The 2022 Ultimate Pool season will reach a thrilling conclusion next month as the Professional, Challenger and Women’s Series all play out their final events at the Grand Hotel in Blackpool between 9-11 December live on ultimatepool.tv.
Attention is rapidly turning to the 2023 campaign which is set to be bigger and better than ever, including an increase in players, event weekends and prize money.
The Professional Circuit
The Ultimate Pool professional circuit will rise to 96 players for the 2023 season, with that capacity expected to remain the same for the foreseeable future.
The 96 players will be made up of existing professionals, promoted players from the 2022 Challenger Series, the top player from the 2022 Women’s Series and a group of high-profile wildcards.
Ultimate Pool has been inundated with wildcard applications to join the professional circuit for 2023 from across the cuesports world. With the process now closed, names of these wildcards will be released from Monday 14th November with daily announcements.
Snooker stars Mark Williams, Mark Allen and Ryan Day, and big money match player Ian Ali have already been announced for next season, but there are plenty more big names to be published.
Draw Structure
To accommodate 96 players, Pro Series events will now start on Thursdays.
In terms of the draw structure, the top 28 players from the professional rankings after the final Pro Series weekend of 2022, and four selected wildcard players – equaling 32 – will be seeded and begin Pro Series events in the last 64.
The remaining 64 players will contest the first round and try to join them in the last 64.
This format will be the same for other professional ranking events – further information to be released.
For the first time on the Ultimate Pool circuit – and in recognition of having a transparent and legitimate playing pyramid/structure - there will be a relegation element to the professional ranks in 2023. More details to follow, but the players affected will be relegated to the Challenger Series for 2024.
2023 Challenger and Women’s Series
The 2023 Challenger Series will remain at 288 players per event, while 2023 Women’s Series events will be capped at 84 players. Across all three categories, there are scheduled to be over 450 players for each stop in Blackpool.
Ultimate Pool is looking at hosting further events and/or qualifiers in 2023 to avoid disappointment. Information on these will be published on ultimatepool.tv and through Ultimate Pool’s social media pages.
2023 Ultimate Pool Season (more dates to be announced soon)
- 17-18 Dec, 2022 – 2023 Champions League Qualifying Round
- Monday nights from 9 January, 2023 – 2023 Champions League
- 19-22 January, 2023 – Ultimate Pool Series, Weekend 1
- 23-26 March, 2023 – Ultimate Pool Series, Weekend 2
- 15-18 June, 2023 – Ultimate Pool Series, Weekend 3
- 14-17 September, 2033 – Ultimate Pool Series, Weekend 4
- 16-19 November, 2023 – Ultimate Pool Series, Weekend 5
- December, 2023 – 2023 Champion of Champions Shootout
(All Ultimate Pool Series weekends in 2023 are held at The Grand Hotel in Blackpool)
