Neil Robertson bags £150,000 bonus despite not even...

NEIL ROBERTSON has landed a £150,000 windfall - without even having to pick up his snooker cue. The Australian bagged the cash after Mark Selby beat Luca Brecel on his way to the Welsh Open crown. Selby saw off the Belgian Bullet before overcoming Stephen Maguire 9-6 in the final. The player with the highest earnings in the Home Nations Series bags a £150k bonus. Robertson, 43, led the standings going into last week's tournament in Llandudno.

Image Credit: The Sun [Neil Robertson at the UK Snooker Championship.]

He was knocked out in the second round by Tom Ford - and therefore needed a favour from Selby. Brecel was the only man who could reel in Robertson in the race for the cash. But defeat in the semi-final for the 2023 world champion meant the Aussie walked away with the jackpot. Taking to X, Robertson showed his appreciation for Selby's efforts. He penned a short tweet putting Selby's name alongside a love heart emoji.

Image Credit: The Sun [Mark Selby holding a trophy.]

BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS. Ex-pro Neal Foulds declared Robertson had been lucky to walk away with the bonus. Speaking to Eurosport, he said: "He's kind of won it by default in a way. "I mean, he's obviously picked up more money than anyone else, but the amount of people that were queueing up to take it off him, and none of them did. "It's happened like that a couple of times now. So congratulations to him. He's the rightful winner.".

Brecel's defeat to Selby means he misses out on the Grand Prix in Hong Kong. He needed a triumph in Llandudno to move into the top 32 of the one-year rankings. BELOW is a list of snooker World Champions by year. The record is for the modern era, widely considered as dating from the 1968-69 season, when the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) took control of the sport. The first World Championships ran from 1927 - with a break from 1941-45 because of World War II and 1958-63 because of a dispute in the sport.

Joe Davis (15), Fred Davis and John Pulman (both 8) were the most successful players during that period. Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan share the record for the most titles in the modern era, with seven each. Most World Titles (modern era). Brecel said: "I'm a bit disappointed. Obviously, I wanted to go to Hong Kong for the Grand Prix. " But maybe it's a bit of karma for not entering all the tournaments this year. I think I maybe skipped five or six tournaments.