2015–16 snooker season
The 2015–16 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played between 7 May 2015 and 2 May 2016.
The World Grand Prix became a ranking event featuring the top 32 players on a one-year money list, having been a non-ranking event the previous season.
New professional players
| Countries | ||
The top 64 players from the prize money rankings after the 2015 World Championship, and the 30 players earning a two-year card the previous year automatically qualified for the season. The top eight players from the European Tour Order of Merit and top four players from the Asian Tour Order of Merit, who had not already qualified for the Main Tour, also qualified. Another two players came from the EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs, and a further eight places were available through the Q School. The rest of the places on to the tour came from amateur events and national governing body nominations. Hossein Vafaei's two-year tour card will commence this season. All players listed below received a tour card for two seasons.
- IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship winner: Hossein Vafaei
- EBSA European Snooker Championships winner: Michael Wild
- EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships winner: Darryl Hill
- ACBS Asian Snooker Championship winner: Hamza Akbar
- ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship winner: Sunny Akani
- Pan-American Championship winner: Itaro Santos
- ABSF African Championships winner: Hatem Yassen
- Oceania Championship winner: Vinnie Calabrese
;EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs
;Asian Tour Order of Merit
;Q School
;Event 1
;Event 2
;International Development Main Tour Card
Calendar
The following table outlines the results and dates for all the ranking and major invitational events.Official rankings
Seeding revision 1
Seeding revision 2
Seeding revision 3
Seeding revision 4
Seeding revision 5
Seeding revision 6
Seeding revision 7
Seeding revision 8
Seeding revision 9
World ranking points
Points distribution
2015/2016 points distribution for world ranking and minor-ranking events:
| Tournament/Round→ | R144 | R128 | R96 | R80 | R64 | R48 | R32 | R16 | QF | SF | F | W |
| Asian Tour events | – | 0 | – | – | 400 | – | 800 | 1,300 | 1,750 | 3,500 | 6,500 | 13,500 |
| European Tour events | – | 0 | – | – | 525 | – | 900 | 1,725 | 3,000 | 4,500 | 9,000 | 18,750 |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | 4,000 | 7,000 | 12,500 | 20,000 | 38,000 | 100,000 | |
| Australian Goldfields Open | – | 0 | 250 | – | 500 | 1000 | 4,500 | 6,000 | 8,500 | 10,000 | 16,000 | 37,500 |
| Shanghai Masters | – | 0 | 500 | – | 2,000 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 8,000 | 12,000 | 19,500 | 35,000 | 85,000 |
| International Championship | – | 0 | – | – | 4,000 | – | 7,000 | 12,000 | 17,500 | 30,000 | 65,000 | 125,000 |
| UK Championship | – | 0 | – | – | 4,000 | – | 9,000 | 12,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 | 70,000 | 150,000 |
| German Masters | – | 0 | – | – | 1,500 | – | 3,000 | 3,750 | 7,500 | 15,000 | 26,250 | 60,000 |
| Welsh Open | – | 0 | – | – | 2,000 | – | 3,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 | 60,000 |
| World Grand Prix | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 35,000 | 100,000 |
| China Open | – | 0 | – | – | 4,000 | – | 6,500 | 8,000 | 12,500 | 21,000 | 35,000 | 85,000 |
| World Championship | 0 | – | – | 6,600 | – | 9,900 | 13,250 | 22,000 | 33,000 | 66,000 | 137,500 | 330,000 |