What are the rules of the 2023 Snooker Shoot Out? Shot clock explained, odds, draw, prize money, winners, how to watch

Where is the 2023 Shoot Out being held?

The 14th edition of the one-frame ranking event is being held for the first time this year at the Morningside Arena in Leicester. The action begins at 1pm GMT on Wednesday before concluding from 7pm on Saturday night.

The Shoot Out was first staged by Stoke in 1990 before moving to Blackpool (2011-2015), Reading (2016), Watford (2017-2020) and Milton Keynes (2021).

Allen and Williams are both competing in this year’s tournament alongside world champions Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty and Stuart Bingham. Jimmy White, Jack Lisowski, Kyren Wilson and Barry Hawkins are also chasing the £50,000 first prize this week.

Shoot Out – Key Rules of Engagement

• Each frame lasts a maximum of 10 minutes
• Shot clock stops players wasting time
• First five minutes of frame = 15 seconds per shot
• Second five minutes of frame = 10 seconds per shot
• Five-point penalty (or value of pink or black if attempted) for failing to play shot within allocated time
• Players must hit cushion with any ball or pot a ball with every shot
• All fouls give opponent ball in hand
• Similar to pool, players lag for break-off with white played from the baulk line off the top cushion
• Nearest to the baulk cushion wins the lag
• Blue ball shoot-out settles tied matches with players aiming to pot blue off its spot from within the D to a top pocket
• Flukes do not count on final blue

What is the Snooker Shoot Out ?

All the matches at the Shoot Out are played over one frame lasting a maximum of only 10 minutes and under the demanding constraints of a shot clock which encourages a rapid thought process and superior time management skills. It is similar to snooker’s version of a Super Over in T20 cricket compared to the Test matches of the elongated World Championship at the Crucible.

The televised origins of the Shoot Out perhaps lie in the old Pot Black programme on the BBC, staged in various forms from 1969 until 2007, which used to invite the sport’s leading figures to play a frame of snooker with the final traditionally contested over the best of three frames in the late 1970s and 1980s.

With the demise of Pot Black, last lifted by the 1997 world champion Ken Doherty 16 years ago, there was room for a rapid replacement with the Shoot Out first being held in 1990 and won by Welshman Darren Morgan 2-1 against 1991 Masters finalist Mike Hallett without ever gaining sufficient traction at the time to progress its popularity.

An invention called Power Snooker was held in 2010 at the O2 in London amid much fanfare, walk-on girls and won by Ronnie O’Sullivan, with Martin Gould successful in Manchester a year later, but it was deemed too complicated, lacked wider appeal and disappeared into obscurity after the Shoot Out was revived in 2011.

Upon its return to the spotlight as a non-ranking tournament, the world’s top 64 competed for a £32,000 top prize that saw 1995 world finalist Nigel Bond defeat the Gibraltar Open champion Robert Milkins 62-23 in the final.

Despite encouraging all-out attacking play on slick tables, there is space and time for tactical prowess amid the mayhem. Using your time wisely does not always involve potting balls if you can establish a worthwhile lead and can keep the balls relatively safe late in a frame.

Frames can finish well before the allocated 10 minutes if a player makes a substantial winning break or the situation for one player is hopeless. Like in a standard frame of snooker, concessions are commonplace.

Unlike in standard snooker, the Shoot Out encourages fans to make a lot of noise. It is usually contested in a raucous atmosphere similar to darts with spectators enjoying refreshments and interacting with competitors during matches.

It is not to every player’s liking with world champions Robertson, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and John Higgins missing this week.

Between 2011 and 2015, the event was hosted by the Circus Arena in Blackpool before moving to the Hexagon in Reading, the former home of the old Grand Prix, in 2016. The switch to the Colosseum in Watford a year later coincided with the contentious decision to award the Shoot Out ranking event status with the winner also earning a place in the Champion of Champions.

Despite several objections to ranking points due its random nature (no player has won it twice over the past 13 editions), 90 out of 125 World Snooker Tour professionals voted to keep the ranking status of the Shoot Out with 35 voting against the proposal weeks after Scotland’s Anthony McGill claimed the trophy in 2017.

The first two rounds will be contested over Wednesday and Thursday with the last 64 on Friday and the conclusion of the last 32 building towards the final on Saturday.

Where to watch

The 2023 Snooker Shoot Out is LIVE on Eurosport in the UK and you can stream all four-days on demand and ad-free on discovery+

Shoot Out champions

• 1990 Darren Morgan (Wal) 2-1 Mike Hallett (Eng)
• 2011 Nigel Bond (Eng) 1-0 Robert Milkins (Eng) (62-23)
• 2012 Barry Hawkins (Eng) 1-0 Graeme Dott (Sco) (61–23)
• 2013 Martin Gould (Eng) 1-0 Mark Allen (NI) (104–0)
• 2014 Dominic Dale (Wal) 1-0 Stuart Bingham (Eng) (77–19)
• 2015 Michael White (Wal) 1-0 Xiao Guodong (Chn) (54–48)
• 2016 Robin Hull (Fin) 1-0 Luca Brecel (Bel) (50–36)
• 2017 Anthony McGill (Sco) 1-0 Xiao Guodong (Chn) (67–19)
• 2018 Michael Georgiou (Cyp) 1-0 Graeme Dott (Sco) (67–56)
• 2019 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Tha) 1-0 Michael Holt (Eng) (74–0)
• 2020 Michael Holt (Eng) 1-0 Zhou Yuelong (Chn) (64–1)
• 2021 Ryan Day (Wal) 1-0 Mark Selby (Eng) (67–24)
• 2022 Hossein Vafaei (Irn) 1-0 Mark Williams (Wal) (71–0)

Prize money

• Champion: £50,000
• Runner-up: £20,000
• Semi-final: £8,000
• Quarter-final: £4,000
• Last 16: £2,000
• Last 32: £1,000
• Last 64: £500
• Last 128: £250
• Highest break: £5,000

Snooker Shoot Out Odds

• Mark Williams 20/1
• Kyren Wilson 20/1
• Stuart Bingham 20/1
• Mark Selby 20/1
• Ali Carter 28/1
• Ding Junhui 28/1
• Barry Hawkins 28/1
• Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 28/1
• Jack Lisowski 28/1
• David Gilbert 28/1
• Noppon Saengkham 33/1
• Shaun Murphy 33/1
• Luca Brecel 33/1
• Zhou Yuelong 33/1
• Mark Allen 33/1

2023 Snooker Shoot Out Draw

Wednesday 25 January

• 13:00 Hossein Vafaei v Shaun Murphy
• 13:10 Vladislav Gradinari v Ng On Yee
• 13:20 Jamie O’Neill v Ryan Thomerson
• 13:30 Liam Graham v Cao Yupeng
• 13:40 Ian Martin v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
• 13:50 Luke Simmonds v Sam Craigie
• 14:00 Robbie McGuigan v Hammad Miah
• 14:10 James Cahill v Jordan Brown
• 14:20 Joe Perry v Luca Brecel
• 14:30 Lukas Kleckers v Rod Lawler
• 14:40 Joe O’Connor v Dylan Emery
• 14:50 Barry Pinches v Michael Judge
• 15:00 Anthony Hamilton v Ben Mertens
• 15:10 Andy Hicks v Rory McLeod
• 15:20 Jack Borwick v Ali Carter
• 15:30 Mark Williams v Craig Steadman
• 19:00 Jack Lisowski v Mark Allen
• 19:10 Martin Gould v Jamie Clarke
• 19:20 Alexander Ursenbacher v Aaron Hill
• 19:30 Robbie Williams v Mink Nutcharut
• 19:40 Mark Joyce v Victor Sarkis
• 19:50 Robert Milkins v Andy Lee
• 20:00 Sean O’Sullivan v Dean Young
• 20:10 Andrew Pagett v Ashley Hugill
• 20:20 Stephen Maguire v Ken Doherty
• 20:30 Jamie Jones v Jenson Kendrick
• 20:40 Ben Woollaston v Sanderson Lam
• 20:50 Muhammad Asif v Gerard Greene
• 21:00 Louis Heathcote v Oliver Lines
• 21:10 Jimmy White v Adam Duffy
• 21:20 Peng Yisong v Daniel Wells
• 21:30 Barry Hawkins v Jackson Page

Thursday 26 January

• 13:00 Riley Powell v Kyren Wilson
• 13:10 Andres Petrov v Noppon Saengkham
• 13:20 Zak Surety v Fergal O’Brien
• 13:30 Fan Zhengyi v Ding Junhui
• 13:40 Michael Georgiou v Tian Pengfei
• 13:50 Matthew Stevens v Dominic Dale
• 14:00 John J Astley v Pang Junxu
• 14:10 Peter Lines v Julien Leclercq
• 14:20 David Grace v Lyu Haotian
• 14:30 Mark King v Jak Jones
• 14:40 Lei Peifan v Michael Holt
• 14:50 Yuan SiJun v Rebecca Kenna
• 15:00 Zhang Anda v Callum Beresford
• 15:10 Duane Jones v Zhou Yuelong
• 15:20 Dechawat Poomjaeng v Si Jiahui
• 15:30 Jimmy Robertson v Ryan Day
• 19:00 Mark Davis v Mark Selby
• 19:10 Alfie Burden v Ian Burns
• 19:20 Liam Highfield v Florian Nuessle
• 19:30 Michael White v Mitchell Mann
• 19:40 David Lilley v Oliver Brown
• 19:50 Asjad Iqbal v David Gilbert
• 20:00 Stuart Bingham v Reanne Evans
• 20:10 Ricky Walden v Gary Wilson
• 20:20 Steven Hallworth v Stuart Carrington
• 20:30 Xiao Guodong v Anton Kazakov
• 20:40 Elliot Slessor v Allan Taylor
• 20:50 Farakh Ajaib v Chris Wakelin
• 21:00 Xu Si v Matthew Selt
• 21:10 Ross Muir v Wu Yize
• 21:20 Himanshu Dinesh Jain v Tom Ford
• 21:30 Mohamed Ibrahim v Haydon Pinhey

– – –