Championship League
The Championship League is a professional snooker tournament devised by Matchroom Sport, held in both ranking and non-ranking formats throughout the snooker season. It is one of the only main tour events that is not directly sanctioned by the World Snooker Tour, along with the Champion of Champions.
Mark Selby is the reigning champion of the invitational event, and Stephen Maguire is the reigning champion of the ranking event.
Overview
The tournament was initially set up as an invitational qualifier to the Premier League Snooker series, where there are no audience and matches are played behind closed doors, matches are allocated in groups and spread over the course of a month. Despite the discontinuation of the Premier League in 2012, it remained as a standalone event and has since kept the unique format. The tournament was originally held at the Crondon Park Golf Club in Stock, Essex until 2016 and has since been held in Coventry, Barnsley, Milton Keynes and currently in Leicester.In June 2020 there was a oneoff, roundrobin, nonranking edition of the tournament.
A ranking version of the tournament began in the 2020–21 season and is held alongside the non-ranking version. In contrast to the invitational event, which is usually held during the second half of the snooker season, it is held as the first event of the season since 2021 and has the smallest prize fund of all ranking events.
Format
Invitational version
In the invitational, nonranking version, 25 players take part, although players often withdraw and are replaced by others. Players earn money for every won and there are also prizes for being a semifinalist, runnerup and winner of each group, with more money involved in the winners' group. In the first two years all matches in the group stages were the bestoffour, meaning that the matches could end in a draw as all the four frames were played, and the semifinals and final were bestoffive.The competition runs over eight groups, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a playoff, the winner of which qualifies for the winners' group. The bottom two players of each group are eliminated and the remaining four move to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. In each group, the players are ranked by the number of matches won, then by most frames won, and then by least frames lost. If two players are tied by these criteria, the player who won the match between them is ranked higher in the table. The winners play in the final group with the champion taking a place in the following season's Champion of Champions.
Ranking version
In the ranking version, 128 players take part in 32 rounds of group matches with each group consisting of four players. All matches are the bestoffour with three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. The 32 players that top the group tables qualify for the second stage, consisting of eight groups of four players, and the eight winners from the second stage qualify for the two final groups. In each group, the players are ranked by points scored, frame difference and then headtohead results between players who are tied. Places that are still tied are then determined by the highest made in the group. If the highest break is also tied, the next highest break made by the players is used. The winners of the two final groups play a bestoffive final. The champion takes a place in the same season's Champion of Champions.Maximum breaks
There have been 24 maximum breaks in the history of the tournament. Shaun Murphy made the first in 2014. Barry Hawkins and David Gilbert both made maximums in 2015, Gilbert made the 147th maximum in 2019, and then made another in 2025. Fergal O'Brien made one in 2016, and Mark Davis made two in 2017. Martin Gould and Luca Brecel both made maximums in 2018, and Ryan Day made one in 2020. John Higgins made maximums in both 2020 and 2024. Stuart Bingham made one in 2021 as did Kyren Wilson and Joe O'Connor in 2024. Along with Gilbert, Jak Jones and Mark Selby both made maximums in 2025. Fan Zhengyi also made a 147 in 2025. Chris Wakelin, Matthew Selt, Xiao Guodong, Wu Yize, and Zhao Xintong all made maximums in 2026.There were three maximum breaks achieved during the 2024 tournament, by Wilson in Group 3, by Higgins in Group 5, and by O'Connor in Group 7. There were also three made in the 2025 tournament, by Jones in Group 2, by Gilbert in Group 7, and by Selby in the Winners' Group. Three maximums in an event had only been achieved twice previously, the first being at the 2012 UK Championship, and the second at the 2017 German Masters. There were five maximum breaks made during the 2026 tournament, by Wakelin in Group 1, Selt in Group 4, Xiao, Wu, and Zhao in Group 6.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for both the invitational and ranking versions of the Championship League is shown below.Invitational version
;Groups 1–7- Winner: £3,000
- Runner-up: £2,000
- Semi-final: £1,000
- Frame-win : £100
- Frame-win : £300
- Highest break : £500
- Winner: £10,000
- Runner-up: £5,000
- Semi-final: £3,000
- Frame-win : £200
- Frame-win : £300
- Highest break : £1,000
- Maximum possible tournament total : £205,000
- Minimum possible tournament total : £152,800
Ranking version
;Stage One- Winner: £3,000
- Runner-up: £2,000
- Third place: £1,000
- Fourth place: £0
- Winner: £4,000
- Runner-up: £3,000
- Third place: £2,000
- Fourth place: £1,000
- Winner: £6,000
- Runner-up: £4,000
- Third place: £2,000
- Fourth place: £1,000
- Winner: £20,000
- Runner-up: £10,000
- Tournament total: £328,000