formally introduced in 1976 after the World Championship for the 1976–77 season using the same criteria. By the 1982–83 season many more tournaments were being contested, and it seemed reasonable to take those results into consideration too. The Professional Players Tournament and International Open were awarded ranking status, working on the same system; the Classic carried ranking points from the 1983–84 season, the UK Championship and British Open from 1984–85. The revised system was now based on only the two previous seasons, and updated annually after the World Championship. While the ranking point allocations have undergone modifications down the years the basic system remained the same up until the 2009–10 season. For the 2010–11 season, the system was revised to incorporate ranking updates after every tournament—instead of once a season—in an effort to make the rankings more reflective of current form. The current system utilises a two-year "rolling" format where points from tournaments in the current season replace the points from corresponding tournaments of two seasons ago.[4][5][6][7]

Until the 2009–10 season, rankings were updated once annually, following the World Snooker Championship. Since the 2010–11 season, rankings have been updated after every ranking tournament. The world rankings were formerly based on point tariffs set by the governing body, but this system transitioned to a prize money list for the 2014–15 season.

Point tariffs

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The original "Order of Merit", created for the 1975–76 season and based on just World Championship results, awarded the winner five points, the runner-up four, semi-finalists three, and so on down to one point for players who lost in the last 16. The world rankings, introduced in the following year, used the same allocation. Subsequent tournaments that were assigned ranking status worked on the same system but with the World Championship from 1983 onwards carrying double points. The ranking point allocation was later revised slightly with winners of all bar the World Championship now receiving six points, runners-up five, down to one point for the last 32; the World Championship more or less stayed as it was with ten points for the winner, incrementally reduced by two points for each preceding round, but now awarded one point for the last 32 in line with the other tournaments. In addition to ranking points, merit and frame points were also awarded which were used as a tie-break when players were on equal ranking points. When the game went open for the 1991–92 season, the ranking point allocations (devised by the WPBSA chairman on the back of a cigarette pack)[8] were altered by several factors to accommodate the influx of new players. The tie-break system was dropped but the system remained basically the same with players awarded incrementally more points for each successive round; should a seeded player lose their first match they would receive only half the points allocated to the non-seeded losers in that round. The World Championship continued to award more points than the other events but under the "open era" system the allocations often varied between other events too, with the UK Championship traditionally having the second-highest tariff, until the abolishment of the ranking point schedule.[4][9]

Seedings and cut-off

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The seedings for tournaments change from tournament to tournament: the defending champion is allocated the top seed followed by the reigning world champion and the remaining seeds are taken from a "seeding list".[10][11] When the official rankings were only calculated once a year the seedings for tournaments—with the exception of the top two seeds—followed the official rankings.[7] Players and pundits closely tracked the ranking points earned during a season;[12][13][14] the "provisional rankings" (which had no official status in the game) were the rankings based on the ranking points accumulated in the previous season, combined with those accumulated thus far in the current season, and as the season progressed they converged on the official rankings for the following season.[15] The provisional rankings gave an indication of a player's form, and as the season approached its dénouement, the provisional rankings would become a source of tension as the battle for the number one spot, top 16 places, and tour qualification intensified.[8] The introduction of the rolling rankings in 2010 facilitated updates to the seeding list throughout the season. Various "cut-off" points are selected at convenient stages during the season where the rankings are "frozen" and used as seedings for the next few tournaments, until the next revision.[3]

Prize money schedule

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For the 2023–24 prize money schedule, see 2023–24 snooker season § World ranking points.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Calendar". World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Ranking Points Schedule". World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b "World Rankings". World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Suffolk: Rose Villa Publications. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-9548549-0-4.
  5. ^ Turner, Chris (2011). "World Rankings". Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 14 April 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  6. ^ "The Tour Provisional Ranking Points Schedule 2011/2012 Season" (DOC). World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Williams Supports Rankings Overhall". World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 2010. Archived from the original on 26 June 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  8. ^ a b Hendon, David (30 August 2012). "The Rank Organisation". Snooker Scene Blog. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  9. ^ "Rankings FAQ". WPBSA. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  10. ^ "Seeding List". World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  11. ^ Årdalen, Hermund. "Seedings". Snooker.org. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  12. ^ "Snooker's new breed". BBC Sport. 6 December 2004. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  13. ^ Dee, John (3 December 2002). "Snooker: Davis gains edge in tactical battle". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  14. ^ Everton, Clive (17 December 2007). "O'Sullivan brilliance leaves McGuire floundering". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  15. ^ Årdalen, Hermund (2010). "World Rankings 2009/2010". Snooker.org. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
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