Skip to content
GO TO bet365 Sports
UK Championship Snooker
  1. Snooker
  2. UK Championship

UK Championship: Dates, location, format, schedule, prize money, 147s & history

The UK Championship is one of the most prestigious events on the snooker calendar and, alongside the World Championship and Masters, forms part of snooker's Triple Crown.

The tournament has been a fixture on the snooker calendar since it was first staged as a non-ranking event in 1977, with Ireland's Paddy Fagan taking the title in Blackpool.

Ranking points were then introduced for the first time at the UK Championship in 1984 and it has developed into one of the sport's most prestigious tournaments.

Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed his record-extending eighth title in 2023 at the expense of Ding Junhui, who had also finished runner-up to Mark Allen in 2022.

Here is everything you need to know about the UK Championship.

UK Championship - Dates

The UK Championship is traditionally staged at the end of the calendar year in late November and often creeps into December.

That's the case in 2024, with the event getting underway on Saturday 23rd November and reaching its conclusion on Sunday 1st December.

UK Championship - Location

The UK Championship has been held at the Barbican Centre in York every year since 2011, except in 2020 when the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes temporarily took over hosting duties.

Prior to moving to the Barbican, numerous venues staged the UK Championship, including Preston's Guild Hall, the International Centres in Telford and Bournemouth, and the Tower Circus in Blackpool where Fagan claimed the inaugural crown.

UK Championship - Format

After using a flat 128 player draw from 2013 to 2021, there was a new format introduced for the 2022 event, with organisers aiming to mirror the same schedule used for World Championship qualifying.

That means the first round, up until the final, were scheduled over best-of-11 frames, with the final a best-of-19 contest.

The new format proved to be a success, as the top 16 players in the world were seeded through to the last 32, with 16 qualifiers meeting them at that stage.

The lower-ranked the qualifier, the more matches they had to win to make the main draw.

For example, 2023 runner-up Ding, who had gone into the tournament as world number 17, had to win two qualifiers and four main-draw matches to reach the final.

The same, revamped format applies to this day.

UK Championship - Prize Money

  • Winner - £250,000
  • Runner-up - £100,000
  • Semi-final - £50,000
  • Quarter-final - £25,000
  • Last 16 - £15,000
  • Last 32 - £10,000
  • Last 48 - £7,500
  • Last 80 - £5,000
  • Last 112 - £2,500

Along with a new format, there was also a boost to prize money for the UK Championship in 2022, with the total prize fund set at just over £1.2million.

The same pot remained in 2023 and has been renewed for 2024.

The champion will receive £250,000 for winning the tournament, with the runner-up pocketing £100,000. Beaten semi-finalists pick up £50,000 and those exiting in the quarter-finals take home a cheque for £25,000.

There will also be £15,000 on offer for the player who makes the highest break.

How many 147s have there been at the UK Championship?

A total of 20 147s have been recorded at the UK Championship.

Willie Thorne achieved the first in 1987 and Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby are among those to have followed him by hitting maximums at the event. 

While 17 147s have occurred in the regular tournament, both Andy Hicks and Jack Lisowski recorded one each during qualifying for the 2012 edition.

In 2023, it was the turn of Xu Si to make a 147 in qualifying, with the Chinese star making his first maximum in a 6-1 win over Ma Hailong.

That was the fourth 147 of the season and the 193rd in snooker history.

UK Championship - History

England's O'Sullivan has won the most UK Championship titles, with eight victories to his name. He has also finished runner-up once, in 2016, while Steve Davis has two less trophies with six wins. 

O'Sullivan won his first in 1993 and three decades on from being the youngest player to win the UK Championship, aged 17, he repeated the dose in the 2023 final with victory over Ding, earning an 10-7 victory in a final that saw featured four centuries and resulted in him claiming 22nd Triple Crown title.

Scotland's Hendry won five UK Championships during his dominating spell, while Higgins, Ding and Neil Robertson have all secured three titles.

Allen, who had previously lost two finals at the UK Championship, including to O'Sullivan in 2018, finally got his hands on the trophy in 2022, beating Ding 10-7 in the final.

Related Articles

bet365 uses cookies

We use cookies to deliver a better and more personalised service. For more information, see our Cookie Policy

New to bet365? Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets Join Now

Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of qualifying bets. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply.