Barry Hearn Announcements

World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn held a press conference at the Crucible on Wednesday.

Here are the key points:

Betfred’s sponsorship of the World Championship will continue until at least 2021. For more on that news, click here.

There will be four extra World Snooker Tour cards available at 2019 Q School. The semi-finalists of the three events will receive 12 of those, with the other four to go to the next four highest players on the Q School Order of Merit. There will be 128 players on the 2019/20 Tour.

Jimmy White has been given a two-year tour card in respect of his undisputed services to snooker.

The structure for the qualifying rounds of the Betfred World Championship will change next year as follows:

There will be 16 amateurs invited by WPBSA. They will join players ranked 81-128 in round one. Those 64 players play each other, with the 32 winners going into round two.

Round two: those 32 winners will face players ranked 49-80.

Round three: those 32 winners will face players ranked 17-48.

Round four: those 32 winners play each other, with the 16 winners going through to the Crucible to face the top 16 seeds.

Total prize money for the 2020 Betfred World Championship will go up to £2.4 million, with the winner to receive £500,000.

Next season, a new £1 million bonus for 147 breaks will be introduced. If there are 20 (or more) maximums in a season, the bonus will be triggered and the £1 million will be shared between the players who made 147s. A player making more than one of those 20 would receive a proportional share, for example if he made two 147s and there were 20 in total, he would receive £100,000. This replaces the previous ‘rolling prize’ system.