Riyadh Season Snooker Championship 2024 LIVE RESULTS: Mark Allen WINS £250k jackpot after Ronnie O’Sullivan crashes OUT
THE Riyadh Season Snooker Championship has reached a thrilling conclusion with Mark Allen winning the £250k prize.
The Northern Irishman defeated Luca Brecel 5-1 in the final after knocking out defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan earlier on in a tense semi-final.
Allen secured the £250k jackpot with the win, while Brecel picked up £125k for finishing second.
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Follow ALL the action from the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship with our live blog below...
The champion's return
Only two days after his victory, Allen returns to the snooker table.
Today, the champion will play in the World Open 2025 Qualifiers.
Allen will face Malaysian player Rory Thor in Sheffield in the first round.
The match will start at 7.30pm.
Mark Allen 5-1 Luca Brecel
Friday saw an assured performance from Mark Allen who made sure that his safeties were always on target.
Luca Brecel couldn't find an opening thanks to Allen's professional display.
Brecel won't be too disappointed though, as he heads home with £125,000 himself for his efforts in Riyadh.
The champion's goals for 2025
After his phenomenal victory in Riyadh, Mark Allen shared his ambitions for the upcoming year.
On the official championship account, he said in an interview: "Just keep winning. Just keep trying enjoy snooker, that's the big thing. Big tournaments coming up."
Allen is especially looking forward to the tournament in Sheffield.
He added: "That's the one that's missing from my CV. That's the one I'll keep trying work towards."
Allen on working with Lee Walker
Earlier this year, Allen linked up with Welsh coach Lee Walker as he admitted to be "struggling with himself".
The snooker champion opened up about his experience working with Lee after his win.
He said: "I'm still doing what he's telling me to do but I'm trying to do my own thing as well.
"I'm trying to play a bit quicker and trying to enjoy it a bit more because I don't feel like I was enjoying it for a few months there.
"That's even when I was winning matches and winning tournaments, I just wasn't enjoying the way I was playing. So something had to change.
"Part to do with Lee, and part to do with what I've changed myself."
Brecel reacts to defeat
Luca Brecel has opened up on his 5-1 defeat in the final to Mark Allen.
The Belgian Bullet has now lost in the final of this competition two years in a row.
It's been a good tournament for me, but in the final Mark was so good.
He's so good in safety battles, he makes it so tough for you. He played really well and he deserved to win.
Luca Brecel
Credit: DAZN Allen: "I wasn't thinking about money."
With the title of the Champion, Mark Allen secured a £250,000 jackpot.
But the player's focus wasn't on the prize money.
He said: "I'm not going to lie, it's great. You need money to survive.
"But I'm only there to play snooker and try to win tournaments. If I keep winning tournaments, the money will come."
First Victory in 10 months
Allen has endured a difficult season and even lost to world number 58 Daniel Wells in March at the World Open in China.
The Pistol was also beaten by the 21-year-old Lei Peifan in the semi-final at the Scottish Open in Edinburgh earlier this week.
But he made a successful comeback in Riyadh, snatching his first victory in almost 10 months.
Allen also secured his biggest pay day to date with the £250,000 cash prize.
Match stats
Allen managed to pot 60% of his balls and hit the highest break at 109.
The intense game in Riyadh saw Allen claw his way back to the victory.
Credit: WST Season Stats for the finalists
Credit: WST
Allen shares his excitement on the victory
To win an event with the top ten players in the world is extra special.
Mark Allen, WST
My safety was good all week, I scored well and made the right choices. I was nervous at the end but I held myself together.
The matches here are short so if you can steal a few frames you can hurt your opponent.
Winning the second frame tonight with a good break gave me the confidence to go on.A Look at the final moments of the match
The Northern Irishman had to fight his way back into it before winning 82-43 thanks to a half-century in the far more difficult fifth frame.
He trailed back in the sixth as well, when Brecel took a 36-2 lead, but he rallied to win the title again after sinking a hard red down the cushion.
Game Highlights
The final's first frame came down to the colours and was decided when Allen, trailing by 25 points, missed the green to a bauk corner, giving Brecel the opportunity to take a 1-0 lead.
The Belgian had a 49-0 lead in the second frame when he missed a difficult red to a top corner. This proved to be a turning moment as Allen made a 104 for 1-1, then dominated frame three and scored a 109 in the fourth to lead 3-1 at the interval.
Allan responds to criticism
Allen, who has exchanged verbals with Murphy in the past, responded to the comments about his slow play.
He said: "For those criticising… I always give 100 per cent, it might not be pretty at times but I’m trying my best. Some other players could learn from it.
"And as for Shaun in comms. He’s absolutely entitled to his opinion on things but perhaps best to leave personal feelings out of the commentary box in future.
"All because I called out some of his recent BS."
Allen faced criticism over his slow play
Shaun Murphy criticised Allen last month for his slow play at the UK Championship in York.
He said: "Now, it's completely within the rules, but at what stage do we question whether the amount of time Mark Allen is taking over simple decisions is a tactic to annoy his opponent?
"I think we are witnessing an extremely clever, well thought out match from Mark Allen to try and beat the man.
"It's an old school tactic. It's from a playbook my generation and Mark's generation are from. And it's perfectly within the rules.
"But I can't see any reason, other than that for why he's taking so long. As you look at Barry in his chair, you might say it was working."
Tribute to old friends
Mark Allen dedicated his victory in the Middle East to two old friends that sadly passed away.
On X, he wrote: “That was for Terry and Joe. They’ll always be out there with me and I hope I’m doing them proud."
Allen lost his long-time coach Terry Griffiths just last month.
The 1979 world champion Griffiths had a 15-year relationship with the world No. 4.
And following Joe Shortt's death last year, it was Allen's second mentor loss in the last 18 months.
Through adversity to the stars
Allen has endured some difficult results this year, despite improving over the last few competitions.
Earlier this month he opened up about his slump in form, admitting the biggest struggle has been with himself.
Following his first round triumph over He Guoqiang at the Scottish Open, the Pistol told : "I'm really struggling with myself if I'm honest. I'm trying so hard but it's just not coming easy.
"I thought what I was trying wasn't working so I just swapped it mid match. I tried to speed up a little bit and went for my shots.
"I finished that first match off well, but some of that was luck that I gave up the other thing that I'm working on.
"I just don't know what to trust. I'm seeing things which are unnatural and I'm not trusting my cue action because I feel like I'm on the wrong line. I'm fed up of playing like that if I'm honest."
Rankings update
Here is the top 25 on the 2-year world rankings list:
1 Judd Trump £1,790,200
2 Kyren Wilson £1,143,900
3 Ronnie O’Sullivan £711,500
4 Mark Allen £700,600
5 Mark Selby £687,100
6 Mark Williams £652,700
7 Shaun Murphy £636,400
8 Luca Brecel £630,000
9 Ding Junhui £560,500
10 Zhang Anda £489,650
11 Ali Carter £467,900
12 Barry Hawkins £433,550
13 Si Jiahui £431,800
14 John Higgins £404,150
15 Chris Wakelin £400,000
16 Gary Wilson £395,400
17 Xiao Guodong £367,000
18 Jak Jones £366,300
19 Tom Ford £354,950
20 Neil Robertson £331,950
21 David Gilbert £296,250
22 Jack Lisowski £289,900
23 Robert Milkins £283,900
24 Stuart Bingham £274,900
25 Wu Yize £271,000ShareAllen's route to success
Here's a look at home Mark Allen earned his £250,000 pay day this week...
- Mark Allen 4-2 Mark Selby
- Ronnie O'Sullivan 2-4 Mark Allen
- Mark Allen 5-1 Luca Brecel
More from Allen
Mark Allen explained that he wasn't disappointed to miss out on bagging the $1MILLION Golden Ball 167 break and was happy to have achieved his number one goal of winning the tournament.
That's first and foremost. You come here to win the tournament.
If I had made the 167 it would have been a massive bonus but I'm not sure I could have stood up once I got to the last few balls, because I was already really nervous on 65.
Mark AllenAllen's reaction
Mark Allen is over the moon with his victory in Riyadh.
[I'm] relieved. I was very nervous actually for the last few balls.
I felt good the whole game but it was just those last few balls I started feeling it a bit. So I'm happy to get over the line.
You're never there until you're there. Luca is such a talented player, he can reel off two, three, four frames in no time.
So I was always on guard, always played the right shot and just gave myself a few chances.
Mark AllenWhat was the prize money?
A whopping £785,000 was up for grabs in Saudi Arabia as snooker stars landed a huge payday.
Here is a full breakdown of the pot:
- Winner (Mark Allen): £250,000
- Runner-up (Luca Brecel): £125,000
- Semi-finals: £75,000
- Quarter-finals: £50,000
- Round two: £25,000
- Round one: £5,000
- Total: £785,000
A separate $1MILLION (£792,000) was sadly missed out as no player managed to become the first to score an extraordinary 167 break.
Time for the fans
Despite finishing the match at 2am local time and playing two matches in one day, Mark Allen had plenty of time for the fans after his Riyadh Season victory.
The Northern Irishman posed for selfies with fans in the Middle East.
What a man.
Credit: DAZN The Golden Opportunity
This year, the golden ball has made a comeback and was worth a whopping £792,000.
A player must score 147 points to pot the ball, which is worth 20 points, leaving 167 points available.
Unfortunately, Allen didn't secure the biggest jackpot but the players still shared their fantasies on how to splash the large sum.
Luca Brecel dreamed of buying "a house in Majorca" while Mark Allen fancied splurging "a couple of hundred grand on an AP watch".
Allen on his victory
Mark Allen has thanked his sponsors and shared his feelings on the victory on his X account.
In the post, he wrote: "It’s been a while. After the way things have been going the last few months this feels all the sweeter. Thanks as always to my sponsors @32Red Omin Cues and Liberwin."
Ronnie O'Sullivan's message
O’Sullivan said: “I wouldn’t say it’s the end. I’m definitely going to keep playing.
“The last time I enjoyed playing snooker like I have done the last couple of months was when I was 14.
“I won’t go into details but I’m loving playing. It’s quite weird.
“I played awful last year and pretty terrible at the start of the year. I won five tournaments last year, a couple of semis but did not enjoy playing. I was done, mate. I just couldn’t face playing.
“I was getting stage fright, I was jabby through the ball, stabbing at shots. Then I took a couple of months off, figured out a couple of things and really enjoyed it.
“The last three tournaments I’ve played pretty well. Maybe just a little bit too open. It’s just winning some of them safety battles.
“You’ve got to make your opponents work for it and I haven’t been doing that.
“I never panic, I never worry. I’m not really bothered either. If I was bothered I might be worried.
“I know I’m on the back-end of my career so it’s less important now.”
