Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are two of the players competing in the Christmas Day snooker competition, which is one of the few sports held on the holiday.

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Why is there a snooker match between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump that begins on Christmas Day?

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are two of the players competing in the Christmas Day snooker competition, which is one of the few sports held on the holiday.

It has been revealed that O’Sullivan, Trump, Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Jack Lisowski, Si Jiahui, Ding Junhui, and

Marco Fu would be attending the tournament at the Wynn Palace hotel on China’s southern coast. The

tournament final is scheduled for December 29. The winner gets a massive £150,000, which is quite the Christmas present.

This competition is not to be confused with the contentious Macau exhibition event, which was rescheduled for

the previous week following threats of disciplinary action against Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, John Higgins,

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Ali Carter for their intention to skip the Northern Ireland Open in order to participate.

In a statement, the World Snooker Tour (WST) stated that the players’ attendance in the lucrative tournament would be a violation of their contract.

O’Sullivan has previously revealed his plans to focus on the Asia circuit as opposed to events elsewhere, and

stated his delight at being able to spend Christmas competing in Macau. “The whole experience of attending the Macau press conference in June was perfect,” he said.

“I look forward to returning to Macau once again during Christmas to meet snooker fans from around the world,

and to play exciting matches with the world’s top snooker players!”

Tickets are sold out for the entire tournament, though it is not an official tournament on the WST calendar and is

not being broadcasted in the UK. Snooker’s popularity in the region is currently booming, prompting the likes of

O’Sullivan to favour competing in China and even going as far as claiming that he would retire if he is restricted by the WST.

“If I can’t go and do what I need to do, which is play a lot in China, I won’t ever play again. So, we’re at a kind of

crossroads now,” O’Sullivan told the BBC with players potentially facing sanctions from the WST if they skip events to play overseas.

“If that gets to the point where I’m not able to do that, I’m not allowed to do that, I probably won’t play. I’ll

probably go and play Chinese 8-Ball because I still want to play snooker, I still want a cue in my hand.

“There’s just not enough here in the UK for me to justify the effort that I put in. If someone’s going to respect me

and value me more, why would I not go there? It’s like being in an unhealthy relationship with someone, why would you be in that?”