Ronnie O'Sullivan: Snooker's SPOTY snub 'a complete insult' but not surprising

The five-times world champion described the sport's treatment by the programme as "a complete insult" - but says it is inevitable given what he believes is a continued cheapening of the game.

No snooker player has made the Sports Personality shortlist since it was introduced in 2010, and the last snooker player to reach the top three was Stephen Hendry who came second in 1990.

O'Sullivan, who reached the last 16 of the UK Championship with a 6-1 thrashing of Michael Georgiou, said: "Snooker is becoming a nothing-type sport - it's kind of like a car boot sale but with the other sports it's like shopping at Harrods.

"They're putting so much of it out there it's cheap TV. I think snooker has lost that respect amongst other sports out there - the Olympics is such a massive thing now as are sports like golf and tennis.

"You look at Formula One and see beautiful-looking people and you look at snooker and think, 'God' - you look at some of the qualifiers and it costs a fiver to get into Barnsley.

"It's all about media and money and business and snooker is nothing compared to Formula One and tennis and the Olympics. They've got corporate people involved and they have a massive say in who is big and who is not big."

Steve Davis is the only snooker player to win the award in 1988 and O'Sullivan, who was overlooked after winning his fifth world title in 2013 after returning from a year out, says attitudes in both the sport and the corporation will have change for that run to end.

"Maybe if it went to China and you found some billionaires out there who would put the sport on and have million pound prize money you could start looking at snooker as a core sport again," added O'Sullivan.

"[But] you're competing with Formula One, tennis, golf and the Olympics. They give it like 10 seconds on BBC Sports Personality - it's a complete insult to the sport but it's what they think of it and what they believe it warrants, and that says it all really."

The shortlist was drawn up by a panel consisting of media representatives and sports stars including Ryan Giggs and Victoria Pendleton.

World Snooker boss Barry Hearn is likely to address O'Sullivan's comments on Tuesday.