Northern Ireland Open
Sport: Snooker
Venue: Waterfront Hall
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Live Streaming Availability: All Matches
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Northern Ireland Open Live Streaming
Watch all of the action from Northern Ireland Open Snooker with the whole event available to watch live online via our live streaming partners.
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How To Watch Live Snooker Step 1: Click here to sign up to BET365.com 18+(A funded account/deposit is needed) (If you already have an account go to step 2 Step 2: Click on “Snooker”, found at the left hand side of the page, in the darker area for desktops or at the top of the page on mobile devices. Step 3: Find the match that is of interest to you and so long as a square with a > symbol appears, you can watch live. Step 4: Click on the text stating the match (on the left hand side) and then on the play symbol to watch along live. Click To Watch (18+) #ad Check Schedule (18+) #adPlease note: Geo-restrictions do apply, a funded account and/or bet placed 24 hours prior to game is required for access. |
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Watch Northern Ireland Open
The Northern Ireland Open is a professional Snooker tournament and the great news for all Snooker fans is that you can watch all of the action live online via our Snooker live streaming partners.
The tournament was first established in 2015 as part of the new Home Nations Series, along with the Welsh Open, the English Open and the Scottish Open.
Ever since its inception, the Northern Ireland Open has been held at the Waterfront Hall in the Northern Ireland capital city of Belfast.
As a ranking event, the tournament features many of the world’s top stars that make it a must watch for all Snooker fans.
Watch all of the action from the Northern Ireland Open Snooker live online via our live streaming partners. Choose from:
| NAME | TOP COMPETITIONS | DETAILS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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*World Championship *Premier League *Ranking Events *Masters *Qualifiers *Non-ranking Events |
Registration and deposited account needed | |
WATCH HERE (18+ #ad) |
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*World Championship *Premier League *Ranking Events *Masters *Qualifiers *Non-ranking Events |
Registration and deposited account needed | |
WATCH HERE (18+ #ad) |
Northern Ireland Snooker
The Northern Ireland is a professional Snooker tournament that as you may expect takes place in the countries capital city of Belfast.
The host venue for the tournament is the Waterfront Hall, a modern multi-purpose conference and entertainment centre that is one of the stand out features of the Belfast waterfront.
Whilst you may expect a tournament such as this one to have a long and storied history, with so many great players down the years coming form Northern Ireland and with the closeness of the event location wise to the sports heartland but the tournament actually only started life in 2015 when the tournament was announced by Barry Hearn, the chairman of World Snooker.
With the sport having a revamp around this time and a new focus on launching new events, the decision was made to expand on the Welsh Open by adding the English Open, the Scottish Open and the Northern Ireland Open to create a Home Nation Series.
This led to new events which whilst been full ranking event and offering only a relatively small prize fund, they are easy for the players to get to and offer the chance to win £1,000,000 by winning all of the events in any given season.
That helps the tournament to attract many of the stars of the game and to give fans lots of must watch action and that is exactly what you can do via the Northern Ireland Open live stream services featured on this very page.
Despite only been a relatively new event, the NI Open has already had a number of notable incidents to happen at the event including the 2017 when Yan Bingtao of China became the youngest ever player to reach a ranking final.
If he were to win that event, he would have broken Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 24 year old record of been the youngest player to win a ranking event, but unfortunately he lost the final by 9 frames to 8 against Mark Williams (Wales), despite taking an 8-7 lead.
That final also saw the biggest ever age gap between the 2 participants as Williams was about 25 years older than his opponent, who also became the first ever player born in the 2000’s to reach a ranking final.
The inaugural event, which took place just a year earlier in 2016, saw an all English final as Mark King defeated Barry Hawkins to pick up the first ever title in Belfast.
Another interesting aspect of the tournament is the fact that the 2018, 2019 and 2020 finals all saw the exact same line up, the exact same winner and the exact same winning score line as Judd Trump (England) defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan (England) by 9 frames to 7, 3 year straight.
Although the action from Belfast is often chosen for television coverage, Snooker fans will know that that can still be a frustrating experience as only a select number of matches will be chosen for coverage, so you may miss the match that you want to watch.
Thankfully, there is now a way that you can pick and choose to watch the action that you want to watch from Belfast, no matter if you are wanting to watch the final or the opener or if you want to watch the number 1 seed or the rank outsider.
All of the incredible live streaming services that we feature on this very page bring you Northern Ireland live streams that you can watch via your phone, tablet, computer, or laptop no matter where you are, so long as you can connect to the internet.
Whilst you do need to be aged 18 or over and have a funded account to be able to watch live Snooker via the online bookmakers featured on this page but you can then watch live Snooker not just from the Northern Ireland Open but form tournaments held across the globe all season long.
Watch all of the action from the Northern Ireland Open Snooker from the Belfast Waterfront conference and entertainment centre live online via our Snooker live streaming partners. Choose from:
| NAME | TOP COMPETITIONS | DETAILS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
*World Championship *Premier League *Ranking Events *Masters *Qualifiers *Non-ranking Events |
Registration and deposited account needed | |
WATCH HERE (18+ #ad) |
|
*World Championship *Premier League *Ranking Events *Masters *Qualifiers *Non-ranking Events |
Registration and deposited account needed | |
WATCH HERE (18+ #ad) |
With the competition strong links to the other Home Nation Series events (the English Open, the Scottish Open and the Welsh Open) and with players trying to win each of the events to pick up the life changing bonus, the other great news for all fans of the sport of Snooker is that you can follow the players throughout all of the tournaments that ae part of the Home Nations Series and follow the ongoing story of whether a player can go on and pick up the title at each of the events in any given season.
Watch live Snooker from Belfast live online from the Northern Ireland Open, sometimes also known as the NI Open or the Belfast Open.
History
History of the Northern Ireland Open Snooker
The Northern Ireland Open was introduced during the 2016/17 snooker season as part of the newly created Home Nations Series. The series brought together four ranking tournaments representing the four nations of the United Kingdom: the English Open, Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open and Welsh Open. The first Northern Ireland Open was played from 14 to 20 November 2016 at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast.
The inaugural tournament immediately provided a dramatic beginning. Mark King reached the final against Barry Hawkins and won 9-8, securing the first ranking title of his professional career. King had waited 25 years for his maiden ranking success, making the victory particularly significant. The final went the full 17-frame distance, with King holding his nerve to become the first name engraved on the Northern Ireland Open roll of honour.
The tournament also produced a significant piece of snooker history during its first edition. John Higgins made a maximum 147 break against Sam Craigie in the last-32 stage. It was Higgins’ eighth professional maximum at the time and the 123rd official maximum break in professional snooker.
The winner of the Northern Ireland Open receives the Alex Higgins Trophy, named after Northern Ireland’s two-time World Champion. Higgins, one of the most celebrated and charismatic players in snooker history, was born in Belfast and died in 2010. Naming the tournament trophy after him gave the new event an immediate connection with Northern Ireland’s rich snooker heritage. At the inaugural tournament, Higgins’ daughter Lauren presented the trophy.
In 2017, the Northern Ireland Open moved from the Titanic Exhibition Centre to Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. The change proved important to the tournament’s identity, as the city-centre venue became its regular home and developed a reputation for strong crowds and a lively atmosphere. Mark Williams won the 2017 title, beating China’s Yan Bingtao 9-8 in another final that required all 17 frames.
The 2018 tournament marked the beginning of one of the most impressive periods in Northern Ireland Open history. Judd Trump defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-7 in the final to win the title. The following year, Trump and O’Sullivan met again in the final, and Trump repeated the 9-7 scoreline to retain the trophy. The back-to-back finals between two of snooker’s biggest stars gave the relatively new tournament plenty of attention.
The 2019 edition also featured another maximum break. Stuart Bingham made a 147 against Lu Ning, adding another perfect break to the tournament’s increasingly impressive statistical record. By this stage, the Northern Ireland Open was no longer simply a new addition to the calendar; it had developed a clear reputation for attracting elite players and producing high-quality snooker.
Trump completed a hat-trick of Northern Ireland Open titles in 2020. The tournament was unusual, however, because it was staged at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes rather than Belfast. The relocation was part of the wider disruption to professional snooker during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump defeated O’Sullivan 9-7 for the third successive year in the final, becoming the first player to win the Northern Ireland Open three times. He also made a maximum 147 during the tournament.
The 2021 tournament returned to Belfast and produced one of the most memorable home victories in the event’s history. Mark Allen defeated John Higgins 9-8 in the final at the Waterfront Hall to become the first Northern Irish player to win the tournament. The contest went down to the final frame, creating an atmosphere that Allen later described as the best he had experienced in his career.
Allen successfully defended the title in 2022. He defeated Zhou Yuelong 9-4 in the final, becoming the second player after Trump to win the Northern Ireland Open more than once and the first to win it in consecutive editions since Trump’s 2018-2020 sequence had been interrupted by the tournament’s relocation and Allen’s own 2021 victory.
Judd Trump returned to the top of the Northern Ireland Open roll of honour in 2023. He beat Chris Wakelin 9-3 in the final, claiming his fourth title and extending his record as the tournament’s most successful champion. By then, the event had become firmly established as a regular Belfast sporting attraction, with the Waterfront Hall providing its familiar backdrop.
Kyren Wilson won the 2024 Northern Ireland Open, defeating Judd Trump 9-3 in the final. The result added another world-class name to the tournament’s list of champions and meant Trump had reached the final in three consecutive editions from 2022 to 2024, winning once and finishing runner-up twice during that period.
The 2025 Northern Ireland Open was the tenth consecutive staging of the event. It ran from 19 to 26 October at the Waterfront Hall, with qualifying held earlier at Leicester Arena. Jack Lisowski produced a dramatic conclusion to the tournament by defeating Judd Trump 9-8 in the final to win the Northern Ireland Open title.
The 2025 tournament also demonstrated how strongly the event continues to connect with Northern Irish audiences. Local favourite Jordan Brown defeated reigning World Champion Zhao Xintong 4-0 in the opening round and then beat Shaun Murphy before reaching the quarter-finals. Mark Allen subsequently defeated Brown 5-2 in an all-Northern-Ireland clash at the last-eight stage.
By 2026, the Northern Ireland Open had firmly established its place on the professional snooker calendar. The World Snooker Tour confirmed that the 2026 tournament would again be staged at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall, with the event scheduled for 18 to 25 October. The tournament’s continued presence in Belfast reflects the strength of the relationship between professional snooker, the venue and Northern Irish supporters.
From Mark King’s breakthrough in 2016 to Jack Lisowski’s dramatic victory in 2025, the history of the Northern Ireland Open Snooker has developed remarkably quickly. It has already produced multiple champions, four maximum breaks, several final-frame thrillers and memorable home performances. More importantly, it has created a tournament with its own personality: elite snooker, passionate Belfast crowds and just enough unpredictability to make sitting down for one match a rather dangerous decision when you have somewhere else to be.
