The Kaspersky Riga Masters tournament will take place from 27-29 July, 2018 with many of snooker’s top stars – including this year's world champion Mark Williams, Ryan Day and Barry Hawkins - battling for the world ranking title.
The Kaspersky Riga Masters tournament will take place from 27-29 July, 2018 with many of snooker’s top stars – including this year's world champion Mark Williams, Ryan Day and Barry Hawkins - battling for the world ranking title. The strongest Latvian snooker players - Rodions Judins and Māris Volajs - will also show their mastery in the tournament, meeting Jimmy White and Graeme Dott in the qualifying round. The total prize money for the tournament will be more than €250,000, with the winner of the Kaspersky Riga Masters scooping more than €56,000.
This season, the tournament started with 128 players competing in a qualifying round from 2-5 July, at the Guild Hall in Preston. The 64 qualifiers will then head to Riga for the final stages, held from 27-29 July at the Arena Riga. All matches will be best of seven frames, until the semi-finals and the final, which will be best of nine with no interval.
World Snooker Chairman, Barry Hearn said: “Snooker is definitely growing in popularity throughout Europe as there are now three events on the continent with at least €250,000 prize money up for grabs. The tournament will be broadcast on Eurosport and nine further outlets in Asia. Riga has proved to be an extremely popular location for the players as it is a beautiful city. Support for snooker in this area of the world is clearly strong. With a good prize fund, I’m expecting to see a strong field of the world’s leading players.”
Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, said: “I’ve always loved the game of snooker – both its spirit and intensity with its refined rules and tactical gameplay. I could watch snooker all day, so I’m really happy we’re supporting this amazing event. I’m still undecided who to support during the tournament, but no matter: I’m looking forward to all the action and drama of every frame played!”
Tickets for the Kaspersky Riga Masters 2018 are on sale now. To book, go to www.bilesuserviss.lv. Fans can see many of their snooker heroes play on the same day and watch several matches at the same time.
Kaspersky Riga Masters Snooker is the first ever professional snooker tournament to be held in Latvia since 2014. In 2016, the Kaspersky Riga Masters was won by Neil Robertson, and in 2017 Ryan Day won the title.
