Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon, who remains the youngest player to have made a 147 in professional competition, was banned for nearly three years after admitting to match-fixing
A snooker star who holds the record for the youngest professional maximum break is now allowed back in the frame after serving a ban for match-fixing. Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon, who dazzled the snooker world as a teen, had been sidelined for nearly three years following his admission of rigging outcomes in six professional matches between 2013 and 2015.
‘Thai-namite’ burst onto the scene when he made a 147 aged just 16 years and 312 days at the 2010 Russelsheim Open. And he went on to reach a peak world ranking of 67th.
But he got caught up in the murky underworld of fixing, which was believed to be the potential motivation behind a firebomb attack on his place of residence in 2013. As The Mail on Sunday reported, on August 30 of that year, a house in Rotherham was targeted.
This property belonged to a snooker academy chief, Keith Warren, and Tirapongpaiboon and fellow player Passakorn Suwannawat lived there at the time. Both players were under scrutiny for dubious betting activities, and they fortunately avoided the attack due to returning to their native Thailand days earlier.
A spokesperson from the fire brigade said at the time: “The door area of the house was on fire and the rest of the property was smoke-logged.” Tirapongpaiboon continued playing professionally until 2015.
He then attempted to return to the World Snooker Tour (WST) in 2022 by taking part in the first-ever Q School Asia and Oceana, storming into the semi-finals. Despite this feat making him eligible for a two-year tour card, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) and WST turned him down due to “serious disciplinary matters from when Thanawat was previously a professional player in 2015.”
Later in the year, the WPBSA charged him with match-fixing. At the time, chairman Jason Ferguson said: “This case shows that if a player chooses to fix a match they will be caught, no matter how long after the event.
“Thanawat has shown true remorse and wants to help ensure that other players do not make the mistakes that he did as a young player by assisting the WPBSA in its player education programme.
“This has been reflected in the sanction.” In addition to a retrospective suspension from June 15, 2022, until March 14 of this year, he was also slapped with £1,925 in costs, with the WPBSA confirming to the Express that his ban has now ended.
It comes as this year’s World Snooker Championship winner, Zhao Xintong, only recently returned to the sport after serving his own 20-month suspension. The Chinese sensation, who defeated Mark Williams in the final of the tournament, saw his professional card revoked in January 2023.
He was one of 10 Chinese players caught up in the sport’s largest-ever match-fixing scandal. And while Zhao never directly fixed a match, he did bet on matches, and admitted to being a party to another player who fixed two games.
Thanks to his early guilty plea, Zhao saw his initial two-and-a-half-year ban lessened to a year and eight months, and returned to the game in September. Despite headed into the World Championship in April as an amateur, Zhao excelled in the qualifiers before making light work of competition on his way to the final.
There, he beat Williams 18-12 to become both the first amateur and the first Asian player to lift a world title. On top of his win, he received a £500,000 prize for winning the tournament, while he will see his ranking soar to 11th ahead of the 2025/26 season.
Speaking about his ban, Matchroom Sport president, Barry Hearn, said: “He has served a ban for what some people would call a very minor offence. He’s a quality player and I think he’s a nice young man.
“Rules are rules and you take it on the chin. If you make a mistake in life, you don’t look back, you look forward. When you’ve paid a price for something the slate’s clear, otherwise you have no life forever.”