Snooker’s Players Championship Is Live on Channel 5 This Week

by Roy Brindley, 16 February 2026

Snooker’s 2026 Players Championship, featuring an elite in-form 16-player field, will be broadcast on Channel 5 this week.

Judd Trump, who returned to form when winning the German Masters, is now the favourite for this week’s Players Championship. © Getty Images

Key Facts:

• Channel 5 will broadcast Snooker’s 2026 Players Championship this week.
• John Higgins and Matthew Stevens are set to make their punditry debuts.
• Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, and Shaun Murphy are ranked 1, 2, and 3.
• Judd Trump and Zhao Xintong top the Players Championship betting.

Channel 5 will break new ground this week by broadcasting snooker’s 2026 Players Championship. The free-to-air public service broadcaster has experience of showing snooker via the World Seniors’ Circuit. However, this will be its first professional snooker presentation.

The 2026 Tour Championship, a highly significant tournament given its late March-early April slot directly ahead of the World Championship, will also be shown on Channel 5, which has taken over the rights to three competitions. The third is the British Open.

The terrestrial station will be professional snooker’s first ‘free-to-air’ UK partner for 20 years. Katie Shanahan will front the new presentation. Stephen Hendry, Alan McManus, Joe Perry and Steven Hallworth will act as pundits. They will be joined by two newcomers: John Higgins and Matthew Stevens.

John Higgins to Play and Pundit

Higgins’ inclusion comes despite him being a contestant in the £500,000 competition. It is noteworthy that the four-time World Champion only recently gained a place in the 16-player field following the withdrawal of Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The reigning Players Championship champion is Kyren Wilson. However, the 2024 World Champion will not be at the Telford International Centre to defend his title this week as the competition is restricted to the top 16 players on the one-year ranking list.

The £500,000 payday Australia’s Neil Robertson enjoyed when winning the Saudi Arabia Masters conspires to see him enter this event as the number one seed, as world rankings are based on prize money earned in designated ranking tournaments.

Happy Birthday, Neil Robertson OAM! 🏆

His last ranking title was a memorable one… pic.twitter.com/TTmbgG0bA3

— WST (@WeAreWST) February 11, 2026

Mark Selby, winner of the UK Championship, and Shaun Murphy, the British Open winner, follow in the rankings and are seeded accordingly. The seeding system pairs the player ranked one with the player ranked 16; the player ranked two meets the player ranked 15, and so on.

In Form Pair Top the Betting List

The UK’s betting sites have not chosen to base their outright competition odds on player rankings. It is Judd Trump, the fifth seed, who they unanimously make the favourite to take the 2026 Players Championship title. Zhao Xintong, seeded six, is the second name on the betting lists.

Trump currently tops the world rankings – which are based on prize money won over the preceding two years – and he won the German Masters at the start of February. Xintong, the reigning world champion, is ranked seventh – primarily because he was not playing as a pro on the tour during the 2024/25 season.

The Chinese player earned £250,000 by winning the non-ranking Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in November and confirmed his well-being by landing the World Grand Prix just a week ago. Like Trump, he is in form.

2026 Players Championship Betting

• 5/2 Judd Trump
• 9/2 Zhao Xintong
• 5/1 Mark Selby
• 8/1 Neil Robertson
• 10/1 Shaun Murphy
• 12/1 Wu Yize
• 16/1 Xiao Guodong
• 16/1 John Higgins
• 18/1 Mark Williams
• 20/1 Mark Allen
• 25/1 Barry Hawkins
• 25/1 Jack Lisowski
• 33/1 Chris Wakelin
• 33/1 Zhang Anda
• 33/1 Zhou Yuelong
• 40/1 Elliot Slessor.