What is the Home Nations Series in snooker and who has won the most events?

World Snooker Tour
The Home Nations Series has been part of the World Snooker Tour every season since 2016/17, consisting of four ranking events open to all professional tour card holders.

Making up the quadrants of the Home Nations Series are the: English Open, Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open and Welsh Open (click on the relevant hyperlink for a potted history of that event). These events are generally spread across the season.

The Welsh Open was already an established, annual ranking tournament on the professional snooker calendar since 1992, and the Scottish Open was previously played between 1998 to 2003, but the English Open and Northern Ireland Open were brand new events created for the Home Nations Series concept.

The trophies for each Home Nations Series event are named in honour of snooker greats from those respective nations:

  • The Steve Davis Trophy (English Open)
  • The Alex Higgins Trophy (Northern Ireland Open)
  • The Stephen Hendry Trophy (Scottish Open)
  • The Ray Reardon Trophy (Welsh Open)

From the 2024/25 season, there has been a big increase in total prize money for the Home Nations Series events. Each event has the same payout structure, with a £100,000 top prize for each leg.

What is the format for the Home Nations Series events?

Home Nations Series events have always featured 128 entrants*. For the first eight seasons, all events on the Series used a flat draw, meaning all players – regardless of their world ranking – began in the opening round and had to win the same amount of matches to claim the title.

However, from the 2024/25 season, Home Nations Series events will used a tiered draw system, meaning the top 32 seeds for the competition don't enter until round three (last 64). They are joined by the 32 lower ranked players who have come through the opening two rounds which are generally played before the main televised stages.

* Occasionally there has been slightly more than 128 entries and a preliminary round was required.

Who has won the most Home Nations Series events in snooker?

From the 36 completed Home Nations Series events to date, Judd Trump is the most decorated champion with six title wins to his name, made up of two English Opens and four Northern Ireland Opens.

Five other players have won multiple Home Nations Series events: Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Mark Allen, Gary Wilson and Stuart Bingham.

No player has yet to win all four Home Nations Series events, although Robertson and Selby both require ‘only’ the Northern Ireland Open to complete the full house.

Multiple-time Home Nations Series event winners:

Judd Trump: 6 (2-4-0-0)

Mark Selby: 5 (2-0-2-1)

Neil Robertson: 4 (2-0-1-1)

Mark Allen: 3 (0-2-1-0)

Gary Wilson: 3 (0-0-2-1)

Stuart Bingham: 2 (1-0-0-1)

(English Open - Northern Ireland Open - Scottish Open - Welsh Open)

The above list does not include title victories when the Welsh and Scottish Opens were standalone events and not part of the Home Nations Series.

Home Nations Series Snooker: Other Facts

Liang Wenbo won the first Home Nations event at the 2016 English Open in Manchester.

In total, five players have won their maiden ranking event titles in the Series: Liang, Mark King (2016 Northern Ireland Open), Jordan Brown (2021 Welsh Open), Gary Wilson (2022 Scottish Open) and Lei Peifan (2024 Scottish Open)

In the 2020/21 season, Ronnie O’Sullivan reached three back-to-back Home Nations event finals but lost them all. In the following 2021/22 season, John Higgins did the same.

On four occasions, a player has won two Home Nations events within the same season: Mark Selby (2019/20), Judd Trump (2020/21) and in 2023/24 both Trump and Gary Wilson did so.

During the early editions of the Home Nations Series there was a £1,000,000 bonus for any player who won all four events within the same season. This extremely unlikely feat was never achieved.

From the 2024/25 season, there is a £150,000 bonus prize for the player who earns the most prize money across all four Home Nations Series during the season. This is called the BetVictor Bonus.

The latest new winner of a Home Nations Series event is Lei Peifan after he claimed the 2024 Scottish Open.

Home Nations Series Maximum 147 Breaks

A total of 21 maximum 147 breaks have been made in Home Nations Series events:

2016 English Open: Alfie Burden

2016 Northern Ireland Open: John Higgins

2017 English Open: Liang Wenbo

2017 Scottish Open: Cao Yupeng

2018 English Open: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Ronnie O’Sullivan

2018 Scottish Open: John Higgins

2019 Welsh Open: Neil Robertson, Noppon Saengkham

2019 English Open: Tom Ford

2019 Northern Ireland Open: Stuart Bingham

2020 Welsh Open: Kyren Wilson

2020 Northern Ireland Open: Judd Trump

2020 Scottish Open: Zhou Yuelong

2021 Scottish Open (qualifying round): Xiao Guodong

2021 Northern Ireland Open: Mark Allen

2022 Scottish Open: Judd Trump

2022 English Open: Mark Williams

2023 Welsh Open: Shaun Murphy

2024 Welsh Open: Gary Wilson

2024 English Open (qualifying): Fan Zhengyi

2025 Welsh Open (qualifying): Xu Si

John Higgins and Judd Trump have each made two maximum breaks in Home Nations Series events.

Breakdown of 147s made in Home Nations Series events:

  • English Open: 7
  • Scottish Open: 5
  • Welsh Open: 6
  • Northern Ireland: 4
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