The winner of Snooker's top Prize will next year receive the princely sum of £425,000 with the runner-up still receiving a grand cheque of £180,000. Last season's World Championship saw Mark Selby win his third World title in four years and receive a mega cheque of £375,000 for the pleasure of beating the four time World Champion John Higgins.
Selby, who also won in 2016, banked £330,000 the year before.
Now, for the maths
The prize of £425,000 next year means the World Championship prize has had a 13 percent increase from the year before when it had gone up by 12% from 16/17.
That means, in real terms, there has been a one per cent increase in the winning prize fund for snooker's top prize.
The World Championships were first held at the Crucible in 1977 and the first winner to win at the Crucible, John Spencer, earned the modest sum of £6,000 with the runner-up Cliff Thorburn banking just £2,000 for receiving the Silver medal.
In 2010, when Neil Robertson became the second overseas player to win since 1977, he earned £250,000 from winning the top prize. Seven years on, and the tournament has seen a 40% increase in the prize money.
In two years, the World Championship winning prize will surely reach the landmark of over £500,000.
If you were a Bronze, you got half of Thorburn's - £1,200 in 1977.
Remember, with only a handful of ranking events to play in back then, now, the tour has an incredible 19 or so ranking events where Ryan Day's first ranking event win at the Riga Masters pocketed him a modest £50,000.
The money on the pro tour is growing, as the sport grows around the world with the popularity rising in China and other Asian countries, but there is still a lot to do in grassroots snooker in the UK at amateur level.
The Amateur scene
In essence, the UK amateur scene needs a Barry Hearn or business minded individual to inject cash into the game and give the amateur scene a proper structure. At the moment, there is very little cash being filtered down to Snooker clubs struggling to survive in the 21st Century.
Some clubs simply haven't moved with the times and have got themselves stuck in the past without modernising either the surroundings or installing new tables or furnishings fit for the modern era like the Victoria Snooker Academy or Star Snooker Academy in Sheffield - where there are a mixture of amateurs and professionals mixing and playing.
Northern Irish Champion Mark King, who in Belfast last season won his first ranking title, made a valid point in an interview with Dafasnooker when reporter Curtis Braithwaite spent a day with the Essex cueman.
He implied there aren't enough tournaments for juniors nowadays - when back in the day there were junior events all over the country and in clubs juniors had the opportunity to play match snooker on a daily/weekly basis.
He also said there aren't any juniors "coming up" through the ranks now.
