How is the Snooker Shootout different?
A · Advanced · Players, officials and other formats · 7 of 7The Snooker Shootout is a one-frame match of at most ten minutes. Each shot must start within 15 seconds in the first five minutes and 10 seconds after that. After any foul the next player places the white anywhere. Every shot must send a ball into a cushion or a pocket, and a tie goes to a blue-ball shootout.
How it works
- Length: ten minutes at most, timed from the opening stroke.
- Shot clock: 15 seconds per shot in the first five minutes, 10 seconds in the last five.
- Time foul: at least five points, or the value of the ball on if higher.
- The order: a lag, both players hitting a white up and back from the baulk-line, decides who chooses to play first.
- After a foul: the incoming player has the white in hand anywhere on the table; there is no play again.
- Every shot: at least one ball must hit a cushion or go into a pocket, or it is a foul of at least five.
- Not used: the play-again and miss rules, and the free ball unless no ball on can be hit from in-hand.
- Stalemate: no re-rack.
- Tie: a blue-ball shootout, the blue on its spot and the white played from the D, until one player pots more from the same number of attempts.
The glossary has the frame, the foul, the ball on, the in-hand, the miss and the free ball.
Tricky cases
The clock runs out while the player is on the shot. Does the stroke count?
Yes, if the stroke started in time; it is completed and its points count.
A player misses the ball on in the Shootout. Can the opponent have the balls put back?
No. The miss rule does not apply, but the foul gives the opponent the white anywhere on the table.
Scores are level when the time is up. What happens?
A blue-ball shootout: the blue is potted from the D in alternate attempts until one player is ahead.
What counts as a legal pot of the blue in the tie-break?
It must be potted directly, touching no cushion other than the curved faces of the pocket.
Why the rule exists
The Shootout is a fast television format. The clock and the cushion rule stop slow safety play, and placing the white anywhere after a foul makes fouls very costly.
Where it differs
| Where | What changes | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Shootout fouls | White anywhere; no play again | WPBSA Snooker Shootout rule 15 |
| Shootout timing | Ten minutes; 15-second then 10-second shots | WPBSA Snooker Shootout rules 1 to 3 |
| Shootout tie | Blue-ball shootout | WPBSA Snooker Shootout rule 14 |
| Standard snooker | No clock; respotted black on a tie | WPBSA Snooker 3.4 |
From the rule book
World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Official Rules of the Games of Snooker and English Billiards (May 2022 update), snooker part, Snooker Shootout Competition Rules 1 to 22. Checked 14 October 2026. Official document: the association's rule book, which covers snooker and English billiards together.