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Players Series

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For the Australian golf tournaments, see The Players Series.

Players Series
Tournament information
CountryUnited Kingdom (2019–)
Hong Kong (2025–)
Established2019
Organisation(s)World Snooker Tour
FormatRanking events
Total prize fund£700,000 (World Grand Prix)
£500,000 (Players & Tour Champ)
Recent edition2025 Tour Championship
Current champion Neil Robertson (AUS)

The Players Series is a ranking bonus competition for players who have earned the most money in professional snooker tournaments within the season.[1] Established in 2019, the series includes the World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship.

Unlike traditional ranking events, qualification is based on results from the single-season list, rather than by world rankings.[2] The number of competitors for each event decreases, with 32 players participating in the Grand Prix, 16 in the Players and 12 in the Tour Championship.[3]

Overview

[edit]

The series was initially sponsored by Coral and was called the Coral Cup. In the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons, it was sponsored by Cazoo and named the Cazoo Series.[4] However, the sponsorship was abruptly stopped as a result of its own financial issues that led it to pull out from a number of sports sponsorship deals, including snooker. In the 2022–23 season, it was sponsored by crypto casino Duelbits as the Duelbits Series;[5] it was only announced on the day of the 2023 World Grand Prix commencing.

Since inception, all of the tournaments that made up the Players Series were played in the United Kingdom. However, beginning with the 2024–25 season, the World Grand Prix was played in Hong Kong, turning the Players Series into an international sporting series.[6]

Prize money

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In the 2019–2020 season, the player who earned the most prize money across all three events in the series was awarded a prize fund of £100,000 and the "Coral Cup". Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Coral ceasing its involvement in sponsoring snooker events, the bonus was discontinued.[7] The only winner of the additional monetary bonus was Stephen Maguire, with most of the earnings coming from the Tour Championship.

For the 2021–22 season, players who lost in the first round of any of the series events received ranking points equal to their prize money. This was a change from previous incarnations where losing in the first round gave prize money only and no ranking points. However, should a player qualify for one of the events in the series, but does not play their opening match, the player receives neither prize money nor ranking points.[8] WST later confirmed that this change would also apply to the 2022–23 snooker season, and has continued to be in place for subsequent seasons.[9]

Winners

[edit]
Season Series winner Series name Ref.
2018–19  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) Coral Cup [10][11][12]
2019–20  Stephen Maguire (SCO) Coral Cup [13][14][15]
2020–21  Neil Robertson (AUS) Cazoo Series [16][17][18]
2021–22  Neil Robertson (AUS) Cazoo Series [19][20][21]
2022–23  Shaun Murphy (ENG) Duelbits Series [22][23][24]
2023–24  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) Players Series [25][26][27]
2024–25  Neil Robertson (AUS) Players Series [28][29][30]

Event winners

[edit]
Season Tournament Winner Runner-up Score City Refs
Coral Cup
2018–19 World Grand Prix  Judd Trump (ENG)  Ali Carter (ENG) 10–6 Cheltenham [10]
Players Championship  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)  Neil Robertson (AUS) 10–4 Preston [11]
Tour Championship  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)  Neil Robertson (AUS) 13–11 Llandudno [12]
2019–20 World Grand Prix  Neil Robertson (AUS)  Graeme Dott (SCO) 10–8 Cheltenham [13]
Players Championship  Judd Trump (ENG)  Yan Bingtao (CHN) 10–4 Southport [14]
Tour Championship  Stephen Maguire (SCO)  Mark Allen (NIR) 10–6 Milton Keynes [15]
Cazoo Series
2020–21 World Grand Prix  Judd Trump (ENG)  Jack Lisowski (ENG) 10–7 Milton Keynes [16]
Players Championship  John Higgins (SCO)  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 10–3 Milton Keynes [17]
Tour Championship  Neil Robertson (AUS)  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 10–4 Newport [18]
2021–22 World Grand Prix  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)  Neil Robertson (AUS) 10–8 Coventry [19]
Players Championship  Neil Robertson (AUS)  Barry Hawkins (ENG) 10–5 Wolverhampton [20]
Tour Championship  Neil Robertson (AUS)  John Higgins (SCO) 10–9 Llandudno [21]
Duelbits Series
2022–23 World Grand Prix  Mark Allen (NIR)  Judd Trump (ENG) 10–9 Cheltenham [22]
Players Championship  Shaun Murphy (ENG)  Ali Carter (ENG) 10–4 Wolverhampton [23]
Tour Championship  Shaun Murphy (ENG)  Kyren Wilson (ENG) 10–7 Hull [24]
Players Series
2023–24 World Grand Prix  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)  Judd Trump (ENG) 10–7 Leicester [25]
Players Championship  Mark Allen (NIR)  Zhang Anda (CHN) 10–8 Telford [26]
Tour Championship  Mark Williams (WAL)  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 10–5 Manchester [27]
2024–25 World Grand Prix  Neil Robertson (AUS)  Stuart Bingham (ENG) 10–0 Hong Kong [28]
Players Championship  Kyren Wilson (ENG)  Judd Trump (ENG) 10–9 Telford [29]
Tour Championship  John Higgins (SCO)  Mark Selby (ENG) 10–8 Manchester [30]

Statistics

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Champions

[edit]
Player Total World
Grand Prix 		Players
Championship 		Tour
Championship 		Winning
span
Australia Neil Robertson 5 2 1 2 2020–2025
England Ronnie O'Sullivan 4 2 1 1 2019–2024
England Judd Trump 3 2 1 0 2019–2020
England Shaun Murphy 2 0 1 1 2023
Northern Ireland Mark Allen 2 1 1 0 2023–2024
Scotland John Higgins 2 0 1 1 2021–2025
Scotland Stephen Maguire 1 0 0 1 2020
Wales Mark Williams 1 0 0 1 2024
England Kyren Wilson 1 0 1 0 2025
Total events 21 7 7 7 2019–2025

References

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  1. ^ "The Coral Series - Everything You Need to Know - WPBSA". WPBSA. 22 November 2018. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Race to the World Grand Prix - SnookerHQ". SnookerHQ. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Tour Championship Snooker 2019: Draw, schedule, betting odds, results, & TV coverage". sportinglife.com. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Car Retailer Cazoo to Sponsor Snooker Series". 2 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Duelbits Joins Forces With WST". World Snooker. 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  6. ^ "Hong Kong ready to host World Grand Prix". World Snooker Tour. 20 January 2025. Archived from the original on 20 February 2025. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
  7. ^ "Coral Players Championship - World Snooker". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Cazoo Series - Ranking Points". World Snooker Tour. 14 September 2021. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  9. ^ "PRIZE MONEY WORLD RANKINGS SCHEDULE 2022/2023 SEASON" (PDF). World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2022.
  10. ^ a b "Trump Champion In Cheltenham – World Snooker". World Snooker. 10 February 2019. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  11. ^ a b "Ronnie O'Sullivan reaches 1,000 career centuries and wins Players Championship". BBC Sport. 10 March 2019. Archived from the original on 10 March 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Snooker – O'Sullivan on top of the world after Tour Championship win". Reuters. 25 March 2019. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  13. ^ a b 9 February 2020 (9 February 2020). "Dott Dashed By Five–Ton Robertson". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ a b "Trump beats Yan Bingtao to win Players Championship". BBC Sport. 1 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  15. ^ a b "Magnificent Maguire Ends Title Drought". World Snooker. 26 June 2020. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  16. ^ a b "Trump Beats Lisowski To Win 20th Ranking Title". World Snooker. 20 December 2020. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021.
  17. ^ a b "Higgins thrashes O'Sullivan in final". BBC Sport. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  18. ^ a b "Relentless Robertson Storms To Tour Title". World Snooker Tour. 28 March 2021. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021.
  19. ^ a b "Ronnie O'Sullivan Produces Stirring Evening Fightback To Beat Neil Robertson To Win Final". Eurosport. 19 December 2021. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021.
  20. ^ a b "Robertson Lands Maiden Players Crown". World Snooker Tour. 13 February 2022. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  21. ^ a b "Epic Robertson Fightback Stuns Higgins". World Snooker Tour. 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 3 April 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  22. ^ a b "Allen Edges Trump in Epic". World Snooker Tour. 22 January 2023. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023.
  23. ^ a b "Magician Back in Winners' Circle". World Snooker Tour. 26 February 2023. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023.
  24. ^ a b "Tour Triumph For Magnificent Murphy". World Snooker Tour. 2 April 2023. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  25. ^ a b "O'Sullivan overturns Trump to extend trophy sequence". World Snooker Tour. 21 January 2024. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  26. ^ a b "Pistol fires to 11th ranking crown". World Snooker Tour. 26 February 2024. Archived from the original on 26 February 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  27. ^ a b "Wonderful Williams is Tour Champion". World Snooker Tour. 7 April 2024. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
  28. ^ a b "Robertson whitewashes Bingham for Hong Kong crown". World Snooker Tour. 9 March 2025. Archived from the original on 9 March 2025. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  29. ^ a b "Wilson beats Trump in thrilling final". World Snooker Tour. 23 March 2025. Archived from the original on 24 March 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  30. ^ a b "Higgins: My best ever win". World Snooker Tour. 6 April 2025. Archived from the original on 7 April 2025. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
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