The 2026 Northern Ireland Open (officially the 2026 BetVictor Northern Ireland Open) is an upcoming professional snooker tournament that will take place from 18 to 25 October 2026 at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Qualifying took place from 13 to 16 September at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England. The 11th consecutive edition of the tournament since it was first staged in 2016, it will be the seventh ranking event of the 2026–27 snooker season, following the 2026 Shenzhen Open and preceding the 2026 International Championship. It will be the second of four tournaments in the season's Home Nations Series, following the 2026 English Open and preceding the 2026 Scottish Open and the 2027 Welsh Open.
Jack Lisowski is the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 9–8 in the 2025 final.
Overview The Northern Ireland Open was first staged in 2016 at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The inaugural winner was Mark King, who defeated Barry Hawkins 9–8 in the final to win his maiden ranking title. The tournament winner receives the Alex Higgins Trophy, named in honour of the two-time World Champion, who died in 2010. At the inaugural edition of the tournament, the trophy was presented by Higgins's daughter Lauren.
The 2026 edition of the tournament—the 11th consecutive staging of the event—will take place from 18 to 25 October at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. Qualifying took place from 13 to 16 September at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England. Sponsored by BetVictor, it will be the seventh ranking event of the 2026–27 snooker season, following the 2026 Shenzhen Open and preceding the 2026 UK Championship. It will also be the second of four tournaments in the season's Home Nations Series, following the 2026 English Open and preceding the 2026 Scottish Open and the 2027 Welsh Open. Jack Lisowski is the defending champion, having defeated Judd Trump 9–8 in the 2025 final.
Format The tournament uses a tiered format first implemented for the Home Nations Series in the 2024–25 snooker season. In round one, players seeded 65–96 face those seeded 97 and below, including selected amateurs. In round two, the winners from round one face players seeded 33–64. The winners from round two face the top 32 seeds. All matches are played as the best of 7 until the quarterfinals, which are the best of 9. The semifinals are the best of 11, and the final is a bestof17-frame match played over two .
Prize fund The prize fund for the tournament is detailed below.
Winner: £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
Summary Qualifying Liam Pullen whitewashed Paul Norris, Yao Pengcheng beat Bai Yulu 4–1, Oliver Sykes whitewashed Alexander Ursenbacher, and Cheung Ka Wai defeated Artemijs Žižins 4–3.
Aaron Hill defeated Ross Muir 4–3, Xu Si beat Jimmy White 4–2, Liam Davies beat Fan Zhengyi 4–1, Ben Mertens whitewashed Iulian Boiko, Mateusz Baranowski beat Yuan Sijun 4–1, and Wang Xinbo beat David Lilley, also by 4–1.
Sykes defeated Zak Surety 4–3, Jordan Brown whitewashed Julien Leclercq, Luca Brecel beat Mitchell Mann 4–1, Yao whitewashed Stan Moody, Liam Highfield beat Jiang Jun, 4–1, Pullen whitewashed Ben Woollaston, and Cheung defeated Oliver Lines 4–3.
Main draw The draw for the tournament is shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, and players in bold denote match winners.
Top half
Bottom half
Qualifying rounds The results of the qualifying matches are shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, an "a" indicates amateur players who were not on the main World Snooker Tour, and players in bold denote match winners.
Note: w/d=withdrawn; n/s=no show; w/o=walkover
Century breaks Qualifying stage centuries A total of 18 century breaks were made during the qualifying stage of the tournament in Leicester.
138 Julien Leclercq 134, 122 Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon 123 Cheung Ka Wai 121 Ricky Walden 120 Liam Pullen 117, 102 Yao Pengcheng 111 Liam Highfield 110 Marco Fu 103, 100 Xu Yichen 103 Liam Davies 103 Tom Ford 102 Ryan Day 102 Dylan Emery 102 Wang Xinbo 100 Jackson Page
Notes
References