The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters is a professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

tournament held in Green Halls,

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

, Saudi Arabia. Organised by the

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of about 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. It is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial arm of professional snooker, ...

in collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Billiard & Snooker Federation (SABSF), the inaugural event was held for the first time in 2024 with

Judd Trump Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and the current List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He is currently in ...

as the winner. Branded as one of snooker's four major tournaments, it featured a total prize fund of £2,302,000, the second-highest after the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. The tournament marks the return of ranking snooker events in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

since the Bahrain Championship in 2008, and the first annual event since

Dubai Classic The Dubai Classic (also known as the Dubai Duty Free Classic for sponsorship and marketing purposes) was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament. The last champion was Ronnie O'Sullivan. History It began life as the ...

in the 1980s.

History

In February 2024,

(WST) announced the addition of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters to the calendar, beginning from the 2024–25 season, as part of a ten-year deal. The 2024 edition was the first

tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia, following the non-ranking 2024 World Masters of Snooker event in March which was also held in

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

. It was dubbed by WST as snooker's "fourth major" alongside the Triple Crown events, the

, the

UK Championship The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican in York, England. Ronnie O'Sull ...

and the Masters. Announcement of the snooker events holding in Saudi Arabia was met with criticism from journalists accusing the country of

sportswashing Sportswashing is a term used to describe the practice of governments, individuals, corporations, or other groups using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. A form of propaganda, sportswashing can be accomplished through hosting ...

. However, players welcomed the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters ranking event, lauding its "astronomical" prize fund and the opportunity to promote the sport in the

. In May 2025, it is announced that the tournament will be moving from Riyadh to Jeddah starting from the 2025 event.

Winners

References

{{Snooker tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 2024 2024 establishments in Saudi Arabia Snooker ranking tournaments Snooker competitions in Saudi Arabia