Draw revealed as Ronnie O'Sullivan and fellow snooker stars chase Saudi gold ball million dollar jackpot

The unique, 12-player invitational tournament will take place in Boulevard City within the Saudi Arabian capital between November 19-21.

It is the third edition of the competition; Ronnie O’Sullivan won the inaugural staging (then known as the World Masters of Snooker) and Mark Allen claimed the second instalment, last December. On both occasions Luca Brecel was the runner-up.

It is traditional matchplay snooker throughout the event, but with one big twist - the inclusion of a ‘gold’ ball that is worth 20 points.

This additional ball is placed touching the baulk cushion, in the centre, at the start of every frame, although players can only play for the gold ball immediately at the end of a maximum 147 break.

Should a player sink 15 reds with 15 blacks and then yellow to black, they will try to get position on the gold ball and pot it for a ‘golden maximum’ break of 167. The first player to achieve this feat would collect a $1 million prize.

The jackpot went unclaimed during the first two episodes of the event (it was $500,000 for the inaugural outing before being doubled), but with the huge amount of 147s produced on the World Snooker Tour in recent months, perhaps this is the best chance yet of witnessing a slice of snooker history.

How does the draw work for the 2025 Riyadh Season Championship?

The top nine players from the world rankings following the conclusion of the Xi’an Grand Prix in October qualified for the event. A late dash from recent British Open champion and Xi’an runner-up Shaun Murphy nudged Mark Selby out of the qualification spots.

The tenth ranked player would normally get invited, but because reigning world champion Zhao Xintong is currently 12th in the global standings, he took priority.

There is an unusual format for the Riyadh Season Championship draw that features five rounds. The first round sees seed numbers 9 and 10 face local amateur wildcards. The winners of these fixtures go into the second round where seed numbers 7 and 8 await. The winners of the second round games go into the quarter-finals where the top six seeds come into play.

As defending champion Allen is the number one seed, with Crucible king Zhao being the second seed.

The remaining seeding positions then get worked out from the world rankings with world number one Judd Trump the number three seed, world number two Kyren Wilson the number four seed, etc.

As the number seven seed, Ronnie O’Sullivan will have to play a preliminary match for the first time, entering the fray in round two.

All matches up to and including the semi-finals are the best of seven frames, with the final being best of nine.

What is the draw for the tournament?

The draw is as per the seedings. As the lowest seeded professionals, Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy are both set to feature in the opening session on day one where they will play the wildcards from Saudi Arabia.

Ding will meet 22-year-old Ayman Alamri and Murphy shares the baize with 15-year-old Ziyad Al-Qabbani.

Unless there is a huge shock, Murphy will play Ronnie O'Sullivan in round two, with the winner of that tie going on to meet world champion Zhao. Ding would come up against John Higgins with the victor there progressing to a date with reigning Riyadh champion Mark Allen.

The other quarter-final fixtures are Kyren Wilson versus Neil Robertson and Judd Trump versus Mark Williams.

Zhao and Robertson will be making their debuts in the tournament.

At the time of writing, apart from the $1,000,000 jackpot prize on offer for a 167 golden maximum, information hasn't been released on the prize fund for the event itself. O'Sullivan and Allen each scooped £250,000 for winning the first two editions, with runner-up Brecel taking £125,000* both times.

*We previously said in error that this was £100,000.