The World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) has announced its Q Tour campaign for the 2025/26 season, and Austria once again features as a host on the European calendar of the global qualifying series for the World Snooker Tour.
In addition to six other tournaments in Stockholm, Golem, Leeds, Sofia, Mons, and Walsall, the second event of the season will take place at the National Snooker & Billiards Academy in Vienna. It will be hosted in partnership with the WPBSA and organized in cooperation between the local HSEBC and the Austrian Billiards & Snooker Association (ÖSBV).
Compared to last year—when Florian Nüßle, who has since qualified for the World Snooker Tour, competed as the local favourite in Vienna—the format has been adjusted in several key areas, with athlete feedback also taken into account.
Starting from the upcoming season, the top 64 seeded players compete from the Last 128 Round, and all matches will be played as best of 7. In addition, prize money has been more than doubled.
A new points system will also be introduced, replacing the previous Order of Merit. This ensures that participants earn ranking points for all rounds of the tournament.
As in previous years, the winner of the Q Tour season rankings will receive a two-year tour card for the World Snooker Tour. In the previous season, the Chinese player Xiao Xintong achieved this, and shortly afterwards, he became the first player with amateur status at the time to be crowned professional snooker world champion at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield after progressing through all the qualifying rounds.
The next 16 highest-ranked players, included the winners of each individual event, will qualify for the Global Play-Off, which is expected to once again take place in spring 2026 as part of the EBSA European Championships for both Open Class and junior categories Under 16/18/21.
» WPBSA Q-Tour Season 2025/26 Announcement
Title image: Q Tour Play-off winners 2024/25 Florian Nüßle, Steven Hallworth, Liam Highfield; © WPBSA