The 2023 Tribunal Took Ten Players Off the Tour

What the Panel Found

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association convened a disciplinary tribunal in the summer of 2023 following an investigation that had begun in late 2022, when the governing body suspended a group of Chinese-based players pending inquiry. The WPBSA worked alongside sports integrity specialists, and the tribunal panel itself was independent of the governing body's commercial operations. Its published findings detailed breaches of the WPBSA's Rules of Professional Conduct relating to match-fixing, failing to report approaches, and related conduct unbecoming of a professional player.

Ten players received bans. The names included Zhao Xintong, the 2021 UK Championship winner and, at the time of his suspension, one of the most decorated young players on the tour. Also among them were Yan Bingtao, the 2021 Masters champion, and a further eight players at varying stages of their professional careers: Lu Ning, Zhao Jianbo, Li Hang, Chen Zifan, Peng Litao, Chang Bingyu, Bai Langning and Luo Honghao. Not all ten held active tour cards at the point of sanction; several were already outside the main draw by ranking.

The bans ranged in length from twenty months to a lifetime prohibition. Two players — Lu Ning and Zhao Jianbo — received life bans, the most severe sanction the WPBSA can impose. The tribunal's published determination made clear that those two had been found to have fixed, or attempted to fix, multiple matches, and to have been directly involved in organising or facilitating corrupt activity rather than merely responding to approaches. The remaining eight received bans of varying length, with Zhao Xintong's twenty-month ban among the shorter of the set — a term that reflected, in the tribunal's assessment, the nature and extent of his involvement relative to others in the group.

How the Investigation Was Conducted

The WPBSA's published findings describe a process that drew on betting-pattern analysis, communications data, and witness accounts gathered over a substantial investigatory period. The governing body has for some years maintained a relationship with intelligence services that monitor irregular betting markets, and unusual betting patterns on matches involving several of the players had been flagged before the formal inquiry was launched. The investigation was conducted under the WPBSA's Anti-Corruption Rules, which sit alongside but are distinct from the sport's general professional conduct framework.

Players were interviewed under the tribunal process; some co-operated with investigators, and the degree of co-operation was a factor the panel weighed in setting sanctions. The published WPBSA determination records which players admitted findings and which contested them. Zhao Xintong admitted to conduct in breach of the rules, a fact the tribunal noted when arriving at its sanction. Yan Bingtao also admitted certain findings. The two players who received life bans did not, on the record, admit the full range of conduct the panel found proven against them.

All ten were barred from the World Snooker Tour for the duration of their bans, losing ranking points and the entitlement to compete on the World Snooker Tour. For Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao in particular, the financial and competitive cost was immediate and measurable: both had been ranked inside the world's top thirty, with prize-money earnings and future seedings attached to that position.

After the Bans

The WPBSA's rules allow players to apply for reinstatement once a fixed-term ban expires, subject to compliance with conditions set by the tribunal. Zhao Xintong returned to competition in 2024 having served his ban, and was required to qualify through the tour's open-entry events rather than receiving a direct tour card. His subsequent run to the 2025 World Championship title at the Crucible is the most prominent post-ban trajectory in the case's aftermath, though it belongs to a separate chapter. The other seven players received fixed-term bans of varying lengths, so they become eligible to return at different times. Lu Ning and Zhao Jianbo, absent any successful appeal to the Sports Resolutions tribunal, face permanent exclusion.