The 2026 Snooker World Championship is about to begin. From Saturday April 18, we’ll see 32 of the world’s best snooker players play 30 matches over 16 days until one is crowned champion and takes home the £500,000 prize money. Below, I’ll explain how the World Snooker Championship works and let you know how to stream every moment of the action live from anywhere in the world.
It’s important to note that I’ll only be recommending official sources. While there are often unauthorized live streams for major sporting events, these come with significant disadvantages. For instance, the video could be laggy or low-resolution. Additionally, these streams are prone to being taken offline for copyright violation and as such, there’s no guarantee you’ll even see who wins a given match. It’s actually pretty easy to watch the 2026 Snooker World Championship anyway so there’s no need to resort to unlicensed streams.
To watch the Snooker World Championship on your home services while traveling outside of the UK, you’ll need to use a VPN.
How to watch the World Snooker Championship abroad with a VPN
Never used a VPN before? Don’t worry; it’s actually quite easy to bypass regional blocking and stream the Snooker World Championship online. Simply follow the steps below.
Here’s how to watch the World Snooker Championship online from anywhere:
- Start by signing up for a suitable VPN service. I recommend NordVPN but Surfshark and ExpressVPN are two strong alternatives.
- Next, download and install the appropriate app for your device.
- Decide which of the services below you’d like to unblock.
- Connect to one of your VPN’s servers in the required country. For example, you’d use a British server to unblock BBC iPlayer.
- Try playing a video on your chosen service. It should start right away but if it doesn’t, clear your browser’s cookies and cache, then reload the page.
2026 World Championship Snooker games will be streamed live, so it’s important to make sure your VPN works (with the steps above) before they actually begin. This way, you’ll have plenty of time to get help from your VPN’s customer support team if anything goes wrong, and might not have to miss the beginning of the match.
How to stream the Snooker World Championship on UK TV
You can watch every match of the 2026 Snooker World Championship live on BBC iPlayer. That’s great news because BBC iPlayer is free to watch. It’s just that you’ll need to sign up for a free account if you don’t have one already (and provide a valid UK postcode).
Note that to watch content live or on-demand on BBC iPlayer, you need to have a TV license. BBC iPlayer does ask for this upon login but there’s no verification system in place beyond this.
Another way you can watch the 2026 World Snooker Championship is on TNT Sports, which you can watch online via HBO Max. If you don’t already have a TNT Sports subscription, note that HBO Max plans that include TNT Sports start from £36.98 a month, though it’s possible to save up to 24 percent by committing to a one year plan.
BBC iPlayer and HBO Max become region-locked if you travel abroad (outside the UK). However, you can still watch by connecting to a VPN. I recommend NordVPN. Plans come with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can receive a full refund after the last match if you don’t want to keep it.
Where else can I watch the Snooker World Championship online?
You can live stream this year’s Snooker World Championship from almost anywhere in the world. Take a look below to find out which networks are showing the tournament in your country:
Europe
Eurosport will broadcast all of the Snooker World Championship and its qualifiers via Discovery+. This is available to audiences across more than a dozen European countries including France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Prices vary by location, but you can expect to pay around €6.99 for a monthly Entertainment & Sport pass.
There’s no free trial, unfortunately, and you should note that unless you cancel, this subscription will automatically renew each month. This service is only available in Europe, but you can still access it abroad using a VPN.
Other locations
If you’re in a country which doesn’t have a traditional broadcaster for the 2026 Snooker World Championship, you’ll be able to watch it on WST Play. It’s the official streaming platform for the World Snooker Tour. Better still, a monthly pass is priced at just £7 (roughly $9.40 at the time of writing).
How does the Snooker World Championship work?
This tournament actually has quite a simple format. The top 16 players in the world automatically qualify, and a further 16 earn their place by winning a series of qualification matches.
As the World Championship goes on, it becomes progressively more difficult to win. In round one, a player has to win 10 frames. In round two, this increases to 13, and in the semi-finals, 17. The final match takes place over 35 frames, meaning the first player to win 18 takes home £500,000 in prize money. Of course, if you’re good enough to qualify for this competition, you won’t leave empty-handed. There’s a total of £2,395,000 available and players are awarded £20,000 just for reaching the final 32.
World Snooker Championship: FAQs
Who is favorite to win the 2026 World Snooker Championship?
Zhao Xintong (5/2), the reigning 2025 champion, is favorite to win the 2026 World Snooker Championship. However, he’s expected to be challenged by the current number one, Judd Trump (11/2), who won the tournament in 2019.
It’s no surprise that Ronnie O’Sullivan (15/2) is expected to do well. Considered one of the greatest players in snooker history, he’s won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a record shared with Stephen Hendry. Four-time World Snooker Champion Mark Selby (8/1) is also among the frontrunners.
Can I use a free VPN to watch the World Snooker Championship?
I don’t recommend using a free VPN to watch the World Snooker Championship. Not only will you be limited in terms of server locations, bandwidth throttling and data caps are common, resulting in heavy lag and buffering, particularly when live streaming in high resolution. Besides, most free VPNs aren’t even able to bypass the restrictions of streaming services like BBC iPlayer.
Another reason I recommend you exercise caution when it comes to free VPNs is their lack of security. Between weak encryption and possibly even the absence of leak protection, your IP address and location are at risk of being exposed. Some free VPNs make their money by logging your browsing activity too.
