The English Open is one of four Home Nations Series events that are held annually on the World Snooker Tour, with the 2026 staging of the tournament set to get underway on Monday 7th September.
Here is everything you need to know about the forthcoming event...
Dates
The 2026 English Open will get underway on Monday 7th September, with the final taking place on Sunday 13th September 2026.
Times
As with most snooker tournaments, matches are played throughout the day and can sometimes involve a late night finish.
Typically matches get underway across three sessions, with 10:00, 14:00 and 19:00 start times for the earlier rounds of the competition.
Venue
The 2026 event will take placed at the Brentwood Centre in Essex - the fifth time the English Open has been staged there.
Previously, EventCity in Manchester, the Barnsley Metrodome, the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley and, most recently, the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes have all hosted the tournament.
Previous winners
The English Open produced seven different winners across 10 years of the competition.
China's Liang Wenbo was the first winner of the event, before Ronnie O'Sullivan claimed the title a year later in 2017.
In 2022, Mark Selby became the first player to lift the trophy on more than one occasion, defeating soon-to-become world champion Luca Brecel in the final.
Northern Ireland's Mark Allen is the current defending champion of the English Open, after he beat Zhou Yuelong 9-8 in the 2025 final.
Format
Sixty-four players from the World Snooker Tour enter the main draw following two pre-qualifying rounds.
The current top-16-ranked players will play their qualification matches at the venue for the televised stages of the tournament, with those encounters, together with matches in rounds one, two and three, being played over the best-of-seven frames.
That increases to nine in the quarter-finals and further up to 11 for the last-four matches, while the final will be contested over 17 frames.
Trophy
Competitors in the English Open are competing for the Davis Trophy, named after former six-time world champion Steve Davis, who retired in April 2016, six months before the inaugural tournament took place.
Prize Money
Winner: | £100,000 |
Runner-up: | £45,000 |
Semi-finals: | £21,000 |
Quarter-finals: | £13,200 |
Last 16: | £9,000 |
Last 32: | £5,400 |
Last 64: | £3,600 |
Last 96: | £1,000 |
High Break: | £5,000 |
The winner of the English Open scoops a bumper cheque of £100,000 with the runner-up taking home £45,000.
Those reaching the semi-finals are awarded £21,000, while there is a highest break pot of £5,000.
In total, £550,400 is on offer to the 64 players who made it to Brentwood.
