Players Series
Snooker series of tournaments From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom (2019–) Hong Kong (2025–) |
| Established | 2019 |
| Organisation(s) | World Snooker Tour |
| Format | Ranking events |
| Current champion | |
Overview
Summarize
Perspective
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 season, the World Grand Prix was played in Hong Kong, turning the Players Series into an international sporting series, rather than a series exclusively played in the United Kingdom.[9]
Winners
| 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
Statistics
Champions
| Player | Total | World Grand Prix |
Players Championship |
Tour Championship |
Winning span |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neil Robertson |
5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2020–2025 |
| Ronnie O'Sullivan |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2019–2024 |
| Judd Trump |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2019–2020 |
| Shaun Murphy |
2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
 Mark Allen |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2023–2024 |
| John Higgins |
2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2021–2025 |
| Stephen Maguire |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2020 |
 Mark Williams |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kyren Wilson |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2025 |
| Total events | 21 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2019–2025 |
References
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