2023 Northern Ireland Open
The 2023 Northern Ireland Open (officially the 2023 BetVictor Northern Ireland Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 22 to 29 October 2023 at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Organised by the World Snooker Tour (WST), it was the sixth ranking event of the 2023–24 season (following the 2023 Wuhan Open and preceding the 2023 International Championship), the second of four tournaments in the season's Home Nations Series (following the 2023 English Open and preceding the 2023 Scottish Open and the 2024 Welsh Open), and the fourth of eight tournaments in the season's European Series. Qualifying for the event took place from 17 to 20 October 2023 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England, although qualifiers featuring the top 16 seeds and two local wildcard players were held over and played at the Waterfront Hall. The winner received the Alex Higgins trophy and £80,000 from a total prize fund of £427,000. F ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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BetVictor
BetVictor is an online gambling company headquartered in Gibraltar. Founded in 1946, it offers products such as sports betting and online casino. The company is currently owned by Michael Tabor. History The company was founded by William Chandler who owned Walthamstow Stadium, a greyhound racing track in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in East London, which he opened in 1931. After the death of William Chandler in 1946, the bookmaking business passed to Victor Sr. and Jack. Victor Sr. died suddenly in 1974 and the business passed to Victor Jr., who at the time was working in the hotel industry in Spain. In 1998, the headquarters was moved to Gibraltar to avoid UK gambling tax. It has been argued this was a cause for Gordon Brown abolishing gambling tax in his 2001 budget. In 2004, the company was rebranded "VC Bet". Then in late 2008, Chandler chose to revert the name to "Victor Chandler". In 2012, the company rebranded itself again as BetVictor to ensure consistency and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2023 International Championship
The 2023 International Championship (officially the 2023 Du Xiaoman International Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 5 to 12 November 2023 at the in Tianjin, China. It was the ninth iteration of the International Championship first held in 2012, a return of the event to the tour after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time the event had been held in Tianjin, introducing it as a new host city for World Snooker Tour tournaments. Judd Trump was the defending champion, after defeating Shaun Murphy in the previous final, but he lost to Stephen Maguire in the last 32. Chinese player Zhang Anda won his first ranking title, by defeating England's Tom Ford in the final, and made a maximum break in the third frame. Ryan Day made the highest break in qualifying with a maximum break, the fourth in his career, in his win against Mink Nutcharut. By winning the event, Zhang advanced to within the top 16 for t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (, ; born 18 April 1985) is a Thai professional snooker player. He has won one ranking event, the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out, and finished as runner-up in the 2019 World Open. He is regarded as one of the fastest snooker players on the World Tour, averaging less than 17 seconds per shot during the 2017–18 and the 2019–20 snooker seasons. Career Un-Nooh first entered the professional tour for the 2009–10 season by winning the 2008 IBSF World Snooker Championship. He dropped off the main tour after just one season. 2012–13 season He received the Thai nomination to compete on the snooker tour for the 2012–13 season. As a new player on the tour, he needed to win four matches to reach the main stage of the ranking events. He lost in the third qualifying round in three of the first four ranking events of the season. In September, it was announced that his match at the Players Tour Championship – Event 3 against Steve Davis was under investigation d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addition to his four world titles, he has won the Masters three times and the UK Championship twice for a total of nine Triple Crown titles, putting him on a par with John Higgins, and behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan (21), Stephen Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15). After winning the England Under-15 Championship in 1998, Selby turned professional in 1999, aged 16. He made his Crucible debut in 2005, and reached his first World Championship final in 2007, when he was runner-up to John Higgins. He won his first major title at the 2008 Masters, and his first ranking title at the 2008 Welsh Open. Between 2014 and 2017, he won the World Championship three times in four years. He has been ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry (36). Since turning professional in 1992, he has won four World Championships, three UK Championships, and two Masters titles for a total of nine Triple Crown titles, putting him on a par with Mark Selby and behind only O'Sullivan (21), Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15). A prolific break-builder, he has compiled over 900 century breaks and 12 maximum breaks in professional tournaments, in both cases second only to O'Sullivan (who has compiled over 1,100 centuries and 15 maximums). Higgins has achieved the world number 1 ranking position on four occasions. In 2010, the ''News of the World'' tabloid newspaper carried out a sting operation in a hotel room in Ukraine, which claimed to show Higgins and his then-manager arranging to lose speci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ali Carter
Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been the World Championship runner-up, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won four ranking titles and briefly reached number two in the world rankings in 2010. His nickname, "The Captain", comes from his hobby of piloting aeroplanes. Career Carter turned professional in 1996. He first emerged in 1999, winning the WPBSA Association Young Player of the Year award after winning the Benson and Hedges Championship in 1999 – this earned him a wild card place in the Masters. He also reached the semi-finals of the 1999 Grand Prix. It was eight years before he reached another ranking semi-final, the 2007 Malta Cup. He was close to the elite top 16 for three successive seasons ranking as 17, 19, and 19 through 2003–04, 2004–05 and 2005–06, respectively, before reaching it in the 2006–07 season and remaining there in 2008. He reached the last 16 (seco ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luca Brecel
Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the European Under-19 title at the age of 14 and went on to break Stephen Hendry's record as the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible Theatre. He made his debut at the 2012 World Championship aged 17 years and 45 days, almost two months younger than Hendry in 1986. In 2017, Brecel became the first player from mainland Europe to win a ranking event when he defeated Shaun Murphy in the final of the China Championship. He reached his first Triple Crown final at the 2021 UK Championship, but lost 5–10 to Zhao Xintong. He claimed his second ranking title a week later, defeating John Higgins 9–5 to win the 2021 Scottish Open. Amateur career Brecel started playing snooker when he was nine, and scored his first competitive century break at 12. In April 2009, he became the youngest European Under-19 champion at 14 years of age in a victory against Michael Wasley in Saint Petersburg. In th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alex Higgins
Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the game. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" because of his fast play, he was World Champion in 1972 and 1982, and runner-up in 1976 and 1980. He became the first qualifier to win the world title in 1972, a feat only two players have achieved since – Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005. He won the UK Championship in 1983 and the Masters in 1978 and 1981, making him one of eleven players to have completed snooker's Triple Crown. He was also World Doubles champion with Jimmy White in 1984, and won the World Cup three times with the All-Ireland team. Higgins came to be known as the "People's Champion" because of his popularity, and is often credited with having brought the game of snooker to a wider audience, contributing to its peak in popularity in the 1980s. He had a reputation as an unpredictable ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties of England, historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southern suburbs were transferred from Derbyshire to the city council. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines and the valleys of the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don with its four tributaries: the River Loxley, Loxley, the Porter Brook, the River Rivelin, Rivelin and the River Sheaf, Sheaf. Sixty-one per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which is estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees. The city is south of Leeds, east of Manchester, and north ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ponds Forge
Ponds Forge International Sports Centre is a leisure complex in Sheffield, England, that contains an Olympic-sized swimming pool with seating for 2,600 spectators, family and children's pools (50 m Competition pool and 25 m diving pit), water slides and other sports facilities. History Ponds Forge was opened in 1991 as a venue for the Summer Universiade, which the city hosted that year. In the 1994 UK Sports Design Awards Ponds Forge was highly commended in the overall category, and for the use of steel in its construction it won the British Steel Award. The name ''Ponds Forge'' is borrowed from the steel works that formerly occupied this site and a high anvil has been left in situ next to the building, partly because it would have been too expensive to move it. The River Sheaf runs under the site and flooded the car park on 21 December 1991, shutting the complex for 6 days. Proof of this can be found on platform Five of Sheffield railway station, because the Shea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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European Series
The BetVictor European Series is a snooker tournament series established in 2019. It was expanded from four tournaments in the 2019–20 season to six tournaments in the 2020–21 season and then to eight tournaments in the 2021–22 season and 2022–23 season. The player who wins the most cumulative prize money in European Series events each season receives a bonus prize of £150,000. Judd Trump won the bonus prize in the first two seasons, while John Higgins won the bonus in the third season and Robert Milkins in the fourth. Events The BetVictor European Series was established in 2019, and initially consisted of four tournaments: European Masters, German Masters, Shoot Out, Gibraltar Open. For the 2020–21 season, the Championship League and Welsh Open were included. For the 2021–22 season, the other three Home Nations Series events ( Northern Ireland Open, English Open, Scottish Open) were added, while the Championship League was removed, bringing the total num ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2024 Welsh Open (snooker)
The 2024 Welsh Open (officially the 2024 BetVictor Welsh Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 12 to 18 February 2024 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales. Qualification for the tournament took place from 25 to 27 January at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley, England. The 33rd edition of the Welsh Open, first held in 1992, it was the 13th ranking event of the 2023–24 season, following the German Masters and preceding the Players Championship. It was the fourth and last tournament in the Home Nations Series, following the Scottish Open, and the eighth and last tournament in the season's European Series, following the German Masters. Sponsored by BetVictor, the tournament was broadcast by the BBC domestically, by Eurosport and Discovery+ in the United Kingdom and Europe, and by other broadcasters worldwide. The winner received the Ray Reardon trophy and £80,000 from a total prize fund of £427,000. Robert Milkins was the defending champion, ha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |