🎱 World Snooker Championship Preview and Form

World Championship odds 2024

World Championship 2024 23 Apr @ 09:18 - Win Tournament
Ronnie OSullivan	3.50
Judd Trump	5.00
Mark Allen	9.00
Mark Williams	15.00
John Higgins	23.00
Shaun Murphy	23.00
Ding Junhui	23.00
Kyren Wilson	29.00
Joe OConnor	34.00
Barry Hawkins	41.00

World Championship Format

The World Championship has been played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield since 1977.

The top 16 players in the World Rankings automatically play in the tournament at The Crucible and are seeded 1-16. The reigning champion is always the number one seed. The remaining sixteen spots are up for grabs in a qualifying tournament that is played shortly before the main event. 

Once the 32 players are known the sixteen qualifiers are drawn at random to play each of the sixteen seeds.

Each of the qualifiers has to win up to four matches to make it to the first round proper at The Crucible. The first three rounds of qualifying matches are played over the best of eleven frames. The final qualifying round, also known as 'Judgement Day', is played over nineteen frames.

OLBG's expert snooker tipsters will have tips on all the matches at The Crucible. 

Once the action makes it to The Crucible the number of frames played in each round is as follows:

• Round 1: Best of 19 frames
• Round 2: Best of 25 frames
• Quarter-Finals: Best of 25 frames
• Semi-Finals: Best of 33 frames
• Final: Best of 35 frames

Don't forget that we have a special, extra £200 competition for the World Snooker Championship. Full details can be found here.

World Championship Snooker 2024: Draw and Results

The World Snooker Championship 2024 begins at The Crucible on Saturday 20th April:

'Judgement Day' Qualifiers: Jack Lisowski, Stephen Maguire, Jak Jones, Stuart Bingham, Lyu Haotian, Dominic Dale, Robbie Williams, Ricky Walden, David Gilbert, Pang Junxu, Joe O'Connor, Jamie Jones, Hossein Vafaei, Si Jiahui, Ryan Day and Jackson Page.

Former World Champion Neil Robertson will not play at The Crucible for the first time in twenty years after losing out 10-9 to Jamie Jones in the final qualifying round.

Round One - Best of nineteen frames (seeds in brackets):

Luca Brecel (1) v David Gilbert

Robert Milkins (16) v Pang Junxu

Ali Carter (9) v Stephen Maguire

Shaun Murphy (8) v Lyu Haotian

Mark Selby (5) v Joe O'Connor

Kyren Wilson (12) v Dominic Dale

John Higgins (13) v Jamie Jones

Mark Allen (4) v Robbie Williams

Judd Trump (3) v Hossein Vafaei

Tom Ford (14) v Ricky Walden

Zhang Anda (11) v Jak Jones

Mark Williams (6) v Si Jiahui

Ding Junhui (7) v Jack Lisowski

Gary Wilson (10) v Stuart Bingham

Barry Hawkins (15) v Ryan Day

Ronnie O'Sullivan (2) v Jackson Page

Only two qualifiers have ever won the World Championship - Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005. The last qualifier to make it to the Final was Ding Junhui in 2016. Si Jiahui made it to the semi-finals last year after winning three matches to qualify.

Don't be fooled though into thinking that all the seeds must be certainties to go through to the second round. Big shocks in the first round regularly happen such as amateur James Cahill beating Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2019, Robert Milkins beating Neil Robertson in 2018 and Rory McLeod beating Judd Trump in 2017. 

As many as 50% (2012) of the first-round matches have gone to qualifiers recently so there will always be shocks.

The number of qualifiers that made it to the second round in the last ten years:

• 2023 = 4
• 2022 = 3
• 2021 = 2
• 2020 = 5
• 2019 = 4
• 2018 = 6
• 2017 = 4
• 2016 = 7
• 2015 = 3
• 2014 = 5
• 2013 = 6

Major tournament winners 2023-2024 season

Below is a table of all the tournament winners and runners-up for this season:

World Championship 2024: Ten year Crucible form of eight of the top players

2023 World Championship: Season Form, Seeds 1-4

The table below covers the major tournaments played in the 2023-24 season:

Key:

DNP = Did not play

DNQ = Did not qualify

LQ = Lost in qualifiers

2024 World Championship: Season Form, Seeds 5-8

The table below covers the major tournaments played in the 2023-24 season:

Key:

DNP = Did not play

DNQ = Did not qualify

LQ = Lost in qualifiers

Last ten winners of the snooker world championship

Top Tip: Fifteen of the last eighteen winners of the World Championship had played in at least one previous World Championship Final.

World Championship wins by players who have played at the Crucible

World Championship 2023: Results

Round 1 - Best of 19 frames 

Seeds in brackets

Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) 10 v Pang Junxu 7

Ding Junhui (16) 6 v Hossein Vafaei 10

Luca Brecel (9) 10  v Ricky Walden 9

Mark Williams (8) 10 v Jimmy Robertson 5

Judd Trump (5) 6 v Anthony McGill 10

Jack Lisowski (12) 10 v Noppon Saengkham 7

Robert Milkins (13) 10 v Joe Perry 9

Shaun Murphy (4) 9 v Si Jiahui 10

Mark Allen (3) 10 v Fan Zhengyi 5

Stuart Bingham (14) 10 v David Gilbert 4

Ali Carter (11) 6 v Jak Jones 10

Neil Robertson (6) 10 v Wu Yize 3

Kyren Wilson (7) 10 v Ryan Day 5

John Higgins (10) 10 v David Grace 3

Gary Wilson (15) 10 v Elliot Slessor 8

Mark Selby (2) 10 v Matthew Selt 8

Remember to check out OLBG's top Snooker tipsters

What score has occured the most in the World Snooker Final?

World Championship highest break winners in the last 10 years

• 2023 = 147 Kyren Wilson and Mark Selby
• 2022 = 147 Neil Robertson
• 2021 = 144 Shaun Murphy
• 2020 = 147 John Higgins
• 2019 = 143 John Higgins
• 2018 = 146 John Higgins
• 2017 = 146 Ronnie O’Sullivan
• 2016 = 143 Kyren Wilson
• 2015 = 145 Stuart Bingham and Neil Robertson
• 2014 = 140 Neil Robertson

Sure to be popular in the highest break market will be John Higgins who made the highest break for three of the last six years including a maximum in 2020.

147 breaks at The Crucible

One of the most iconic moments in the history of the world championship at The Crucible is when Cliff Thorburn made the first 147 break at the venue. The break began with an outrageous fluke, but the rest of the break was perfection and the elation Thorburn displays when potting the final black is pure theatre.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has made three of the twelve maximum breaks to be achieved at The Crucible, but it is his first 147 in 1997 that stands out as he made the complete clearance in an amazing five minutes and twenty seconds!

The latest 147 break to be made in Sheffield was in 2023 when Kyren Wilson completed his first Crucible Maximum.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has recorded an amazing fifteen 147 breaks in his career to date (seven more than anyone still playing) so the six-time World Champion is likely to be the favourite to record a maximum again this year.

Do you think there will be another maximum break in the World Championships in 2023?  If so why not check out our guide to the best bookmakers for snooker odds?

Number of century breaks at The Crucible in the World Snooker Championship in the last ten years

World Championship 2022: Results

First Round (best of 19 frames) Seedings in brackets

• Mark Selby (1) 10 v Jamie Jones 7
• Yan Bingtao (16) 10 v Chris Wakelin 6
• Barry Hawkins (9) 7 v Jackson Page 10
• Mark Williams (8) 10 v Michael White 3
• Kyren Wilson (5) 10 v Ding Junhui 8
• Stuart Bingham (12) 10 v Lyu Haotian 5
• Anthony McGill (13) 10 v Liam Highfield 7
• Judd Trump (4) 10 v Hossein Vafaei 4
• Neil Robertson (3) 10 v Ashley Hugill 5
• Jack Lisowski (14) 10 v Matthew Stevens 8
• Luca Brecel (11) 5 v Noppon Saengkham 10
• John Higgins (6) 10 v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 7
• Zhao Xintong (7) 10 v Jamie Clarke 2
• Shaun Murphy (10) 8 v Stephen Maguire 10
• Mark Allen (15) 10 v Scott Donaldson 6
• Ronnie O'Sullivan (2) 10 v David Gilbert 5

Second Round to the Final