The eagerly-awaited 2024 World Snooker Championship gets underway on Saturday, April 20, kicking off 16 days of world-class billiards at the famed Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, UK. It's both the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in the entire sport, and coming into this year's edition, Belgium's Luca Brecel is the defending champion.
Having been first held all the way back in 1927, and for the last 48 years in a row at Sheffield's Crucible, this event shapes as the jewel in the crown of global snooker, and a multi-million pound prize pot suggests as much with the 32 qualifiers all hoping to collect the biggest accolade of their careers.
The 2023 tournament saw ninth seed Brecel beat several of the sport's more favoured contenders on his way to becoming world champion, most notably dumping current world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan out with a 13-10 win in the quarterfinals and defeating second seed Mark Selby 18-15 in the decider.
STREAM: World Snooker Championship 2024 on Discovery+ in the UK
Coming into the 2024 edition, Brecel is the automatic number one seed despite currently below O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and Mark Selby in the world rankings. Brecel will begin his title defence against 31st seed David Gilbert, while O'Sullivan will look to avoid an upset against Welsh qualifier Jackson Page.
We can't wait for this tournament of tournaments to begin, and ahead of all the action getting underway, The Sporting News has all your scheduling, TV and streaming details covered.
MORE: Who has won the most World Snooker Championship titles?
2024 World Snooker Championship TV channel, live stream
The World Snooker Championship is also the jewel in the crown for broadcasters as the sport's most presitigous and must-see event, and as such the BBC are providing plenty of coverage in 2024. They will be showing matches across multiple channels (One, Two, Four and the Red Button), as well as on BBC iPlayer.
Eurosport subscribers can also watch the action live and on catch-up, either on TV or streaming via Discovery+. Across the pond, US and Canada-based fans can watch the action on World Snooker Tour's own online channel via a matchroom.live subscription.
| TV channel | Live Stream | |
| UK | BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC Red Button, Eurosport | BBC iPlayer, Discovery+, matchroom.live |
| Canada | — | matchroom.live |
| US | — | matchroom.live |
If the World Snooker Championship is not available to watch live in your location or if you’re traveling abroad, you can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPNs offer a secure and private online connection, allowing you to bypass geographical restrictions to access your favourite streaming services from any device anywhere in the world.
WATCH FROM ANYWHERE: Sign up for NordVPN (30-day moneyback guarantee)
When is the 2024 World Snooker Championship?
The tournament gets underway from 10:00 a.m. local time (BST) on Saturday, April 20 2024, with Brecel opening his title defence against David Gilbert and Zhang Anda taking on Jak Jones. If there are three sets of matches in a day, they will typically begin at 10:00 a.m, 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
In the next 16 days, the field will shorten from the last 32 with the early rounds taking place over a few days at a time. We cross into May during the quarterfinals as the best separate themselves from the rest, leading into the final at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 5.
*The table below lists the start of play on each individual day despite some rounds overlapping
| Date | Round | UK (BST) | US (ET) | Canada (ET) |
| Saturday, April 20 | Round 1 (Last 32) | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Sunday, April 21 | Round 1 | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Monday, April 22 | Round 1 | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Tuesday, April 23 | Round 1 | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Wednesday, April 24 | Round 1 | 2:30 p.m. | 9:30 a.m. | 9:30 a.m. |
| Thursday, April 25 | Round 2 (Last 16) | 1:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. | 8:00 a.m. |
| Friday, April 26 | Round 2 | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Saturday, April 27 | Round 2 | 2:30 p.m. | 9:30 a.m. | 9:30 a.m. |
| Sunday, April 28 | Round 2 | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Tuesday, April 30 | Quarterfinals (Last 8) | 10:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. | 5:00 a.m. |
| Thursday, May 2 | Semifinal (Last 4) | 1:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. | 8:00 a.m. |
| Sunday, May 5 | Final | 1:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. | 8:00 a.m. |
2024 World Snooker Championship prize money
The prize fund for this year's World Championship stands at a massive £2,395,000, with the winner of the tournament set to pocket £500,000 of that total. Players who take part in the earlier qualifying rounds but don't make the final 32 will still receive a handy sum, with those knocked out in the first round of qualifiers winning £5,000 alone, and that figure increases by £5,000 with each stage, with qualification for the first round guaranteeing an automatic £20,000 in prize money.
Whichever player records the highest break throughout the tournament will also receive £15,000 on top of their prize fund regardless of which stage it comes at, with the runner-up winning £200,000, just under half the winner's total, and that value halves further for the eliminated semifinalists and quarterfinalists.
- Winner: £500,000
- Runner-up: £200,000
- Semifinal: £100,000
- Quarterfinal: £50,000
- Last 16: £30,000
- Last 32: £20,000
- Highest break: £15,000
- Maximum break (main tournament): £40,000
If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Learn more >