What are rules of 2023 Snooker Shoot Out? Shot clock explained, odds, draw, prize money, winners, how to watch

Updated 27/01/2023 at 18:49 GMT

The 14th edition of the Snooker Shoot Out will be staged for the first time by the Morningside Arena in Leicester. A £50,000 first prize and a place in the Champion of Champions is on the line for the winner of the season's ninth ranking event this weekend. We take a look at the rules and history of the chaotic green baize jamboree. Stream the 2023 Shoot Out live and on demand on discovery+.

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Where is the 2023 Shoot Out being held?

The 14th edition of the one-frame ranking event is being held for the first time this year at the Morningside Arena in Leicester. The action begins at 1pm GMT on Wednesday before concluding from 7pm on Saturday night.

The Shoot Out was first staged by Stoke in 1990 before moving to Blackpool (2011-2015), Reading (2016), Watford (2017-2020) and Milton Keynes (2021).

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It was a non-ranking event for the first seven years of its existence before controversially gaining ranking status in 2017 with several players, including Neil Robertson, Mark Williams and Mark Allen, deeming it unworthy of such standing due to its limited narrative.

Allen and Williams are both competing in this year's tournament alongside world champions Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty and Stuart Bingham. Jimmy White, Jack Lisowski, Kyren Wilson and Barry Hawkins are also chasing the £50,000 first prize this week.

Shoot Out – Key Rules of Engagement

Each frame lasts a maximum of 10 minutes
Shot clock stops players wasting time
First five minutes of frame = 15 seconds per shot
Second five minutes of frame = 10 seconds per shot
Five-point penalty (or value of pink or black if attempted) for failing to play shot within allocated time
Players must hit cushion with any ball or pot a ball with every shot
All fouls give opponent ball in hand
Similar to pool, players lag for break-off with white played from the baulk line off the top cushion
Nearest to the baulk cushion wins the lag
Blue ball shoot-out settles tied matches with players aiming to pot blue off its spot from within the D to a top pocket
Flukes do not count on final blue

What is the Snooker Shoot Out ?

All the matches at the Shoot Out are played over one frame lasting a maximum of only 10 minutes and under the demanding constraints of a shot clock which encourages a rapid thought process and superior time management skills. It is similar to snooker's version of a Super Over in T20 cricket compared to the Test matches of the elongated World Championship at the Crucible.

The televised origins of the Shoot Out perhaps lie in the old Pot Black programme on the BBC, staged in various forms from 1969 until 2007, which used to invite the sport's leading figures to play a frame of snooker with the final traditionally contested over the best of three frames in the late 1970s and 1980s.

With the demise of Pot Black, last lifted by the 1997 world champion Ken Doherty 16 years ago, there was room for a rapid replacement with the Shoot Out first being held in 1990 and won by Welshman Darren Morgan 2-1 against 1991 Masters finalist Mike Hallett without ever gaining sufficient traction at the time to progress its popularity.

An invention called Power Snooker was held in 2010 at the O2 in London amid much fanfare, walk-on girls and won by Ronnie O'Sullivan, with Martin Gould successful in Manchester a year later, but it was deemed too complicated, lacked wider appeal and disappeared into obscurity after the Shoot Out was revived in 2011.

Upon its return to the spotlight as a non-ranking tournament, the world's top 64 competed for a £32,000 top prize that saw 1995 world finalist Nigel Bond defeat the Gibraltar Open champion Robert Milkins 62-23 in the final.

Despite encouraging all-out attacking play on slick tables, there is space and time for tactical prowess amid the mayhem. Using your time wisely does not always involve potting balls if you can establish a worthwhile lead and can keep the balls relatively safe late in a frame.

Frames can finish well before the allocated 10 minutes if a player makes a substantial winning break or the situation for one player is hopeless. Like in a standard frame of snooker, concessions are commonplace.

Snooker Shoot Out crowd serenades Mitchell Mann with Rocket Man song

Unlike in standard snooker, the Shoot Out encourages fans to make a lot of noise. It is usually contested in a raucous atmosphere similar to darts with spectators enjoying refreshments and interacting with competitors during matches.

It is not to every player's liking with world champions Robertson, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and John Higgins missing this week.

Between 2011 and 2015, the event was hosted by the Circus Arena in Blackpool before moving to the Hexagon in Reading, the former home of the old Grand Prix, in 2016. The switch to the Colosseum in Watford a year later coincided with the contentious decision to award the Shoot Out ranking event status with the winner also earning a place in the Champion of Champions.

Despite several objections to ranking points due its random nature (no player has won it twice over the past 13 editions), 90 out of 125 World Snooker Tour professionals voted to keep the ranking status of the Shoot Out with 35 voting against the proposal weeks after Scotland's Anthony McGill claimed the trophy in 2017.

Hossein Vafaei is the defending champion this year after his win over Williams in last year's final. No player has successfully defended the trophy due to the element of good fortune involved in continually winning snooker sprints.

The first two rounds will be contested over Wednesday and Thursday with the last 64 on Friday and the conclusion of the last 32 building towards the final on Saturday.