Snooker Shoot Out: Dates, schedule, history, & more

The Snooker Shoot Out is a unique and fan friendly tournament that is played annually as part of the World Snooker Tour.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 tournament which gets underway in Swansea on Wednesday afternoon.

What	Snooker Shoot Out
Where	Swansea Arena, Swansea
When	Wednesday 6th December - Saturday 9th December 2023
How to watch	bet365 Live Streaming and Eurosport

Snooker Shoot Out dates

The 2023 Snooker Shoot Out will get underway on Wednesday 6th December with the final taking place on Saturday 9th December. 

The event will form part of the 2023/24 season and is not to be confused with the January 2023 Snooker Shoot Out, which although holding an identical name, formed part of the 2022/23 campaign.
 

Snooker Shoot Out time

The first-round draw has been made and the 64 opening round matches will get underway at 13:00. 

The first-round will be played over four sessions at 13:00 and 19:00 on the opening two days of the tournament. 

Each session will feature 16 matches and 32 players.
 

Snooker Shoot Out venue

The December 2023 tournament will be played at the Swansea Arena in Swansea, Wales. 

It’s the first time that the event will be staged at the venue, which is a 3,500 capacity indoor arena in the heart of the city. 

The Snooker Shoot Out has previously been held at the Circus Arena in Blackpool, Reading’s Hexagon Theatre and the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. 

Watford’s Colosseum had a four-year run of staging the event between 2017 and 2020 and the last two editions of the quick-fire competition were held at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
 

Snooker Shoot Out TV details

Eurosport have the broadcast rights with matches to be shown on their TV channels and the Eurosport Player online. 

Matches are also shown on bet365’s Sports Live Streaming service.
 

Snooker Shoot Out previous winners

There have been 13 different winners in the 13 runnings of the Snooker Shoot Out. 

The unique one-frame format, crowd interaction and random draw element make it tricky to plunder the prize. 

The previous winners are:

Nigel Bond
Barry Hawkins
Martin Gould
Dominic Dale
Michael White
Robin Hull
Anthony McGill
Michael Georgiou
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Michael Holt
Ryan Day
Hossein Vafaei
Chris Wakelin
 

Snooker Shoot Out format

The Snooker Shootout sees 128 players battling it out on the baize. It’s a unique event and the format is vastly different to any other event on the World Snooker Tour. 

All matches are a one-frame shoot-out and each frame lasts a maximum of 10 minutes. For the first five minutes of the match, players have 15 seconds per shot, but that reduces to 10 seconds for the final five minutes of the frame. 

Players must hit a cushion (with any ball) or pot a ball with every shot and all fouls result in ball in hand. Players lag to decide the break, and in an event of a tie, the blue ball shoot out is used to decide the winner. 

The blue ball is placed on its spot and the cue ball can be placed anywhere within the D. Players make alternate attempts, until one potter has sunk the blue more times than their opponent, after taking the same number of shots. 

Unlike other snooker tournaments on the calendar, the audience does not remain silent during play, and the Snooker Shoot Out atmosphere is unique with chanting, cheering and even singing taking place.
 

Snooker Shoot Out prize money

There’s a total prize fund of £171,000, with the winner copping £50,000. 

Those losing in the last-64 receive £500, it’s £1000 for the last-32, £2000 for the last-16, £4000 for the quarter-finals, £8000 for making the semi-finals and £20,000 for finishing as runner-up. 

There’s also a highest break prize of £5000 up for grabs. 

In 2017, the tournament became a ranking event, and prize money won in this year’s renewal in Swansea, will once again count towards the world rankings.