MATCHROOM SPORT can announce the star-packed line up for the 2010 Partycasino.com Premier League Snooker which commences its season at the Southampton Guildhall on Thursday 2nd September.
Featuring seven players in total, everyone is a winner of a major event in the 2009/10 season, including reigning PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker Champion Shaun Murphy, the World No.7.
Taking place on Thursday nights and live throughout on Sky Sports, Premier League Snooker visits ten towns across England, Scotland and Wales before the November play-offs at Potters Leisure Resort in Norfolk.
Shanghai Masters Champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, the World No.3 is a six-times winner of the Premier League and the Rocket will be returning to the fray in a quest to add to his tally of titles.
2010 has been a fantastic year for Australia’s Neil Robertson as he claimed his maiden World Championship in April at the Crucible and climbed to No.2 on the rankings. ‘Robbo’ will be making his third appearance in the League and will be looking to improve on two 6th placed finishes.
Mark Selby claimed his second Masters title in three years at Wembley in January and the Leicester-based World No.5 will hope to go one better than his only previous Premier League appearance when he lost to O’Sullivan in the ’08 final.
Welshman Mark Williams is slowly returning to the sort of form that won him two World Championships in the 2000’s. Now ranked No. 8 in the world, Williams claimed the China Open last season, his first ranking win for four years.
UK Champion and World No.5 Ding Junhui returns to the League following a year’s break and it will be the first time in the event’s illustrious history that two Asian players are in the line-up.
Finally, 2002 Premier League Champion Marco Fu returns having won the only direct qualifier for the Premier League – Championship League Snooker. The World No.14 from Hong Kong defeated Mark Allen 3-2 to seal his spot in snooker’s most prestigious invitational.
Now entering its record-breaking 25th season, Premier League Snooker is the world’s only major snooker tournament played to a league format. There are two games taking place per evening and both matches are over six frames, with two points for a win and a point for a 3-all draw.
Following the round robin section of play, the top four players move forward to the big money play-offs in November. The eventual Champion receives £30,000, the runner-up £15,000 and the beaten semi-finalists £5,000 each.
There will be a bonus fund of £1,000 per frame won during the round-robin section, making a total of £126,000 available. In addition, there will be a ‘Double Your Money’ bonus for century breaks made throughout the round robin play which means that any frames won with a 100-plus break will result in a £2,000 payout.
Please note: The promoter may find it necessary to change the line-up and retains the right to do so
Notes: Matchroom Sport are one of the world’s leading producers of televised sport and are responsible for over 1,100 hours of original programming across a range of sports. Based in the UK and chaired by charismatic founder Barry Hearn, Premier League Snooker is one of a stable of cuesports events that include the Mosconi Cup and the World Pool Masters.
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