2025 Riyadh Season Snooker Championship – Who can pot a Golden Ball?

A professional non-ranking snooker event in Saudi Arabia carries a huge potential purse for those who are invited. This tournament created some controversy when it was introduced in 2024, as it brought with it a new golden ball that allows a 167 break. This carries with it a $1 million prize, although the feat has yet to be managed by a player in tournament play as of yet. Will this year’s event turn out to be the first incident of it? In this preview of the tournament, we shall offer you a Riyadh Season Snooker Championship – Prediction concerning who we believe will be the final outright winner of the tournament.

This tournament was first played in the 2023/2024 season, then called the World Masters of snooker. That event was won by Ronnie O’Sullivan after an entertaining final against Luca Brecel 5-2. Luca Brecel made it to the final of the second event in December last year where is was named as it is now known. He lost again however this time to Mark Allen who will defend his title this year.

Draw Set Up

Wildcard Round : 

• Ding Junhui (CHN) (9) vs Ayman Alamri (SAU)
• Shaun Murphy (ENG) (10) vs Ziyad Alqabbani (SAU)

2nd Round:

• Match 1: John Higgins (SCO) (8) vs Ding/Alamri
• Match 2: Ronnie O’Sullivan (ENG) (7) vs Murphy / Alqabbani

Quarter Finals:

• Mark Allen (NIR) (1) vs Winner Match 1
• Kyren Wilson (ENG) (4) vs Neil Robertson (AUS) (5)
• Judd Trump (ENG) (3) vs Mark Williams (WAL) (6)
• Zhao Xintong (CHN) (2) vs Winner Match 2

Who are the 2025 Riyadh Snooker Championship players to watch out for?

Here we will detail the main contenders for the upcoming tournament so we can create a Riyadh Snooker Championship – prediction. The players below are the ones we think are the crop that shall offer you the best chance of picking the winner when placing an outright tournament winner wager.

Ronnie O’Sullivan

• World Ranking: 7th
• How Qualified: Current top 10 Ranking
• Record: 2 Appearances (Best Winner 2023)

Ronnie O’Sullivan is undoubtedly the greatest snooker player to ever pick up a cue. 41 ranking events, 7 world titles and 17 maximum breaks are just a few of his accolades. He was also the first-ever winner of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in the 2023/24 season, when it was called a different name. If anyone is going to manage a golden ball break, you would think he would want to be the man to do it. He is always up for a tournament that involves a large prize fund and so he can’t be written off here.

Zhao Xintong

• World Ranking: 3rd
• How Qualified: Current top 10 Ranking
• Record: Debut Appearance

Zhao Zintong has never been ranked highly enough to play in this tournament before however, his new status as World Champion has opened many doors for him. That incredible win in April came while having been returned to amateur status the season before. He has struggled for form since the beginning of this season. He has not got past the 2nd round in an event so far, except for one. That event, however, was when he made the last 16 in the Saudi Arabian Masters in August so he should be able to play in Saudi conditions and will hope to make his first-ever Riyadh Season Snooker Championship a memorable one.

Shaun Murphy

• World Ranking: 9th
• How Qualified: Current top 10 Ranking
• Record: 2 Appearances (Best Quarter Final 2024)

Shaun Murphy is in great form thus far into the season; he’s already won the British Open and lost out in the Xi’an Grand Prix final. He plays a free-flowing attacking style but he can sometimes create some controversy off the baize. When he is in break building form, he is almost unplayable. He plays local boy 15-year-old Ziyad Al-Qabbani in the first round before a potential match against Ronnie O’Sullivan for a place in the Quarter-Finals in this season’s Riyadh Season Snooker Championship.

John Higgins

• World Ranking: 6th
• How Qualified: Current top 10 Ranking
• Record: 1 Appearance (Best Quarter Final 2023)

One of the famous class of ‘92 John Higgins, is truly a legend of the game. He has 4 world titles from 8 world championship final appearances. He has only one previous appearance in this tournament a quarter-final in the first edition of the Riyadh Snooker Championship. He has shown no sign of letting up in his old age and is still performing well in tournaments regularly. This season he has made two quarter-finals and a semi-final at the British Open. He will be one to watch in this event and faces his first match against either Ding Junhui or the Saudi Arabian wildcard entry Ayman Alamri.

Ziyad Alqabbani

• World Ranking: Amateur
• How Qualified: Wildcard
• Record: Debut Appearance

15 year old Ziyad Alqabbani was fortunate to gain a wildcard entry to the 2025 Riyadh Snooker Championship. He has appeared twice in the Saudi Arabian Masters this year and last but lost 4-2 and 4-0 respectively in the first round of both. He is seen as Saudi Arabia’s brightest prospect and lists both John Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan as his snooker heroes. He could yet play them both in this competition; to do so however, he will need to beat Shaun Murphy in his opening match. He will play O’Sullivan if he does. Not that bad for a boy who is still at school!

Where to watch the 2025 Riyadh Snooker Championship

You can watch the 2025 Riyadh Snooker Championship via TNT Sports or stream live discovery+ in the UK. You can use International broadcast partners or the World Snooker Tour platform elsewhere and online. It is also available on DAZN and webook.com.

Prediction for the 2025 Riyadh Snooker Championship

When making this Riyadh Season Snooker Championship – Prediction  It is worth mentioning that humidity in Saudi Arabia can affect playing conditions somewhat, making it tougher for attacking players. The humidity causes slower cloth speed and we can see some slower frames. This will suit players who can win frames where balls go awkwardly. This means the players I’m looking at are Mark Allen, John Higgins and Kyren Wilson to challenge for this title. From those, I fancy that Kyren Wilson may well stand out, he starts in the quarter finals as well, meaning he only has three matches to win to claim the title.