The Sportingbet.com World Series of Snooker was a series of invitational snooker tournaments set up as a complement to the WPBSA's tour[1] Its first season was played in 2008/2009, consisting of four two-day tournaments in St. Helier, Berlin, Moscow and Warsaw and the three-day Grand Final in Portimão.
It featured ten leading players – each tournament featured four of these taking on four wild cards. Points were awarded for reaching at least the semi-finals. The winner of each tournament received five points, the runner-up three and losing semi-finalists one each. These points determined seeding positions for the Grand Final.
The tour was set up by FSTC Sports Management, who managed leading snooker players John Higgins and Graeme Dott, as well as Eurosport (who screened the events alongside the coverage of the WPBSA tour), Higgins,[3] and leading referee Michaela Tabb. Higgins felt that the game's attendances were too low, and that potential new venues outside the game's traditional United Kingdom and recently developed Far East markets were not being utilised,[4] and wanted to give something back to the sport.[5] After conducting exploratory tours a trial event was staged in 2007 in Warsaw. The event was called the 2007 Warsaw Snooker Tour. This paved the way and the World Series started in the 2008/2009 season.. The World Series lasted for two seasons.[6]
^Turner, Chris. "Canadian Masters". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
^ abcTurner, Chris. "Scottish Masters". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
^Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 63. ISBN0-9548549-0-X.
^Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 66. ISBN0-9548549-0-X.
^Turner, Chris. "World Matchplay". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
^ abTurner, Chris (2008). "World Series of Snooker". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2010.