2014 snooker World Champion to pocket £300,000 as Hearn boosts prize money

By WAYNE GARDINER, PRESS ASSOCIATION

Published: 13:10 EDT, 8 April 2013 | Updated: 13:22 EDT, 8 April 2013

Next year’s world snooker champion will receive the highest-ever winner's prize of £300,000, the game’s governing body confirmed today.

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn wrote to all Tour players to confirm the structure of the 2013-14 season, informing them of the schedule and prize monies involved.

In the letter, published on www.worldsnooker.com, Hearn said that prize money across the season would rise from £6.4million to at least £8million, while in nine of the 12 ranking events, all players would take part in the first round.

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Hearn has long mooted the removal of the seeding system and the top 128 professional players on the Tour will now be entered into the first round of seven tournaments, with the UK Championship in York and the Welsh Open in Newport seeing all games played at the venue.

The World Championship will remain seeded for the top 16 - members of which will be invited to the Masters - but Hearn said in his letter that 'it is simply wrong to allow for one player seeded above another to receive guaranteed income at the levels now on offer just for showing up.'

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Hearn, who has been running the sport since 2010, also added he expected every player to support the Australian Open, in what was perhaps a warning to current world champion Ronnie O`Sullivan.

The game’s most famous player has previously had trouble handling the worldwide schedule and will make his return from a year out when he defends his crown in Sheffield next month.

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