Ronnie O’Sullivan is (unsurprisingly) the Snooker World Championship favourite
The Snooker World Championship, the most prestigious professional snooker tournament in the world, is here! The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield will open its gates to the 32 best players on the 15th of April and the next snooker World Champion will be crowned on the 1st of May. On top of the trophy and 500,000 points in the World Rankings, the Champion will earn half a million pounds out of the £2,395,000 prize pot.
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Helpbet brings you the complete betting preview of the tournament and reveals the Snooker World Championship winner odds.
Snooker World Championship Favourites by Tier
We will break the favourites by tiers, starting from the top dogs and going all the way through to the sneakiest dark horses.
Tier 1 – The heavy-hitters
Ronnie O’Sullivan (4/1) – Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan is commonly accepted to be the man who popularised snooker and brought it into the mainstream. by the time he won his second Snooker World Championship, in 2004, he was already a superstar. Battling with depression he spent three mediocre seasons, before coming back. By 2013 he had five World titles. And then a decline, normal for most players, started. But he came back. He won it again in 2020 and 2022, becoming the oldest man to ever do it, aged 46 years and 148 days. If he wins his 8th title, he will become the winningest player in the modern era of the Snooker World Champion. He is already thought to be the best ever to pick up a cue, so it sounds about right.
Judd Trump (5/1) – A year ago Judd Trump lost to Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Snooker World Championship Final. This time he can’t meet him there, as he is the number 5 seed, meaning that the two can only meet at the semi-final. The 2019 World Champion has won the illustrious Masters title this season and is hot getting onto the sport’s biggest stage.
Mark Selby (6/1) – Number 2 in the World Rankings but number 3 on the odds list, Mark Selby has won 4 World Championships in his career. In fact, he and O’Sullivan have won eight out of the last eleven world titles. Still, they have only met in the final once and fans would love to see them fight for the trophy. The thing is Selby always wins the title when his beloved Leicester City has a good season. This year the team’s run in the Premier League is horrible and “The Jester from Leicester” is possibly the city’s only hope.
Tier 2 – Don’t sleep on them
Neil Robertson (7/1) – Neil Robertson is the only non-British player to ever complete a Triple-Crown. He won the 2010 World Championship (in his only finals appearance to date), the Masters in 2012 and 2022, and the UK Championship in 2013, 2015 and 2020. The Australian has won at least one major title every season since 2006. This season he is trophy-less and his final chance is (you guessed it) at the Snooker World Championship.
Shaun Murphy (9/1) – Shaun Murphy is really a strong outsider. “The Harlow Magician” won two of the last three ranked tournaments leading to the Snooker World Championship and he is as ready as he will ever be. After all, he is the man whose first-ever major trophy was the World Championship in 2005. Since then he has returned to the final three times, losing each one of them.
Kyren Wilson (14/1) – One of only 23 players in history to make three or more maximum breaks (O’Sullivan tops that list as well, with 15), Kyren “The Warrior” Wilson won the Tour Championship this season and he is for sure an outsider to keep an eye on. He has reached the World Championship final once, in 2020, losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Mark Allen (14/1) – It has been almost 40 years since a Northern Irish player has won, or in fact reached the final of the Snooker World Championship. Mark Allen is Northern Ireland’s biggest hope since Dennis Taylor’s triumph over Steve Davis in 1985 in the famous “Black Ball Final”, probably the best-known snooker match in history. Allen has already won a ranked tournament this season, beating Judd Trump in the World Grand Prix final.
Tier 3 – They surely can’t… Can they?
John Higgins (16/1) – John Higgins has won four World Championships, three UK Championships, and two Masters trophies for a total of nine Triple Crown titles. He is known as a prolific break-builder and has completed over 900 century breaks and 12 maximums, in both cases second only to O’Sullivan.
Mark Williams (16/1) – One of only three players to complete the Triple Crown in one season (along Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry), Mark Williams became the first left-hander to win the World Championship, back in 2000. He has since won two more titles at the Crucible.
Ding Junghui (20/1) – Ding “Enter The Dragon” Junghui is the only Asian player to ever reach the final of the Snooker World Championship. A former Number 1-ranked player, he lives in Sheffield, a few minutes away from the Crucible, and he runs the Ding Junghui Academy. He is currently ranked Number 16.
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