New report suggests World Grand Prix snooker to be held in Hong Kong with huge prize money boost

The first event of the three-pronged Players Series, the World Snooker Tour has yet to officially announce dates and a venue for this season's World Grand Prix, but speculation on the next location of it has been rife in recent months.

British broadcaster ITV has televised the World Grand Prix extensively every season since 2015 - and all of the Players Series events since it's creation in 2018 - however, there was no mention that the station would be showing the next staging of the ranking event in a recent contract extension statement, and this could explain why.

The Players Championship (Telford, March 17-23) and the Tour Championship (Manchester, March 31-April 6) - the final two legs of the Players Series - have been scheduled for some time, and it now looks like conformation of the final piece of the triangular jigsaw is imminent.

The World Grand Prix - which invites the top 32 ranked players from the one-year list - would need to take place before the Players Championship. And according to the South China Morning Post article, the event has been pencilled in for March 4 to 9.

This reported date poses a problem, though, as the 2025 World Open in China is scheduled to take place between March 3-9 as per the World Snooker Tour website.

The SCMP explains that WST officials were recently in Hong Kong to sure up details for the tournament. It will apparently be held at the new 10,000-seat Kai Tak Arena and would be the first ranking event hosted by the territory since the 1989 Hong Kong Open that was won by Mike Hallett.

Another big talking point is that the total prize money for the 2025 World Grand Prix could be over £700,000; this would be up over £300,000 from the 2024 edition.

Should that prize money suggestion come to fruition, it would be significantly higher than both the Players Championship and Tour Championship events offered in 2024, which are seen as more prestigious and elite, due to having smaller fields. Surely the prize money in these competitions would also have to rise in order to keep that status quo.

Depending on the success of this initial staging, it looks set that a three-year contract for the World Grand Prix to be held in Hong Kong will be signed, with the territory very keen to host a bigger field tournament compared to the eight-player Hong Kong Masters invitationals there in recent times.

When speculation first came out a few months ago about Hong Kong's World Grand Prix interest, it was suggested that local stars such as three-time ranking event winner Marco Fu could be invited to it. However, as explained in the SCMP piece, only the top 32 players from the seasonal ranking list - as has always been in the case - will qualify.

Fu could make it through this avenue, although he - and three-time World Women’s Snooker Champion Ng On Yee - may still be involved at the Kai Tak Arena for exhibition matches.

Official confirmation - at the time of writing - has yet to be published by the World Snooker Tour, but should the World Grand Prix indeed move to the Far East, it would mean that seven ranking events are to be held outside of the United Kingdom this season.