The first Triple Crown Event of the 2024/25 World Snooker Tour is upon us at York Barbican, as the world’s best players compete for a spot in the 48th edition of the iconic UK Championship. The ninth ranking event of the season so far, it’s a chance for 31 stars of the sport to try and dethrone reigning champion Ronnie Sullivan after his victory in the 2023 Final.
Alongside the World Championship and the Masters, this event is one of the jewels in snooker’s Triple Crown and is expected to attract fans from across the globe to one of the homes of snooker in Yorkshire, which has hosted all but six of the 24 UK Championship tournaments held so far in the 21st century.
2023’s tournament saw O’Sullivan survive serious scares against Robert Wilkins and Zhou Yuelong to reach the decider against Ding Junhui, where he won 10-7 and won his first of two Triple Crown events last season, alongside the Masters. He’s understandably the top seed coming into this year’s competition, with World Champion and second seed Kyren Wilson expected to be his closest challenger.
STREAM: Watch the 2024 UK Championship snooker on Discovery+ in the UK
As one of the most well-known tournaments in global Snooker gets underway from York Barbican, The Sporting News has all your scheduling, TV and streaming details covered for the latest installment of the prodigious UK Championship.
2024 UK Championship snooker TV channel, live stream
- TV Channel: BBC One, BBC Two, Eurosport
- Live stream: Discovery+, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website, WST.TV
As one of the three Triple Crown events – the biggest tournaments in global snooker bar none – alongside the World Championship and the Masters, this year’s UK Championship has a plethora of TV and live streaming options for British fans to follow the action.
The BBC are providing free-to-air coverage of the entire tournament via their various TV and streaming networks, with matches shown across BBC One, and BBC Two, as well as on the iPlayer and BBC Sport website. Fans with access or a subscription to Eurosport can also follow the action via their coverage.
Fans can also catch the action both live and on-demand via a Discovery+ subscription, with the streaming service having a coverage partnership with Eurosport and access to their commentary feed. The World Snooker Tour’s streaming service, wst.tv, are also providing live coverage for fans across the globe.
When is the 2024 UK Championship?
This year’s UK Championship begins with the first-afternoon session at 1:00 p.m. local time (GMT) on Saturday, November 23, 2024, as defending title holder Ronnie O’Sullivan opens the tournament against Barry Hawkins and Shaun Murphy faces Zao Xintong, with the evening session following from 7:00 p.m. GMT at York Barbican in York, United Kingdom.
The first round follows these time slots for the first four days of the event before switching to a 2:00 p.m. / 8:00 p.m. start time for the Last 16, Quarterfinals and Semifinals, as the 32-player draw is narrowed down to the final two ahead of the decider on Sunday, December 1.
The Final, played on a best-of-19 frames basis as opposed to the rest of the tournament’s best of 11, will be held over two sessions starting at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time (GMT) respectively, by the end of which the UK Championship winner will be crowned for 2024.
| Date | Round | Start Time |
| Saturday, November 23 | Round 1 (Last 32 – four matches) |
1:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Sunday, November 24 | Round 1 (Last 32 – four matches) |
1:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Monday, November 25 | Round 1 (Last 32 – four matches) |
1:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Tuesday, November 26 | Round 1 (Last 32 – four matches) |
1:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Wednesday, November 27 |
Round 2 (Last 16 – four matches) |
2:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Thursday, November 28 |
Round 2 (Last 16 – four matches) |
2:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Friday, November 29 | Quarterfinals |
2:00 p.m. (afternoon session) |
| Saturday, November 30 | Semifinal 1 Semifinal 2 |
2:00 p.m. (afternoon session) 8:00 p.m. (evening session) |
| Sunday, December 1 | Final | 1:00 p.m. (afternoon session) 7:00 p.m. (evening session) |
2024 UK Championship snooker prize money
As one of global snooker’s Triple Crown events, the prize money for the 2024 UK Championship is understandably a level above that of most ranking and non-ranking tournaments. This year’s total sits at a cool £1.205 million, with the winner on Sunday, December 1 set to pocket £250,000 of that total prize fund.
Even players who don’t qualify for the First Round proper, or the last 32, are still in line to earn a healthy fee during their qualification campaigns, with those who reached the final stage of qualifying (Round 4) between November 16–21 collecting £7,500. Whoever hits the highest break at this year’s tournament will also earn £15,000 on top of the fee achieved by the stage they reach.
- Winner – £250,000
- Runner-up – £100,000
- Semifinalists – £50,000
- Quarterfinalists – £25,000
- Last 16 – £15,000
- Last 32 – £10,000
- Last 48 (Qualifying Round 4) – £7,500
- Last 80 (Qualifying Round 3) – £5,000
- Last 112 (Qualifying Round 2) – £2,500
- Highest break – £15,000