Details on the Snooker 900 Global Championship set to feature Ronnie O'Sullivan

The unique six-day competition will feature a blend of former world champions, current professional players, top amateurs, and young rising stars competing for a slice of the £100,000 prize fund on offer.

Played at the Crucible Reading - home of Pluto TV Snooker 900 - there will be an international flavour to the proceedings with contestants from mainland Europe, Asia, and North America taking part.

What are the playing rules? What is Snooker 900?

Snooker 900 is a slight twist on traditional matchplay snooker. Frames can last no longer than 15 minutes - 900 seconds, hence the brand name.

Should the frame not be completed within this time, whoever has the most points wins it. This can result in a different set of tactics being deployed by competitors, with those in front defending their lead and running the clock down, whilst those behind playing quicker and needing to be the aggressor.

As well as this frame-clock, there is also a shot-clock, with cueists permitted a maximum of 20 seconds to strike the cueball.

On top of this, there are a few rule adaptions; players must either contact a cushion or pot a ball on every shot, otherwise this results in a foul. All fouls in the Snooker 900 format result in ‘cueball-in-hand’ for the oncoming player, meaning they can place the white ball anywhere they like for the opening shot of their visit.

Should players be tied on points when the frame-clock expires, a blue-ball tiebreaker determines the winner of the frame.

Who is playing in the Snooker 900 Global Championship and what is the draw format?

There is a field of 20 players for these final stages of the inaugural Snooker 900 Global Championship, although there is a tiered draw format meaning participants enter at different stages of the tournament.

The top four seeds don’t enter the fray until the quarter-finals (the fourth round), these are Shaun Murphy, Luca Brecel, Kyren Wilson, and Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan - who has endorsed the Pluto Snooker 900 project since its inception last autumn - will be back on the baize just days after winning the 2026 World Seniors Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre on his debut at that level.

Murphy is scheduled to make his first competitive appearance since coming so close to landing a second world professional championship crown earlier this month in Sheffield when he was ousted 18-17 by Wu Yize in the final.

Starting their campaigns in round three are four more very familiar names in Ken Doherty, Matthew Stevens, Jimmy White, and Stuart Bingham - all of whom were in action last week at the Crucible for the seniors extravaganza.

Four more contenders who played last week are back on the table with Dominic Dale, Anthony Hamilton, Tony Drago, and Joe Perry - the latter of whom reached the final of the recent world seniors - skipping a step and starting out in round two.

The opening round on Tuesday 12th May presents eight players representing six different countries: Pankaj Advani, Patsy Fagan, Simon Lichtenberg, Florian Nuessle, Tony Knowles, Levi Meiller, Billy Castle, and Kaylan Patel.

Youngster Patel earned his spot in this Championship having come through a junior qualifying system held at the same venue a few weeks ago.

How to watch the Snooker 900 Global Championship

The 2026 Snooker 900 Global Championship can be watched, for free, on the Pluto TV platform.

There are several ways to access this - on its television channel, via the app, and through its website. Further details can be found here.

Access to Pluto TV is available across countries worldwide such as the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Brazil.