The Northern Ireland Open was first staged in 2016 at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The inaugural winner was Mark King, who defeated Barry Hawkins 9–8 in the final to win his maiden ranking title. The tournament winner receives the Alex Higgins Trophy, named in honour of the two-time World Champion, who died in 2010. At the inaugural edition of the tournament, the trophy was presented by Higgins's daughter Lauren.
The tournament uses a tiered format first implemented for the Home Nations Series in the 2024–25 snooker season. In round one, players seeded 65–96 faced those seeded 97 and below, including selected amateurs. In round two, the winners from round one faced players seeded 33–64. The winners from round two face the top 32 seeds. All matches are played as the best of 7 frames until the quarter‑finals, which are the best of 11. The semi‑finals are the best of 11, and the final is a best‑of‑17-frame match played over two sessions.
Prize fund
The prize fund for the tournament is detailed below.
The draw for the tournament is shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, and players in bold denote match winners.
Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 25 October 2026
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Afternoon: Evening:
Highest break
Century breaks
Qualifying rounds
The results of the qualifying matches are shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, an "a" indicates amateur players who were not on the main World Snooker Tour, and players in bold denote match winners.
↑The WSTmatch sheet for the Stuart Bingham v Yao Pengcheng match gives Yao a 118 break in the third frame. This is not correct. The break was 52. Actual frame scores: 99(68)–1; 56–19; 9–119(52); 0–94(94); 72–28; 76–62.
