2017–18 snooker season


The 2017–18 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 4 May 2017 and 7 May 2018. The season began with the pro–am Vienna Snooker Open in May 2017 and ended with the 2018 World Snooker Championship in April the following year. Ronnie O'Sullivan earned a joint-record five ranking titles in the season. He joined Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui, and Mark Selby in winning five ranking titles in the same season.
The China Championship became a ranking event and was brought forward to a mid-August date, ahead of the Paul Hunter Classic. The Shanghai Masters was initially withdrawn from the season calendar, but was later rescheduled for November 2017. The biennial World Cup team event was played in July 2017. Another event not held every year returning in 2017 was the 2017 IWGA World Games. The Snooker Shoot Out was brought forward to the start of February, ahead of both the World Grand Prix and Welsh Open.
A new World Seniors Tour was formed for players over 40 years of age, comprising four events, including the World Seniors Championship which has returned to Scunthorpe in 2018.
The second edition of the Home Nations Series was being held in this season with the English Open, Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open and Welsh Open tournaments. For a single winner of all four tournaments would earn a bonus of £1 million.

Players

The top 64 players from the prize money rankings after the 2017 World Championship, and the 31 players earning a two-year card the previous year automatically qualified for the season. Next, eight places were allocated to the top 8 on the One Year Ranking List who have not already qualified for the Main Tour. Another two players came from the EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs, and a further 12 places were available through the Q School. The rest of the places on to the tour came from amateur events and national governing body nominations. Hamza Akbar received a tour card as a special dispensation in place of America's nomination.
The list of all professional players in the 2017/2018 season consist of 131 players, including the standard field of the 128 players and three invitational tour cards. Beginning from this season, players with invitational tour cards are eligible to compete in any ranking event. These players are seeded after main tour professionals, but above amateur top ups taken from the Q School ranking list.

New professional players

All players listed below received a tour card for two seasons.
;International champions
  1. IBSF World Championship winner: Soheil Vahedi
  2. IBSF World Under-21 Championship winner: Xu Si
  3. EBSA European Championship winner: Chris Totten
  4. ACBS Asian Championship winner: Lyu Haotian
  5. ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship winner: Yuan Sijun
  6. ABSF African Championships winner: Basem Eltahhan
  7. Oceania Championship winner: Matthew Bolton
;One Year Ranking List
;EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs
;Q School
;Event 1
;Event 2
;Order of Merit
;CBSA China Tour

Calendar

The following tables outlines the results and dates for all the ranking and major invitational events.
WR = World ranking event
NR = Non-ranking event
TE = Team event
P/A = Pro–am event
WST = World Seniors Tour

Official rankings

Note that the "Seeding revisions" given below are just those rankings that are used for seeding tournaments. Other rankings are produced after each ranking event which are not noted here.

Seeding revision 1

Seeding revision 2

Seeding revision 3

Seeding revision 4

Seeding revision 5

Seeding revision 6

Seeding revision 7

Seeding revision 8

Seeding revision 9

Seeding revision 10

Points distribution

2017/2018 points distribution for world ranking events:
width=160 R144R128R80R64R48R32R16QFSFFW
Riga Masters—£0—£1,000—£2,000£4,000£6,000£15,000£25,000£50,000
China Championship—£0—£4,000—£7,000£12,000£18,000£32,000£75,000
Paul Hunter Classic—£0—£600—£1,000£1,725£3,000£4,500£10,000£20,000
Indian Open—£0—£2,000—£4,000£6,000£10,000£15,000£25,000£50,000
World Open—£0—£4,000—£7,000£12,000£18,000£32,000£75,000£150,000
European Masters—£0—£2,000—£4,000£6,000£11,000£17,500£35,000£75,000
English Open—£0—£2,500—£3,500£6,000£10,000£20,000£30,000£70,000
—£0—£4,000—£8,500£13,500£21,500£32,000£75,000
Shanghai Masters—£0—£4,000—£7,000£12,000£18,000£32,000£75,000
Northern Ireland Open—£0—£2,500—£3,500£6,000£10,000£20,000£30,000£70,000
UK Championship—£0—£5,000—£10,000£15,000£22,500£35,000£75,000£170,000
Scottish Open—£0—£2,500—£3,500£6,000£10,000£20,000£30,000£70,000
German Masters—£0—£2,000—£4,000£5,000£10,000£20,000£35,000£80,000
Shoot Out—£0—£500—£1,000£2,000£4,000£8,000£16,000£32,000
World Grand Prix—————£5,000£7,500£12,500£20,000£40,000£100,000
Welsh Open—£0—£2,500—£3,500£6,000£10,000£20,000£30,000£70,000
Gibraltar Open—£0—£1,000—£2,000£3,000£4,000£6,000£12,000£25,000
Players Championship——————£10,000£15,000£30,000£50,000£125,000
China Open—£0—£5,000—£11,000£18,000£27,000£45,000£90,000£225,000
World Championship£0—£9,000—£13,500£18,000£27,500£42,500£85,000£180,000£425,000

Statistics of ranking tournaments

Finalists

Champions by country