The venue stages of the 2024 Northern Ireland Open draw commence on Sunday at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
World number one Judd Trump returns as the defending champion with Ronnie O’Sullivan, Kyren Wilson, and Mark Allen also expected to feature.
It’s the seventh ranking event of the 2024/25 snooker season and the second on the Home Nations series of tournaments.
There was already a preliminary phase staged a month ago in Sheffield to whittle down the lower-ranked contenders, but the top 32 seeds all enter the fray from Sunday.
The final takes place on October 27th when the winner will be crowned with the Alex Higgins Trophy.
2024 Northern Ireland Open prize money
Champion: £100,000
Runner-up: £45,000
Semi-Final: £21,000
Quarter-Final: £13,200
Last 16: £9,000
Last 32: £5,400
Last 64: £3,600
Last 96: £1,000
Highest Break: £5,000
TOTAL: £550,400
Who are the former champions?
Three out of the four previous winners of the event are in the 2024 Northern Ireland Open draw.
Mark King was the inaugural champion back in 2016, but the Englishman hasn’t competed on the World Snooker Tour since being suspended more than a year ago.
Mark Williams subsequently emerged with the title in 2017 before a three-year stretch of 9-7 wins for Judd Trump over Ronnie O’Sullivan in finals.
Beyond that, Mark Allen delighted his home crowd by twice winning the tournament before Trump won for a record fourth time a year ago.
An anomaly of the event’s history is that only left-handed players have ever lifted the trophy aloft at the end of the week’s action.
Who are the favourites in the 2024 Northern Ireland Open draw?
Judd Trump is considered the betting favourite with a lot of online bookies offering odds of about 3/1 on the reigning champion’s chances of a repeat glory.
Trump has already won two titles this season, including the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, and he has been a constant presence at the business end of events in general.
The 35 year-old will begin his defence against Ishpreet Singh Chadha, who reached the semi-finals of the last Home Nations event in Brentwood.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, who skipped last week’s Wuhan Open in China, is set to face Long Zehuang in the round of 64 and is priced at 5/1.
Mark Selby (6/1), Neil Robertson (8/1), and Kyren Wilson (8/1) are the next players who are fancied by the bookies to challenge.
Home hero Mark Allen has odds of around 10/1 with the Antrim man, who also withdrew from Wuhan due to personal reasons, first up against Liu Hongyu.
Surprise Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong is priced at 33/1 to complete an unlikely back-to-back ranking event double.
2024 Northern Ireland Open draw
Round of 64 (bo7)
Judd Trump vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Lyu Haotian vs Matthew Selt
John Higgins vs Fan Zhengyi
Barry Hawkins vs Matthew Stevens
Stuart Bingham vs Scott Donaldson
Gary Wilson vs Mark Davis
Zhou Yuelong vs Dominic Dale
Shaun Murphy vs Jiang Jun
Mark Selby vs Louis Heathcote
Xiao Guodong vs Jimmy Robertson
Si Jiahui vs Tian Pengfei
Robert Milkins vs Jordan Brown
David Gilbert vs Lei Peifan
Tom Ford vs Rory Thor
Joe O’Connor vs Elliot Slessor
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Long Zehuang
Mark Allen vs Liu Hongyu
Wu Yize vs R. Walden/O. Lines/J. Cooper
Neil Robertson vs Graeme Dott
Jack Lisowski vs Wang Yuchen
Hossein Vafaei vs Jimmy White
Zhang Anda vs Martin O’Donnell
Pang Junxu vs Yuan Sijun
Luca Brecel vs He Guoqiang
Mark Williams vs Jamie Clarke
Noppon Saengkham vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ali Carter vs Ma Hailong
Chris Wakelin vs Revesz Bulcsu
Ryan Day vs Stan Moody
Jak Jones vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Stephen Maguire vs Anthony McGill
Kyren Wilson vs David Grace
Click here to view the full Northern Ireland Open draw
(snooker.org)
How can I watch the tournament?
There are several options available to watch the Northern Ireland Open this year, including Eurosport and discovery+ for viewers across Europe.
The full list of global broadcasters:
Europe (including UK and Ireland)
Eurosport, discovery+, and DMAX
China
Huya.com
CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel
CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin
Hong Kong
Now TV
Malaysia and Brunei
Astro
Philippines
Tap
Taiwan
Sportcast
Thailand
True Sport
All other territories
matchroom.live
Featured photo credit: WST
