2026 Players Championship (snooker)
The 2026 Players Championship is an upcoming professional snooker tournament that will take place from 17 to 22 February 2026 at the Telford International Centre in Telford, England. The top 16 players on the ranking list, as it stands after the 2026 World Grand Prix, will qualify for the event. The 10th consecutive staging of the Players Championship since it became a standalone tournament in 2017, it will be the 14th ranking event of the 202526 snooker season, following the 2026 World Grand Prix and preceding the 2026 Welsh Open. It will be the second of three events in the Players Series, following the 2026 World Grand Prix and preceding the 2026 Tour Championship. The tournament will be broadcast on Channel 5 for the first time. The winner will receive £150,000 from a total prize fund of £500,000.
Kyren Wilson will be the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 109 in the 2025 final.
Overview
The tournament originated as the final of the Players Tour Championship, a former series of minor-ranking tournaments that was held in Europe and Asia from 2011 to 2016. In 2017, the event was rebranded as the Players Championship, a standalone tournament for the top 16 players on the one-year ranking list. The inaugural winner was Judd Trump, who defeated Marco Fu 10–8 in the 2017 final.The 2026 edition of the tournament—its 10th consecutive staging since it became a standalone event in 2017—will take place from 17 to 22 February at the Telford International Centre in Telford, England. The top 16 players on the one-year ranking list, as it stands after the 2026 World Grand Prix, will qualify to participate. It will be the 14th ranking event of the 202526 snooker season, following the 2026 World Grand Prix and preceding the 2026 Welsh Open, and the second of three events in the Players Series, following the 2026 World Grand Prix and preceding the 2026 Tour Championship. Kyren Wilson will be the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 109 in the 2025 final to win the title for the first time.
Format and seedings
The matches will be played as the best of 11 until the final, which will be played as a best of 19 frames over two.Unlike other events where the defending champion is seeded first, the reigning World Champion second, and the rest based on the world rankings, the qualification and seedings in the Players Series tournaments are determined by the one-year ranking list. The below list shows the top 16 players who earned the most ranking points from the beginning of the 202526 season until the conclusion of the 2026 World Grand Prix:
| Seed | Player | Points |
| 1 |  Neil Robertson.png" />Neil Robertson|AUSBroadcastersThe event marks the first time that Channel 5 in the United Kingdom will broadcast professional snooker tournaments having previously been broadcast by ITV.Prize fundThe event features a prize pool of £500,000 with the winner receiving £150,000. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below:
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