The winner’s of next week’s Nongfu Spring World Cup will be a sure of a place at the Champion of Champions in Coventry in November.

With the 2015 Champion of Champions set for the Ricoh Arena, Coventry from 10th to 15th November, there are ten players so far guaranteed a place at one of snooker’s most prestigious invitational events.

There is an increased prize-fund – up from £270,000 to £300,000. Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and World Champ Stuart Bingham lead the list of eligible players.

Promoted by Matchroom Sport, it is the third year of snooker’s new showpiece event.
The tournament will start with a quartet of four-man groups, with the winner of each group progressing to the semi-finals. The final on Sunday November 15 will be over 19 frames.

Qualifying events take order of precedence with the 14 major tournaments on the World Snooker schedule in the first group of events. The second group comprises six European Tour events and the third group has three Asian Tour events. The final group is the three tournaments – Shoot Out, World Seniors and Six Reds – that fall outside the other three groups.

The other eight players to have qualified are Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, John Higgins, Michael White, Judd Trump, Joe Perry, Stephen Maguire and Neil Robertson.

The forthcoming World Cup which gets underway in Wuxi, China on Monday 15th June has been added to the first group of qualifying events which means that both members of the winning pair will be guaranteed spots in the Champion of Champions.