World and UK Snooker Championships prize funds receive hefty increases

The World Snooker Championship and UK Championship are set for hefty increases in prize money from next season.

The last time the World Championship’s winner’s prize was increased was in 2019 when it jumped from £425,000 to £500,000.

The champion in Sheffield this year will claim half a million quid again, but in 2027 the winner will be significantly richer.

The top prize will rise to £625,000, representing a 25 per cent increase for the champion, while the total prize fund will rise to £3m from its current level of £2,395,000.

The UK Championship winner next season will claim £312,500, up from £250,000, with the overall prize fund climbing from £1.5m from £1.2m.

A World Snooker Tour statement read: ‘There will be similar increases for each round and full details of the prize money breakdowns will be announced soon.’

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Clearly the announcement will be welcome news to players and it follows the extension of the World Championship’s stay at the Crucible until at least 2045.

Speaking in a press conference at the Crucible on Monday, Matchroom president Barry Hearn suggested that the winner’s prize will reach £1m by the time the World Championship returns to the Crucible after the forthcoming renovation.

The theatre is set to be revamped from the summer of 2028, with the World Championship going elsewhere while the work is done, ideally for one year but possibly two.

On the increasing prize money, Hearn said: ‘We will build that, build that.

So by the time we come back here, we are a level that snooker’s never been close to be and it’s clear we’re going to go to the one [million] and past it.

So we’re in a good place.’
Hearn also named a number of venues which could host the World Championship in its time away from the Crucible.

‘So far we’re looking at: Alexandra Palace, Excel, Olympia, Manchester, Newcastle,’ he said.

‘Actually, just go round all the Premier League Darts venues and you’ve got interest in it for snooker.

‘We just take our time.

We’re big boys in this game.

We’ve been around a long time.’
The Matchroom president added: ‘I think if I was a gambling man, which of course I’m not, I would go odds on staying in the UK.’
However, pushed on where he would like it to be if it did leave these shores, he said: ‘I think if I had to choose, I would say Germany, and I would look at the Tempodrom for the World Snooker Championship, because it’s the same TV times as the UK virtually, an hour, and it has the ability to house 3,000 customers.’