On 29 April 2015, Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker announced that from the 2016–17 snooker season on, a "Home Nations Series" would be added to the season's calendar. The Home Nations Series includes the tournaments of the four individual countries of the home of snooker: the English Open, the Northern Ireland Open, the Scottish Open and the Welsh Open. There was a special bonus of £1 million on offer to the player who would win all four tournaments in the same season, but in 2020 it has been dropped in light of the then ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[2] So far, the highest number of tournaments won in the same season is two, with Mark Selby winning the English and the Scottish Open in the 2019–20 season, Gary Wilson winning the Scottish and the Welsh Open in the 2023–24 season, and Judd Trump winning the English and the Northern Ireland Open in the 2020–21 and the 2023–24 seasons.
The Home Nations Series awards two wildcards to amateur players.[3] The four national governing bodies select the wildcard players according to criteria that they have previously agreed with the WPBSA. The first round of the Home Nations was changed for the 2021-22 season, whereby the first round is now a qualification round for all players not in the top 16. However, the top 16 would play their qualification round at the venue instead of elsewhere.[4]
Events and trophies
The trophies of the individual tournaments are named after well-known snooker players of the respective countries:
All tournaments within the series are ranking tournaments of the World Snooker Tour and are played with 128 players. After first nominating all professional players, the wildcard players will be nominated and finally top‑up players from the Q School order of merit. Up to and including the last 16, the matches are played as best‑of‑seven frames, in the quarter‑finals as best‑of‑nine, semi‑finals as best‑of‑eleven frames, and in the final best‑of‑seventeen.
From inception, and until the 2024–25 season, the tournaments were generally played as a flat‑draw format. In the 2021–22 season, the last 128 round was modified slightly by being turned into a mini‑qualifying round, where players outside of the top 16 have to win a match in order to play at the final venue. The top 16 still play in the qualifying round, but their matches are held over to be played at the final venue instead.
Starting from the 2024–25 season, all tournaments in the series were changed to adopt a tiered system, bringing them more into line with other events that have moved towards protecting higher ranked professionals. The new format means that the Top 32 players on the world rankings at the designated cut‑off point are automatically sent through to the Last 64 round and will not play a qualifying round. Everyone below the Top 32 will play in a two‑round qualifying format: the first round will see those professionals seeded 65–96 playing in a match against those professionals seeded 97–128. The winners of that first round will play in a second round, where they will be facing professionals seeded 33–64, with the qualifying winners being placed randomly against the Top 32. The justification for the change in format was described by the World Snooker Tour as "giving the lower ranked players the opportunity to earn prize money through the earlier rounds and beyond, while ensuring that television audiences and ticket‑holders can see the leading players at the final venue."[9]
