World Snooker Championship 2023 Odds & Preview

We have World Snooker Championship 2023 odds for you ahead of the start of the most prestigious tournament in the snooker calendar.

What is the World Snooker Championship?

The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most coveted prize in snooker, as well as the most lucrative with total prize money in 2023 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner.

First held in 1927 and won by Joe Davis it is one of three tournaments along with the UK Championship and Masters that makeup Snooker’s Triple Crown Series. The reigning champion is Ronnie O’Sullivan who defeated Judd Trump 18–13 in the final of the previous year’s event.

When is the World Snooker Championship?

The World Championship takes place from April 15th – May 1st at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Where Can I Watch The World Snooker Championship 2023?

BBC and Eurosport.

What is the format of the World Snooker Championship?

The 16 top-ranked players in the world will be joined by the 16 players that come through the 128-person qualifiers in the competition’s first round.

World Snooker Championship 2023 Schedule

April 15-19: Round 1

April 20: Round 1/2

April 21-24: Round 2

April 25-26: Quarter-finals

April 27-29: Semi-finals

April 30-May 1: Final

World Snooker Championship 2023 Preview

Ronnie O’Sullivan – World Snooker Championship Favourite

Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan is the defending World Champion, World Number one and inarguably one of the greatest if not the greatest to ever pick up a cue!

He comes into this competition as the worthy favourite. A win for O’Sullivan would take his World Title total to eight titles which would be a record for the modern era (from 1969).

The 2022 World Championship, “The Rocket” was his 30th Crucible appearance, equalling Steve Davis’s record. He would go on to defeat David Gilbert, Mark Allen, Stephen Maguire and John Higgins to reach the final. He then defeated Judd Trump 18–13 in the final to win his seventh world title, equalling Stephen Hendry for the most world titles in the modern era.

At 46 years and 148 days, he became the oldest world champion in snooker history and set a new record of 74 Crucible wins beating Hendry’s 70. This season O’Sullivan has been in decent form reaching the quarter-finals of the UK Snooker Championships and the Masters but had to withdraw from the WST Classic with an elbow injury but hopes to be fit for the Crucible.

You can back Ronnie O’Sullivan at 9/2 to win a record 8th Snooker World Championship in 2023.

Judd Trump 5/1

The current World Number five won his first and only World Championship when he defeated John Higgins 18-9 in the final in 2019.

That win had been his first appearance in a World Final since he burst onto the scene in the 2011 World Championship playing his brand of sexy no-safety snooker it captivated crowds. Ultimately he was too inexperienced at that stage of his career and John Higgins beat him in the final 18-15.

Since then he has become a serial tour winner with 22 more ranking titles and 6 non-ranking finals. Trump was disappointing at the beginning of the season having many early-round exits although he would then make the final of the 2022 Champion of Champions losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-6 despite making his seventh maximum break.

Recently he has come into better form winning The 2023 Masters and making the final of the 2023 Champions League. The Juddernaut has made at least the Quarter-Final or better in each edition of the event since 2018 and expect him to be thereabouts again this year.

Judd Trump is the 5/1 second favourite to win the Snooker World Championship 2023.

Mark Selby 11/2

One of the all-time great World Championship performers, Mark Selby has won the event on four separate occasions 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021. However, in recent years the 39-year-old form had slipped in form but has improved again this season as he has reached the quarter-final of the British, Northern Ireland and Scottish Open.

Selby also reached the semi-final of the Champion of Champions before going on to win the English Open last December, his first ranking trophy since his World Championship win in 2021 and also won the inaugural WST Classic tournament, beating Pang Junxu 6–2 in the final.

Last time out he lost a thriller to Shaun Murphy in the 2023 Tour Championship semi-final losing 9–10 in the end. The Jester had managed to comeback to force a deciding frame after being 6–9 down.

The Selby resilience and grit is back and he will want to win his fifth World Title this year with odds of 11/2 in the betting.

Neil Robertson 7/1

The 2010 World Champion finished the 2021/22 season strongly winning The Masters for the second time, the Players Championship, Tour Championship and achieved his fifth-ever maximum break at the World Championship. However, the Aussie got knocked out in the same second-round match that he recorded a 147 in to Jack Lisowski after losing in the deciding frame.

This season has prompted a new attitude from Neil Robertson as he admitted being comfortable opting out of the early season tournaments,

“I used to play in most tournaments, but I’m playing for fun now. I’ve got a young family now so I don’t need to play in every tournament these days. My family is really important to me, they’re my inspiration to win”

In the second half of the tournament, he exited at the semi-final stage of the Hong Kong Masters being knocked out to the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Allen. In other events he’d also lose out in his English Open defence to a 6-4 loss to Mark Selby.

Robertson’s most notable result came at the 2023 Champions League where he got knocked out 3-0 by Judd Trump. Could the World Championship bring a return to form for the Thunder from Down Under?

Neil Robertson is 7/1 to win his second Snooker World Championship this year.

Shaun Murphy 8/1

Murphy burst onto the scene many years ago when he won the 2005 World Championship, beating former champions Higgins 13–8, Steve Davis 13–4, and Peter Ebdon 17–12 to reach the final.

In the 2005 final, Murphy came from 6-10 behind against Matthew Stevens to win that title 18-16. He made 11 centuries which was the most at the tournament along the way to make a mockery of his 150/1 pre-tournament odds. That title run made him only the third qualifier to win the World Championship after Alex Higgins in 1972 and Terry Griffiths in 1979.

Aged 22, Murphy was the second-youngest player to win the World Snooker Championship following Stephen Hendry who first lifted the title when he was 21. This season he has been in decent form winning the most recent event the Tour Championship to claim his second-ranking title of the season with Kyren Wilson the opponent he defeated in the final.

The Magician’s previous event win was his February Player’s Championship win. Currently residing in Ireland, could Shaun Murphy be considered the leading Irish hope?

Shaun Murphy is 8/1 to get his hands on the Snooker World Championship trophy once more.

Kyren Wilson 10/1

Kyren Wilson has always been a player of huge promise with Ronnie O’Sullivan once claiming that he would win a World Title someday. During these last two/three seasons on tour Wilson has become a consistent force and a regular in the latter stages of big events.

Highlights of his season would be winning the European Masters back in August, -final appearances at the Scottish Open and German Masters, semi-finals at the Players Championship and Champions League along with final appearances at the WST Classic and the most recent Tour Championship.

The Warrior has been a consistent performer at this event too. Aside from his second-round exit last year, since 2015 he has never performed worse than a quarter-final.

Kyren Wilson is the most fancied of the field at odds of 10/1 to land his first World Title and place a new name on the Crucible Trophy.

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