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Players Series

For the Australian golf tournaments, see The Players Series.

Players Series
Tournament information
CountryUnited Kingdom (2015–)
Hong Kong (2025–)
Established2019
Organisation(s)World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
FormatRanking events
Current champion Shaun Murphy (ENG)

The Players Series is a bonus competition for players who have earned the most money in a series of professional snooker tournaments.[1] The series involves three events: the World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship. It was established in 2019.

Overview

In the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons, the series was 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. In the 2022–23 season, it was sponsored by crypto casino Duelbits and named the Duelbits Series.[2] With the exception of the 2019–20 season, there has been no monetary bonus for earning the most money over the three events: the only winner of an additional monetary bonus was Stephen Maguire, who gained £100,000 for earning the most money in the series, most of the earnings having come from winning the 2020 Tour Championship, the highest earning event in the series.

Unlike traditional ranking events, qualification is based on results from the single-season list, rather than by world rankings.[3] The number of competitors for each event shortens, with 32 players participating in the Grand Prix, 16 in the Players Championship, and 12 (previously eight) in the Tour Championship.[4] The series was sponsored and named after betting company Coral, until 2021, when car retailer Cazoo took over sponsorship.[5] Their sponsorship of the Players' Series was abruptly stopped in the 2022–23 snooker season, as a result of its own financial issues that led it to pull out from a number of other sponsorships in other sports, including snooker. In its place, Duelbits was selected to sponsor the Players' Series for that season, which was announced on the day of the 2023 World Grand Prix commencing.

In the 2019–2020 snooker 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.[6]

For the 2021–22 season, players who lost in the first round of any of the Cazoo Series events received ranking points equalling 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.[7] WST later confirmed that this change would also apply to the 2022–23 snooker season, but has continued to be in place for subsequent seasons.[8]

Since inception, all of the tournaments that made up the Players' Series were played in the United Kingdom. However, beginning with the 2024–25 snooker season, the World Grand Prix will be played in Hong Kong, turning the Players' Series into an international sporting series, rather than a series exclusively played in the UK.[9]

Winners

Season Cup 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)

Event winners

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]
2023–24 World Grand Prix  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)  Judd Trump (ENG) 10–7 Leicester
Players Championship  Mark Allen (NIR)  Zhang Anda (CHN) 10–8 Telford
Tour Championship  Mark Williams (WAL)  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 10–5 Manchester

Statistics

Champions

Player Total World
Grand Prix 		Players
Championship 		Tour
Championship 		Winning
span
Australia Neil Robertson 4 1 1 2 2020–2022
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 Stephen Maguire 1 0 0 1 2020
Scotland John Higgins 1 0 1 0 2021
Wales Mark Williams 1 0 0 1 2024
Total events 18 6 6 6 2019–2024

References

  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. ^ "Duelbits Joins Forces With WST". World Snooker. 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Race to the World Grand Prix - SnookerHQ". SnookerHQ. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Tour Championship Snooker 2019: Draw, schedule, betting odds, results, & TV coverage". sportinglife.com. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  5. ^ "Car Retailer Cazoo to Sponsor Snooker Series". 2 February 2021.
  6. ^ "Coral Players Championship - World Snooker". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  7. ^ "Cazoo Series - Ranking Points". World Snooker Tour. 14 September 2021. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  8. ^ "PRIZE MONEY WORLD RANKINGS SCHEDULE 2022/2023 SEASON" (PDF). World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2022.
  9. ^ https://www.totallysnookered.com/sport/snooker/tournaments/world-grand-prix/world-grand-prix-snooker-likely-to-be-heading-to-hong-kong-4695042 [bare URL]
  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.
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