UK Championship Snooker 2026: Dates, Tickets & How to Watch
Published · Mark O'Sullivan
The 2026 UK Championship is at the York Barbican and finishes on Sunday 6 December 2026. It is live on the BBC and on TNT Sports (streaming on HBO Max), and the winner takes £312,500 from a prize fund of just over £1.5 million. Mark Selby is the defending champion.
The UK Championship is one of snooker's three Triple Crown events, with the Masters and the World Championship, and it has been played every year since 1977. Below: the 2026 dates and venue, tickets, how to watch in the UK, how the event works and who has won it recently.
Dates and venue
The main event is at the York Barbican in York. World Snooker Tour's own pages give two start dates: the ticket page says 27 November, while the tournament page and the season calendar say 28 November. All of them agree that the final is on 6 December 2026, so check the session list on the ticket page before you book.
Qualifying comes first, from 21 to 26 November at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.
Tickets
Single sessions are sold through the York Barbican's ticketing partner, linked from WST's UK Championship ticket page. WST also sells "1875 Club" hospitality in the front two rows. Box office questions go to the York Barbican or to WST at ticketing@wst.tv.
How to watch in the UK
- BBC: live on BBC TV, iPlayer and the BBC Sport website. The BBC's deal for the UK Championship, the Masters and the World Championship runs until 2032.
- TNT Sports, streaming on HBO Max. TNT Sports moved its streaming from discovery+ to HBO Max in the UK in March 2026, so older guides that say discovery+ are out of date. Every frame of the UK Championship is shown live.
Format
The top 16 in the world rankings go straight to York, seeded into the last 32. The other 128 entrants, the rest of the professional tour plus leading amateurs, play four qualifying rounds in Leicester, and 16 of them go through. In 2025 every match up to the semi-finals was best of 11 frames, and the final was best of 19 over two sessions.
Prize money 2026
| Round | Prize |
|---|---|
| Winner | £312,500 |
| Runner-up | £125,000 |
| Semi-finalists | £62,500 |
| Quarter-finalists | £31,250 |
| Last 16 | £18,750 |
| Last 32 | £12,500 |
| Highest break | £15,000 |
The total is £1,502,500 including the high break (WST's headline figure is £1.5 million), up from £1,205,000 in 2025, when the winner received £250,000.
Recent winners
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Final |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Mark Selby | Judd Trump | 10–8 |
| 2024 | Judd Trump | Barry Hawkins | 10–8 |
| 2023 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | Ding Junhui | 10–7 |
| 2022 | Mark Allen | Ding Junhui | 10–7 |
| 2021 | Zhao Xintong | Luca Brecel | 10–5 |
Selby's 2025 win was his third UK title, after 2012 and 2016, and his tenth Triple Crown title. That took him past John Higgins, on nine; only Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan have won more. O'Sullivan holds the record for UK titles with eight, the latest in 2023.
Watching the pros up close often sends club players back to their own game: our snooker tips for beginners collects the technique guides in one place.
Sources
Checked on 30 October 2026. Dates and broadcasters can change; the official pages below have the final word.
- UK Championship tournament page and roll of honour (WST)
- UK Championship 2026 tickets (WST)
- Prize money increased for 2026/27 (WST)
- Selby captures UK crown in York (WST, 2025 final)
- O'Sullivan wins eighth UK title (BBC Sport, 2023)
- BBC Sport and WST extend their agreement to 2032 (WST)
- TNT Sports: snooker rights renewed to 2030/31 (Warner Bros. Discovery)
- TNT Sports moves from discovery+ to HBO Max (Broadcast)
- WST 2026/27 provisional calendar