Exclusive:Jak Jones warns cost barrier is holding back the next generation of UK snooker stars
Ranking event winner Jak Jones says snooker is “one of the hardest sports to get into”, pointing to high costs as a factor to why fewer young talents from the UK are breaking through these days.
Welshman Jones is very well-placed to talk about the up-and-downs of being a successful junior and amateur player making their way into the professional snooker ranks.
European under-19 champion in 2010, and the winner of the main European Amateur Championship in 2016, Jones had two short, and frustrating, spells on the professional circuit in 2010/11 and 2013-2015 which both ended in him being relegated.
During the 2013/14 season, Jones lost all 16 matches he played on snooker’s top-flight.
Since his continental amateur triumph a decade ago, though, Jones has remained a permanent fixture on the pro circuit. As a qualifier, he was a surprise finalist at the 2024 World Snooker Championship where he was only denied the blue riband title by Kyren Wilson at the Crucible Theatre in an 18-14 defeat.
That run got him into the world’s elite top 16 rankings for the first time, and although it took him a couple of seasons to build on that Sheffield run, he won his maiden ranking title in July 2026 at the Championship League.
Young Chinese snooker stars outnumbering their British counterparts
Less than eight weeks later, and Jones became the 46th multiple-time ranking event winner in professional snooker history when he defeated four-time World Champion Mark Selby, 10-6, in the Cheltenham final to claim the British Open title - the biggest accolade of his career, to date.
Back up to 22nd in the world rankings, Jones is in the mix to become a top 16 player again over the coming weeks and months. He’s got a Champion of Champions invite to look forward to, and it’s likely he’ll qualify for all three Players Series events later this season.
33-year-old Jones is the third-youngest player from the UK currently ranked inside the world’s top 32. Only 30-year-old Joe O’Connor (world number 31) and 32-year-old Elliot Slessor (world number 23) are younger.
You probably don’t need to be told about the growing shift towards China when it comes to the premier levels of the sport. The last two World Champions have come from China, and the world number ones on both the professional and women’s tours are currently from there too.
At the time of writing, 11 of the world’s top 16 ranked players are from the UK, although seven of those are aged 40 or above, and the youngest is 34-year-old Chris Wakelin.
In comparison, there are 11 Chinese players currently rated inside the top 35, and eight of those are in their twenties, with the other three in the thirties.
“It’s an expensive sport” Jones says UK families can’t afford costs to play snooker
The question is, why are there so few young players from the United Kingdom featuring further up the ranking list these days? Speaking exclusively to Totally Snookered during the recent British Open, former top 16 star David Gilbert - who owns two cuesports venues in the Midlands - says that snooker is ‘too hard’ and kids mainly prefer to play pool.
Also talking to us at The Centuar last week - in the middle of his title-winning run - Jones suggested that one of the reasons why fewer British youngsters were coming through could be down to prohibitive costs.
"I know it's an expensive sport” said Jones. "I mean, it's basically £10 an hour to play in a club, so a lot of families won't be able to afford that for their kids to play four or five hours a day.
"Even as a professional it's quite expensive to get the right set-up and everything done properly."
Snooker is “one of the hardest sports to get into” says Jones
The former Crucible runner-up pointed to how other sports were cheaper to get involved with, and mentioned current young Welsh prospects who may struggle to progress with the incurred costs.
But with snooker not being in the Olympics, it receives very little external financial support in the UK, and the onus to introduce such affordability schemes may fall on organisations within the sport.
"I think it's one of the hardest sports to get into" said Jones, who went on to pocket £100,000 for his British Open glory.
"I don't know what the answer is to that, because obviously the clubs try to make money.
"Maybe some academies set up by World Snooker, or something like that. That would be a massive help. They need to invest a lot of money into that as well, into the grassroots and stuff.
"It is definitely one of the most expensive (sports) to get into."