Women's Snooker Finds Its Home: World Championship Locked Into Dongguan Until 2031
A Signing Ceremony to Remember
The ink was barely dry on the scoresheet from Panchaya Channoi's historic final victory when three figures gathered at a table in Dongguan Changping and put pen to paper on something that felt, to those present, rather bigger than a contract. For Mandy Fisher, the woman who has devoted 45 years of her life to women's snooker, the moment carried the weight of everything she had worked for. The World Women's Snooker Championship will remain in China — at a venue built specifically for the occasion — until at least 2031.
The agreement, announced on 4th June 2026, brings together World Women's Snooker (WWS), the China Billiard Sports Association (CBSA) and local organisers Cantonese Snooker (Changping). It extends an initial three-year partnership that first brought the Championship to Dongguan in 2024, and represents the most significant long-term commitment in the tournament's history. Fisher signed alongside CBSA Secretary General Qin Jihong and Huang Zhufeng of Cantonese Snooker — three signatures that, in their own quiet way, redrew the map of women's snooker.
A Venue Built for a Purpose
This year's Championship was held at the Snooker Sports Arena for the first time — an entirely new facility, designed and constructed with the tournament in mind. For a sport that has too often seen its women's game squeezed into borrowed spaces and multi-purpose halls, the symbolism of a dedicated venue is not lost on anyone who has followed the circuit closely. These are not temporary stands and makeshift press areas. This is infrastructure — a statement that women's snooker belongs here, and intends to stay.
The numbers reflect the momentum. A total of 78 players entered the 2026 Championship, the highest entry for any WWS event in more than three decades. Players travelled from across the world to compete not just for the title, but for a prize that carries real professional weight: a coveted two-year card on the World Snooker Tour. That card, and what it represents in terms of access to the professional game, is the kind of tangible reward that changes careers and, in turn, changes what girls growing up with a cue in their hands believe is possible.
Fisher's 45-Year Dream
It is difficult to overstate what this moment means to Mandy Fisher. She has been a constant presence in women's snooker through its lean years and its tentative steps forward, and her words following the signing carried that full weight of history.
"For the past 45 years, all I have ever wanted is for women's snooker to be played at a professional venue like this," she said, "and so this is a dream come true for me. The support we have had for this event has been overwhelming and I cannot thank everyone who has supported the event enough. We share the same vision for the future of women's snooker and with our mutual ambition, I have no doubt that the best is still to come."
It is the kind of quote that could easily be dismissed as ceremony-day warmth — but anyone who knows the history of the women's game understands exactly what she means. Women's snooker has existed in the shadows of its men's counterpart for decades: underfunded, underexposed, and too often treated as an afterthought on the wider sporting calendar. A five-year deal, a purpose-built arena, and a guaranteed increase in prize money across the contract's duration is not a footnote. It is a turning point.
The Bigger Picture
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson, whose organisation has been a supporting presence throughout the Championship's development in China, offered a measured but clearly genuine endorsement. "The WPBSA is proud to support all areas of snooker," he said, "and I am delighted to see women's snooker continue to thrive and reach new heights with this continued partnership."
The agreement also arrives on the back of one of the Championship's most compelling storylines in recent memory. Panchaya Channoi, the 18-year-old from Thailand, claimed the title in the final — her first World Snooker title and, by all accounts, the announcement of a major new talent on the global stage. That such a moment could unfold in front of a growing crowd, in a dedicated arena, with a long-term future now secured around it, speaks to how much the landscape has shifted.
The prize fund will increase annually throughout the five-year term — a detail that matters enormously for players whose livelihoods depend on it, and whose ability to commit fully to the sport rests on snooker offering something resembling a sustainable career. The direction of travel, at last, is unmistakably forward.
Women's snooker has found its home. For Mandy Fisher, for Panchaya Channoi, and for every player who makes the journey to Dongguan Changping in the years ahead, that means everything.
