This was announced today on the WST website:
TOP PRIZE OF £500,000 AT SAUDI ARABIA SNOOKER MASTERS
The prize fund for the new Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters has been announced, including a top prize of £500,000 which matches the winner’s reward at the World Championship.
The total prize pool is bigger than any tournament other than the World Championship and reflects Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to help grow snooker in the Kingdom and across the Middle East.
The world ranking event in Riyadh also includes a possible £50,000 bonus for a 147 maximum break.
In addition, the event will count towards a potential £147,000 bonus, which will be awarded to any player who makes two maximum breaks across the counting events.
Last season the bonus was only in operation for snooker’s Triple Crown tournaments, the UK Championship, Masters and World Championship. This has now been extended across the sport’s four majors, to include maximums made in the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
The full breakdown is:
Winner: £500,000
Runner-up: £200,000
Semi-finals: £100,000
Quarter-finals: £50,000
Last 16: £30,000
Last 32: £20,000
Last 48: £11,000
Last 80: £7,000
Last 112: £4,000
Last 144: £2,000
147 Break: £50,000
Total £2,302,000The massive total fund gives the entire snooker circuit a chance to earn significant prize money and ranking points early on in the season. Australia’s 23-time ranking event winner Neil Robertson is seeking to take full advantage.
“We need to break into new territories. Saudi Arabia is investing in sport to help inspire its young population to get active and lead healthy lives and it’s great that snooker is now part of this strategy,” said 2010 World Champion Robertson.
“We are getting more tournaments, with more prize money, more ranking points and earning opportunities for all of the tour. The fact that all the players will be out in Saudi Arabia from round one is pretty exciting. I can’t think of too many tournaments where we have done that before. I’m looking forward to that and I’m sure they aren’t going to spare any expense making sure it is a great experience for everyone.”
The tournament will run from August 30th to September 7th in Green Halls, Riyadh, featuring 144 of the world’s top players. It is part of an exciting legacy commitment with the Ministry of Sport for Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Arabian Billiard & Snooker Federation, aiming to develop snooker and pool in the region over next decade.
President of the Saudi Billiard and Snooker Federation Nasser Al-Shammari said: “We’re excited to partner with Matchroom and the WST to host the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. The prize fund reflects our commitment to help grow snooker in Saudi and throughout the Middle East, inspiring our young population to take up the sport. Hosting international events is just one element of our strategy, which also includes grass roots facilities, events and promotions. We look forward not just to an exciting event, but also the long-term impact it will have.”
Whether we like it or not, such prize money means “business”. They want this event to be seen as a major, and tradition or not, with this kind of money – and ranking points – on the line for the players it will be a major. Tradition doesn’t buy you food, and doesn’t pay your bills. Money does.
I have absolutely no doubt that, if this season’s event is a success, when the “Crucible” contract comes to an end, the will come up with a massive offer, so massive that it will be impossible to match by Sheffield’s authorities, or any other country except, maybe, China and I’m not sure that China would be actually interested.
The times they are’a changin … and this has a feeling of inevitability, as I wrote above, whether we like it or not.
In other news …
It has been announced that the Xi’an Grand Prix will be free to watch for all on matchroom.live. No other broadcaster has been announced. Strange… and somewhat worrying.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I would also add that ‘tradition’ alone doesn’t guarantee the future of any sport. It’s only appreciated by existing fans, plus a small number of new fans who buy into the ‘cult’. All sports and entertainments need to continually reinvent themself to catch attention.
One key thing about the prize-money (which I’m surprised you haven’t commented on) is the £2000 to first-round losers. At the very least, half of that would fund flights, hotel and admin costs (e.g. VISA). We don’t know if the organisers are giving additional help (for example hotels, food at the venue), however there are likely to be secret appearance fees anyway for some. It’s not clear whether the £2000 counts for ‘ranking points’.
There is also an extension to the bonus for two 147’s. The tournaments are: UK Championship, Masters, World Championship and the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Last year Xu Si, Ding Junhui, Mark Allen and Noppon Saengkham scored one each in the three ‘Triple Crown’ events. That’s about the closest the Saudis can probably get to convince us about the ‘Fourth Major’ status, in addition to prize-money.
Yes, it’s up to China to respond if they have ambitions to stage a World Championship, which is within their grasp. Any World Championship would necessitate playing qualifiers (L144 round onwards) at the same location to avoid smashing the schedule. China would have a massive advantage in terms of a local fan-base, but the logistics and finances have to work.
Two wildcards for the Xi’an Grand Prix are confirmed: Zhou Jinhao beat Wang Xinbo 4-1 in a CBSA U21 tournament in Dongguan, and thus both will be there. They were also the recipients of wildcards for the Shanghai Masters, with Zhou beating Zhang Anda before losing to Ronnie. The other two wildcards are likely to be Yao Pengcheng and Lan Yuhao. Yao is a 27-year old from Sichuan, who won the recent Shijiazhuang CBSA event. Lan Yuhao will turn 16 just after the Xi’an tournament, so would be the youngest player in the event.
Indeed I didn’t comment on that. I assumed that this was a contribution to the players’ travel costs. One of the “excuses” for having all qualifiers in the UK, and actually, more often than not in England, has always been that it is “cheaper for the majority of the tour… ” and that is something that always seriously annoyed me (to say it politely) .
I was actually wrong about the final two wildcards. They will be Cao Jin (again) and Ma Shaojun, who qualified via a 6-Red event in Shanghai today.
The Xi’an Grand Prix won’t be on Eurosport and there is a chance that the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters won’t be on Eurosport too sadly 😦
If they contracted Matchroom instead of WST … 😦
Is that for certain? Earlier this year we had a tournament that wasn’t on Eurosport for the first day or two days and then it was…
I can’t confirm any romours sadly but if it’s true it’s a big big shame for us.