World Masters of Snooker

In December 2019, World Snooker Tour (WST) announced a 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia, including ranking tournaments that will be hosted in the country.^[2] However, no snooker tournaments were held in Saudi Arabia in the next four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] In January 2024, WST announced a new non-ranking tournament called the World Masters of Snooker, scheduled to take place from 4 to 6 March 2024 at the Boulevard Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.^[4] It is the first professional snooker tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia, amid the country's growing investment in various sports.^[5]

Colour	Value
Red	1 point
Yellow	2 points
Green	3 points
Brown	4 points
Blue	5 points
Pink	6 points
Black	7 points
Riyadh Season ball	20 points

The matches were played under regular snooker rules, but the event introduced a new gold ball worth 20 points, called the "Riyadh Season ball". The gold ball was placed on the centre of the baulk cushion, in line with the brown, blue, pink, and black balls. It could only be potted after a player had completed a maximum break of 147, to extend the break to 167. It would be a four-point foul if the gold ball was potted earlier in the frame, or hit before the object ball. The gold ball stayed on the table as long as it was possible for either player to complete a maximum break, then it was removed from the table until the next frame.^[6][7]

The 2024 event featured 12 players, including the top ten players on the snooker world rankings, with the reigning World Champion, Luca Brecel, seeded first, and the rest based on their rankings. It also featured two local wildcard players, Ali Alobaidli from Qatar and Omar Alajlani from Saudi Arabia.^[7]

The announcement of the event, hailed as a "huge breakthrough" by WST chairman, Steve Dawson, was met with criticism accusing Saudi Arabia of sportswashing.^[8] Amnesty International criticised snooker's involvement in Saudi Arabia, amid its human rights abuses. Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK's Economic Affairs director, said: "It was just a matter of time before Saudi Arabia's huge sportswashing machine sucked in snooker along with almost every other major world sport. If the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump play in Riyadh, they shouldn't hesitate to speak out about human rights." Some players have also criticised WST of overly focusing on events featuring the top players. Amateur player Steven Hallworth tweeted: "Was starting to lose sleep with worry that the top eight players might run out of events and cash soon, thank God for this."^[9]

The introduction of the 20-point gold ball was criticised by The Independent journalist Luke Baker, who called it a "ludicrous gimmick" and "the sign of a desperate sport".^[10] The Daily Telegraph chief sports writer Oliver Brown described the Saudi invention as "warping the very rules of the game for its own hubristic ends", calling it "frivolous, tasteless, wretched".^[11]