Alfie Burden in pole position for pro tour return after maiden ranking crown at Snooker Shoot Out

A day before his 49th birthday, Burden defeated Stuart Bingham in the final on Saturday night at the Blackpool Tower Circus to claim the Shoot Out crown, his maiden ranking title over 30 years on from when he first turned professional in 1994.

Burden becomes only the second amateur player in snooker history to win a full professional ranking event, following in the footsteps of Zhao Xintong who secured the sport's ultimate prize at the Crucible Theatre earlier this year without a tour card at the time.

It has been a rollercoaster of a calendar year on the baize for Burden who was relegated from the top flight, crowned world seniors champion at the Crucible, suffered Q School disappointment, made his Champion of Champions debut, travelled Europe on the Q Tour, and is now the 81st different player to win a full ranking event.

The fairytale triumph at the Snooker Shoot Out very nearly didn't even get started as Burden wasn't in the draw just hours before the tournament began in Blackpool on Wednesday afternoon.

However, due to a very late withdrawal, Burden was in-line for an eleventh hour call-up to make his way to the north-west coast from his home in London later that day. To add more drama to the situation, Burden missed the initial phone call from the World Snooker Tour office as he was about to go swimming before seeing the missed call on his mobile, ringing it back, and accepting the invite.

Victory over fellow former world amateur champion Bingham earned Burden £50,000 which is not far off quadruple his previous highest single payday from the professional circuit. That was the £13,500 he received for reaching the final qualifying round of the 2018 World Championship.

Only last weekend Burden was in Bulgaria competing in the fifth European Q Tour event of the campaign in a bid to win back his professional tour card for next season. However, due to his Shoot Out success - despite playing as an amateur in it - Burden looks to be on the cusp of a full-time return to the World Snooker Tour in 2026.

As an amateur, Burden doesn't currently have a world ranking from the official two-year list. However, just like all amateurs playing in WST events, Burden is eligible for a one-year/seasonal ranking for prize money he earns at professional events during the 2025/26 term.

This one-year/seasonal list provides a separate avenue for four players to earn two-year professional tour cards. These tickets are awarded at the end of the season and allocated to the four players who have won the most prize money who don't finish the campaign inside the top 64 of the world rankings and don’t have a second year coming up next season on their tour card.

Last season (2024/25), Ross Muir, Jiang Jun, Louis Heathcote, and Liam Graham all preserved their top tier status via this route - the highest ranked was Muir with £46,000 to his name, while fourth-placed Graham did enough with £41,100 on his total.

After his heroics at the Tower Circus, Burden now has £56,000 on his seasonal tally - 50k coming from the Shoot Out, and 6k for reaching stage two of the Championship League during the summer.

It is extremely unlikely that Burden will be able to add to that total, though, as he probably won't be in-line for an invite to any of the remaining events on this season's professional tour.

But his current amount already looks to be enough to finish the season inside those top four spots going on last season's figures, although, of course, this can't officially be confirmed until closer to the time. On the current list, Mitchell Mann provisionally holds the fourth and final spot with £27,500.

However, should Burden indeed receive a tour card via this method he would start next season on zero points, as would the three other successive players with their totals being reset.

This is a different scenario to earlier in the year when Zhao was able to keep his ranking points because he broke into the world's top 64 during his run to the world title.