league

Premier / Matchroom League
Matchroom Championship League

Invitation Events

Brief History of the Premier League (click for Championship League)

There had been an earlier attempt to run a professional Snooker League in 1984/84 but that was beset with financial problems and only lasted one season. For the record, it was won by John Virgo but no prize money was paid.

In 1987, with sponsorship from Rothmans, Barry Hearn, set up the Matchroom League which initially involved only the eight players under contract to him. Each player would play one match against each of the others at venues all over the country. Matches were of eight frames, all of which were played out with three points being awarded for a win and one for a draw.

The following year there were ten players with invitations going to outside the Matchroom team, and the event spread into Europe for some of its matches. In 1990 there were two leagues, one played in the UK and an International League played in Europe.

Steve Davis won the first four titles but Stephen Hendry won for a record sixth time in 2004. The title went outside the British Isles for the first time in 2003 when Hong Kong’s Marco Fu won the last six frames to beat Mark Williams.

Although there have been many different sponsors and the Matchroom name has now been dropped even though it is still promoted by that organisation, the format has remained largely unchanged to the present day. The only major change was in 1992, when a play-off system was introduced whereby the top four in the league played semi-finals and a final to decide the winner. Prior to that, the winner was whoever finished top of the league.

When Betfred took over as sponsors in 2005 they introduced a 25 second time restriction on every shot in addition to offering a £1000 bonus for every century and for every frame won in the round robbing section. The league had always been played in the second half of the season with the final usually in May but for the 2005/06 season, still with Betfred sponsorship, it was moved to the first half of the season with the final in early December. In 2006, Ronnie O’Sullivan won the title for the third time in a row without conceding a frame in any of those finals. He then won it in 2007 and 2008 as well making five in a row and eight times in all.

Roll Of Honour

Season	Sponsor/Title	Winner	Runner Up	Score	1st Prize
1986/7	Rothmans / Matchroom	Steve Davis	Neal Foulds	*	£53,600
1987/8	Rothmans / Matchroom	Steve Davis	Stephen Hendry	*	£70,000
1988/9	Matchroom Snooker	Steve Davis	John Parrott	*	£70,000
1989/90	Stormseal / Matchroom	Steve Davis	Stephen Hendry	*	£70,000
1989/90	Matchroom International	Tony Meo	Jimmy White	*	n/a
1990/1	Trusthouse Forte / Matchroom	Stephen Hendry	Steve Davis	*	£50,000
1991/2	Forte Hotels / Matchroom	Stephen Hendry	Steve Davis	9-2	£50,000
1992/3	Matchroom European	Jimmy White	Alan McManus	10-7	£25,000
1993/4	Lowen European	Stephen Hendry	John Parrott	10-7	£30,000
1994/5	Doc. Marten's	Stephen Hendry	Ken Doherty	10-2	£50,000
1995/6	Doc. Marten's	Ken Doherty	Steve Davis	10-5	£50,000
1996/7	Doc. Marten's	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Stephen Hendry	10-8	£60,000
1997/8	Doc. Marten's	Ken Doherty	Jimmy White	10-2	£60,000
1998/9	Riley	John Higgins	Jimmy White	9-4	£50,000
1999/00	Altodigital.com	Stephen Hendry	Mark J. Williams	9-5	£50,000
2000/1	Sportingbet.com	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Stephen Hendry	9-7	£60,000
2001/2	Daily Star	Ronnie O'Sullivan	John Higgins	9-4	£68,000
2002/3	Hasseroder	Marco Fu	Mark J. Williams	9-5	£45.000
2003/4	Betfair	Stephen Hendry	John Higgins	9-6	£45.000
2004/5	Betfred	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Mark J. Williams	6-0	£50,000
2005/6	Betfred	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Stephen Hendry	6-0	£50,000
2006/7	Betfred	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Jimmy White	7-0	£50,000
2007/8	PartyBets.com	Ronnie O'Sullivan	John Higgins	7-4	£50,000
2008/9	PartyPoker.com	Ronnie O'Sullivan	Mark Selby	7-2	£50,000

* No Play-off. Title decided on league table only.

Maximum Breaks

Tony Meo	1988	v. Stephen Hendry
Cliff Thorburn	1989	v. Jimmy White
John Parrott	1992	v. Tony Meo
Stephen Hendry	1992	v. Willie Thorne
Stephen Hendry	1998	v. Ken Doherty

Matchroom Championship League

This event was introduced in 2008 to provide additional competition at a time when there were long periods of inactivity in the professional schedules. It was also to provide a qualifier for the lucrative Premier League later in the year.

25 professionals are involved and the first seven of these play in the first group where they each play each other over four frames over a period of two days at a single venue, Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex. There is no audience and the matches are broadcast via the internet only. After the round robin stage the top four go into a play-off with the winner advancing to the final ‘winners’ group. The bottom two in the league are eliminated and the remaining four move to the second group to be joined by three more players. This process is repeated in a total of seven groups. The winners of each then play in a final group with the overall winner taking a place in the Premier League. Prize money is paid to all those reaching the play-off stage of each group and in addition £100 is paid for each frame won which increases to £300 in the play-offs and £200 in the winners group.

Roll Of Honour

Season	Sponsor	Winner	Runner Up	Score	1st Prize
2007/8	Matchroom Sport	Joe Perry	Mark Selby	3-1	£10,000
2008/9	Matchroom Sport	Judd Trump	Mark Selby	3-2	£10,000