Home Nations Series

On 29 April 2015, Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker announced that from the 2016–17 snooker season, a "Home Nations Series" will be added to the season's calendar. The Home Nations Series includes the tournaments of the four individual countries of the home of snooker, the Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open, Welsh Open and English Open. A player who wins all four tournaments in the same season receives a special bonus of £1 million. As of the 2019–20 season, Mark Selby is the only player to win multiple tournaments in a season. The Home Nations Series awards two wildcards to amateur players.[2] The four national governing bodies (NGB) select the wildcard players according to criteria that they have previously agreed with the WPBSA.

The cups of the individual tournaments are named after well-known snooker players of the respective countries:

• At the English Open: after Steve Davis, the Davis Trophy
• At the Northern Ireland Open: after Alex Higgins, the Higgins Trophy
• At the Scottish Open: after Stephen Hendry, the Hendry Trophy
• At the Welsh Open: after Ray Reardon, the Reardon Trophy

All tournaments are ranking tournaments of the World Snooker Tour and are played with 128 players. After first nominating all professional players, the wildcard players will be nominated and finally the qualifiers of the Q-School. Up to and including the knockout round the matches are played on best of 7, in the quarter-finals on best of 9, semi-finals best of 11, and in the final then best of 17.

The prize money for each tournament:

• Winner: £70,000
• Runner-up: £30,000
• Semi-finalist: £20,000
• Quarter-finalists: £10,000
• Last 16: £7,500
• Last 32: £4,000
• Last 64: £3,000
• Highest break: £5,000
• Total: £405,000