2026 Tour Championship
 | |
| 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 | |
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.
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] As with the previous edition, there will be a free fan zone at the venue.[9]
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.[10]
Seeding list
The event will feature the top 12 players on the one-year ranking list, as it stands after the 2026 World Open. 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.
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 | .svg.png){kind=small} Neil Robertson (AUS) |
620,300 |
| 2 |  Mark Selby (ENG) |
399,350 |
| 3 | Shaun Murphy (ENG) |
364,900 |
| 4 |  Mark Williams (WAL) |
309,800 |
| 5 | Judd Trump (ENG) |
304,350 |
| 6 |  Zhao Xintong (CHN) |
293,500 |
| Seed | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Wu Yize (CHN) |
271,300 |
| 8 | Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |
251,750 |
| 9 | Chris Wakelin (ENG) |
239,800 |
| 10 | Xiao Guodong (CHN) |
213,000 |
| 11 | .svg.png){kind=small} Mark Allen (NIR) |
202,350 |
| 12 | Elliot Slessor (ENG) |
190,300 |
| Seed | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Zhou Yuelong (CHN) |
170,000 |
| 14 | Barry Hawkins (ENG) |
168,800 |
| 15 | Zhang Anda (CHN) |
165,400 |
| 16 | Jack Lisowski (ENG) |
165,400 |
| 17 | John Higgins (SCO) |
163,600 |
| 18 | Gary Wilson (ENG) |
156,900 |
| 19 | Si Jiahui (CHN) |
135,200 |
| 20 | Stephen Maguire (SCO) |
132,800 |
| 21 | Ali Carter (ENG) |
131,250 |
| 22 | Chang Bingyu (CHN) |
126,300 |
| 23 | Kyren Wilson (ENG) |
125,900 |
| 24 | Stuart Bingham (ENG) |
121,100 |
| 25 | Ding Junhui (CHN) |
114,850 |
| 26 | Yuan Sijun (CHN) |
104,300 |
| 27 | Anthony McGill (SCO) |
101,600 |
| 28 |  Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA) |
97,100 |
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: £70,000
- Semi-final: £35,000
- Quarter-final: £25,000
- Last 16: £15,000
- Highest break: £10,000
- Total: £500,000
References
- ^ "Tour Championship". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
- ^ Day, Michael (12 April 2024). "Tour Championship Snooker - Information and a Potted History". Totally Snookered. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
- ^ "Tour Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Neil Robertson to become world number one". BBC Sport. 24 March 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
- ^ a b "Provisional Tour Championship Rankings". snooker.org. 8 February 2026. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b "Sportsbet.io Tour Championship". World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original on 25 March 2025. Retrieved 25 March 2025.
- ^ "Tournaments 2025–26". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
- ^ "Calendar 2025/2026 - snooker.org". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
- ^ "Vintage Higgins beats Selby in Tour Championship final". BBC Sport. 6 April 2025. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
- ^ "Free Snooker FanZone at Manchester Central". World Snooker Tour. 21 March 2025. Archived from the original on 27 March 2025. Retrieved 27 March 2025.
- ^ "2026 Sportsbet.io Tour Championship". snooker.org. 30 March 2026. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)