About us

World Snooker Limited

World Snooker Limited is the commercial entity responsible for the commercial exploitation and promotion of professional snooker events and is the custodian of the sport’s commercial rights.

World Snooker Limited’s primary objective is to organise, promote or sanction all professional snooker events globally. This is done through either direct promotion for major UK events like, the World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters; co-promotion for International events like the German Masters; and through sanctioned events like the International Championship, China Open, Yushan World Open and China Championship.

World Snooker Limited’s ultimate holding company is World Snooker Holding Limited which is controlled by Matchroom Sport Limited, Barry Hearn’s private sports promotion and TV production company. The WPBSA, the sport’s Governing Body, is the next largest stakeholder in World Snooker Holding Limited.

Following Matchroom Sport Limited’s acquisition in June 2010, the World Snooker Tour has grown rapidly from having prize money of £3.5million to over £10million and jumping from eight main tour events to a calendar of over 20 events.

Not only has prize money on the tour grown but also there has been substantial increase in global viewing figures, with 500 million viewers worldwide.

Statement of Rights

World Snooker Limited is the commercial entity responsible for the commercial development and promotion of snooker events on the World Snooker Tour controlled and organized by World Snooker Limited or jointly controlled and organized by World Snooker Limited and China Billiards and Snooker Association, and is the ultimate holder of all intellectual property rights including but not limited to copyright and trademark rights of all World Snooker Tour events.

This applies to the following list of events on the World Snooker Tour (including but not limited to):

World Snooker Championship
The Masters
UK Championship
English Open
Northern Ireland Open
Scottish Open
Welsh Open
World Grand Prix
Players Championship
Tour Championship
British Open
Shoot Out
European Masters
German Masters
World Snooker World Cup
Hong Kong Masters
China Championship
Six Red World Championship
Yushan World Open
International Championship
China Open
Shanghai Masters
And all other snooker events

This also applies to previous events including (but not limited to):
Turkish Masters
Indian Open
Gibraltar Open
Riga Masters