Snooker Shoot Out: Information and a Potted History

All matches at the Snooker Shoot Out are just one frame, although there is a 10-minute time limit in operation. If the frame has not been completed when the 10 minutes expires, whoever has the most points goes through. In the rare instance that both players are tied on points, a ‘blue-ball shoot out’ is played – like a penalty shootout in football, although it goes straight to a ‘sudden death’ scenario. 

As well as a match clock, there is an individual shot clock that players must strike the cueball within. In recent years, this has been 15 seconds per shot for the first five minutes of the match, and just 10 seconds a shot for the last five minutes of the match. 

The Snooker Shoot Out also uses several different rules compared to traditional matchplay snooker. 

For every shot played, a ball must either strike a cushion (either before or after contact of the object ball) or be potted. 

All fouls result in cueball in hand, meaning the player coming to the table can place the cueball wherever they like; a huge advantage for this standard of competition. 

The tactics used in the Snooker Shoot Out are very different to normal snooker, as players in the lead may opt to go cautious and run the clock down, refusing shots they would usually play in traditional circumstances. 

Played in a more raucous snooker atmosphere than usual, the event was a 64-player non-ranked invitational from 2011 to 2016. However - a controversial decision amongst pockets of the snooker community - the Snooker Shoot Out became a ranking event from 2017 onwards with an expanded 128 player field, open to all professional tour card holders.

Since its change to ranking event status, the Snooker Shoot Out now takes place across four days, although only one table is still in operation. The tournament continues to use a random draw for each round with no seeding protection. 

The Snooker Shoot Out is currently an event on the European Series with ranking points also applied to the one-year list.

Please note, there was a professional snooker event held in 1990 called the International One-Frame Shoot Out that consisted of single-frame matches without time limitations, although the final was the best of three frames. Darren Morgan defeated Mike Hallett 2-1 in the final at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, England. 

Snooker Shoot Out: Most successful players, stats, stories 

Due to the unpredictable chaos of the Snooker Shoot Out, the event has thrown up many unlikely and first-time professional event winners throughout its history. 

From the 14 completed editions to date there have been 14 different winners representing eight different nations. 

At the time of writing, the Snooker Shoot Out has yet to be won by a world champion, although former and future Crucible kings Graeme Dott, Stuart Bingham, Luca Brecel, Mark Selby and Mark Williams have all reached the final. 

Mark Allen in 2024 was the first top 16 player (at time of the event) to win the Snooker Shoot Out. 

During its non-ranking days, the Snooker Shoot Out provided Barry Hawkins (2012), Michael White (2015) and Robin Hull (2016) with their maiden professional televised titles. 

A few months after his success in Blackpool, Hawkins claimed his first ranking title at the Australian Open, while just eight days after his triumph in the one-frame spectacle, White secured his maiden ranking title at the Indian Open. 

Since it gained ranking status in 2017, Michael Georgiou (2018), Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (2019), Michael Holt (2020), Hossein Vafaei (2022) and Chris Wakelin (January 2023) all won their maiden ranking event titles at the Snooker Shoot Out.

Holt is the only player in Shoot Out history to reach back-to-back finals. Dott and Xiao Guodong are the other multiple-time finalists, although neither has yet to be crowned the champion. 

Many mid-ranked professionals have lifted the trophy, although the lowest-ranked champion is still Georgiou, number 73 in the world at the time. 

Nigel Bond – the inaugural Snooker Shoot Out champion in 2011 – is the oldest champion at 45. Experience and a cool head counts for a lot in this barmy format, with a total of five champions in their forties. 

Two players won the title in their twenties, with White being the youngest winner when he was 23. 

The tournament has seen many amateur players invited to it. At the 2023 (December) event, 13-year-old Shaun Liu became the youngest player to win a ranking match on live television when he advanced through the opening round. 

Snooker Shoot Out: Roll of Honour, Finals, Locations, Winner’s Prize

• 2011: Nigel Bond def. Robert Milkins (Blackpool, England) | £32,000
• 2012: Barry Hawkins def. Graeme Dott (Blackpool, England) | £32,000
• 2013: Martin Gould def. Mark Allen (Blackpool, England) | £32,000
• 2014: Dominic Dale def. Stuart Bingham (Blackpool, England) | £32,000
• 2015: Michael White def. Xiao Guodong (Blackpool, England) | £32,000
• 2016: Robin Hull def. Luca Brecel (Reading, England) | £32,000
• 2017: Anthony McGill def. Xiao Guodong (Watford, England) | £32,000
• 2018: Michael Georgiou def. Graeme Dott (Watford, England) | £32,000
• 2019: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh def. Michael Holt (Watford, England) | £32,000
• 2020: Michael Holt def. Zhou Yuelong (Watford, England) | £50,000
• 2021: Ryan Day def. Mark Selby (Milton Keynes, England) | £50,000
• 2022: Hossein Vafaei def. Mark Williams (Leicester, England) | £50,000
• 2023(Jan): Chris Wakelin def. Julien Leclercq (Leicester, England) | £50,000
• 2023(Dec): Mark Allen def. Cao Yupeng (Swansea, Wales) | £50,000

Snooker Shoot Out 147 Breaks 

Shaun Murphy created history at the 2024 Snooker Shoot Out when he compiled professional snooker’s first maximum 147 break under shot clock conditions. 

The Magician completed perfection like never seen before during his opening round tie against Bulcsu Revesz. It was Murphy’s first visit to the table (not counting the lag), after Revesz struck the blue on his break-off shot.