Ronnie O'Sullivan left Barry Hearn seething in protest over £10k - 'Unacceptable!'
Ronnie O'Sullivan has long been at odds with the snooker authorities over several issues, but perhaps none more controversial than his decision to turn down a 147 break prize
Snooker superstar Ronnie O'Sullivan's notorious spats with the sport's higher-ups once saw a particularly fierce clash with head honcho Barry Hearn. And the furore erupted after 'The Rocket' felt the £10,000 reward for a 147 break was insufficient, branding the figure "too cheap."
O'Sullivan passed up the shot at glory and the max break prize when he faced Barry Pinches in the opening round of the 2016 Welsh Open, capping off a controversial 146 instead. His flamboyant protest against the prize money sent shockwaves through the snooker world, but Hearn was far from amused and slammed the stunt as both "unacceptable" and "disrespectful."
Snooker bigwig Hearn shared his frustration on X: "Most people don't understand £10k not meaning anything! Fact is we have a lot of 147 breaks and the prize money reflects that. It's a shame that punters who buy tickets and TV fans who watch did not have the pleasure of seeing a maximum break.
"Players have a duty to the fans to deliver the best standard and entertainment they can. Anything less than playing to your best ability is unacceptable and disrespectful to the paying public. This is not crime but a shame."
O'Sullivan is on the cusp of securing a spot in the last four of the 2025 World Snooker Championship, where he faces Si Jiahui. The Londoner is aiming to surpass Stephen Hendry's joint record of seven Crucible crowns with his eighth world title in Sheffield.
Despite the prestige of completing a 147, the prize money has only remained the same or even decreased over the years. The reward for doing so in the qualifying rounds remains £10,000, while players can share a £40,000 pot if they manage the feat in the main draw.
So far, Mark Allen is the only player to have achieved a maximum break in the 2025 tournament. Hearn Sr has also dismissed calls to reinstate higher bonuses for maximums, citing the increasing frequency as a primary reason.
He also argued that the achievement has lost significance amid the rising standard of players in general. He took aim at those who raise issues with the bonuses already on offer.
"The fact is that a 147, whether we like it or not - and we can be romantic about it - isn't as significant as it was in the old days, because we have so many of them," Hearn said in 2017. "But if a professional player who is there not just to win games but to play to the best of his ability for whatever reason either turns down or doesn't try for one, then I am disgusted with their lack of professionalism.
"If this game is only about money, if it's just about a few bob, in a world where the prize money has changed from £3.5million to £12m [across the year] and greedy people still can moan, frankly they should get out of the sport."
The total prize money for the 2024/25 snooker season has since skyrocketed to £19m thanks to the addition of new tournaments and increased funds. Despite this, O'Sullivan remains vocal about his belief that players should be pocketing more.
The Rocket made history by notching up a maximum break in a record-breaking five minutes and 20 seconds during the 1997 World Championship, netting a cool £147,000 bonus on top of the £18,000 high-break reward. Nowadays, the high-break prize has been trimmed down to £15,000.
Players still have the chance to line their pockets with a £147,000 bonus for achieving two maximum breaks across the Triple Crown events, as well as the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. However, this particular bonus can only be awarded up to three times in a single season.