Snooker Rankings: How They Work

A Guide to the Rankings System in Snooker

The start of the 2010/11 season saw a major change to the way that the rankings in professional snooker are calculated, introducing a rolling-ranking system whereby the official ranking list is now updated after each event.

To confuse things however, whilst the rankings are updated after each event, the seedings for future events are not, instead being updated THREE times during the season, in addition to the post-World Championship shake-up at the end of the season.

These revisions during 2011/12 will take place on the following dates:

• Following the PTC6 event on the 3rd October 2011.
• Following the PTC12 event on the 9th January 2012.
• Following the Welsh Open on the 20th February 2012.
• Following the World Championship.

In effect therefore, there are now at any one time, three separate lists of relevance for fans and players alike:

1. The Current Seeding List – This list determines the seedings for the start of the season, eg for the Australian Open and Shanghai Masters in 2011/12.
2. The Official Ranking List – This list is the official rankings, what you see is what you get. In reality however until the seedings are revised, this does not determine anything more than who sits where in the arena and has no effect on who has to qualify and so on.
3. The Projected Seedings List – This for me is the interesting one, in effect the provisional rankings up until the next seeding revision. Unlike the official list, this list already removes any points that will not be used at the next cut-off point, so as to show the true picture. For example at the start of the season, this list shows how the rankings will be adjusted at the first mid-season cut-off point, having already removed the points from the start of the season two years previously.

As a result, rather than having one table to cover the season, I have will a table leading up to each individual revision, beginning with the the first in October.

To reinforce the ‘rolling rankings’ system, this means that as points for the current season are added to the player’s totals, points from two years previously will be replaced.

To demonstrate just who has the most to lose at each cut-off point I will also be presenting ‘points to defend’ tables, an example of which you can see here.

There is also a separate Order of Merit for the Players Tour Championship. The Top 24 in this list who have played three events in England as well as three overseas are eligible for the PTC Grand Finals tournament later in the season.

To access all of my rankings pages, please click here to return to the main rankings menu.