Snooker betting tips: Expert Picks for the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre
Sporting Life's team of experts and some special guests provide their best bets for the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.
Allen attractive at each-way odds
It feels to me like a very much lopsided draw for the World Championship, and not just in the most obvious of ways.
Yes, the bottom half features both Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump, and it's odds-on one of them reaches the final. But it also houses the dark horse, Gary Wilson, the one we'd all love to win, Ding Junhui, and the qualifier nobody wanted to face, Jack Lisowski.
Throw in the bang in-form Mark Williams and Trump's tricky opener against Hossein Vafaei, Crucible specialist Barry Hawkins and the surprise of the season, Zhang Anda, and it's all a bit of a mess.
Not so the top half, where MARK ALLEN stands head and shoulders above the rest on the form of this season and last.
Granted, Mark Selby is a four-time champion who was beaten in last year's final. You have to scrape him off the table here. And yes, Ali Carter has been to two finals and is better than ever. But with The Curse facing Luca Brecel, a general big-match curse slowly breaking John Higgins, Selby's form unconvincing and Carter's chance probably behind him, Allen should fear nobody and is backed to reach his first Crucible final.
Once there, you better be sure he can win it. Allen has come a long way since O'Sullivan trounced him here two years ago. I'm not sure anyone has Trump's number, but if they do it could be Allen, who leads the head-to-head. And were he to somehow face anybody else from that bottom section, they'd likely have been forced to dig very deep to get there. Allen would be favourite to beat whoever it is.
Many will keep this very simple and back O'Sullivan and who can blame them. But it could pay to keep the top half simple, too, and back the rounded game of Allen to carry him where it ought to, all the way to the final. (Ben Coley)
O'Sullivan the man to beat but don't discount Murphy
All eyes will be on Ronnie O'Sullivan, bidding to complete a remarkable clean sweep of the Triple Crown events this season and record his eighth Crucible success in the process.
O'Sullivan is the man to beat, no question, but I've felt for a while that Gary Wilson could have a say in Sheffield and the Scottish and Welsh Open winner will pose a significant challenge to O'Sullivan should they meet in the quarter-finals.
It won't be plain sailing for O'Sullivan, it rarely is at the Crucible, and at a big prices I'm keen to chance SHAUN MURPHY who has a formidable record in this tournament and is on the other side of the draw.
Champion in 2005, Murphy has reached the final on three occasions since, including in 2021 when coming into the event on the back of a lean run, very similar to this season.
Sometimes, fresh is best when it comes to the World Championship and Murphy is just the type of character to turn it on in the biggest event of all.
A word, too, on Pang Junxu, a fine, young talent who starts off against Robert Milkins. Don't rule out a good run from him, but Murphy is my man this year. (Neal Foulds)
Crucible comforts can spark Selby revival
Some people might well be reading too much into MARK SELBY's rotten performance against Gary Wilson at the Tour Championship recently. The four-time world champion branded it as "pathetic" and said if he carried on like that, he would consider stopping playing.
Those comments were surely pure heat of the moment stuff, while the match was just one of those things that happens to any player, even one as good as Selby. Lest we forget, it was only in February that Selby hammered Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-0 at the Players Championship.
Selby's well documented personal struggles are always going to provide him with a challenge, but let's be clear, he's the ultimate horses for courses man at this tournament. He's been in the final five times in the last ten years. Remarkable stuff and testament to his supreme abilities in long format snooker.
Selby's first round opponent is someone who he knows very well, fellow Leicester man Joe O'Connor. The 28-year-old played really well in qualifying but will be competing at the Crucible for the first time. And he's never beaten Selby before. Don't be surprised if Selby has a winning start, soon gets a head of steam on and goes deep again in the game's biggest event. (Nick Metcalfe)
Bet on maximum magic at the Crucible
Regular readers of Sporting Life's snooker pages will know that I've been tracking 147 maximum breaks for a while now, and you can watch all 14 which have been at the Crucible here.
There was a time when a maximum at the Crucible was a rare feat, but as we have seen in all tournament play, as the standard continues to rise, the more and more 147 breaks that we are seeing on the table.
Joe O'Connor made the 200th maximum at the Championship League recently, quickly followed by Zak Surety at the World Open, before Noppon Saengkham knocked in the second of his professional career only a matter of days ago in World Championship Qualifying.
At the Crucible itself, there has been an uptick in maximums, with John Higgins' effort in 2020 the first since Stephen Hendry in 2012. 2021 was blank, but Neil Robertson struck gold in 2022 and then last year, we saw two, from Kyren Wilson in the first round and Mark Selby in the final.
In the last five years at the World Championship, there have been 100 or more centuries made on three occasions, further confirming the upward trend in big breaks, and it seems highly likely we are in for more the same across the next 17 days.
With that will come maximum opportunities, and the general 11/10 for ONE OR MORE MAXIMUM BREAKS in the tournament appears perfectly fair. (Chris Hammer)
WATCH: SHOULD THE WORLDS STAY OR LEAVE THE CRUCIBLE?
Zhang to win 3rd Quarter
Whatever happens from here, this season will go down as a huge success for ZHANG ANDA, easily the most significant of his career to date.
Only a year ago, Zhang was every inch a snooker journeyman, scratching around at the lower end of the rankings with big wins and tournament victories a mere pipe dream.
But Zhang will this year make his fourth Crucible appearance as an automatic qualifier, lining up as the number 11 seed following a breakthrough campaign that has seen him finish runner-up at the English Open, before he landed the valuable International Championship and then pushed Mark Allen hard in the final of the Players Championship.
Quite what has changed is hard to fathom, but the results speak for themselves and Zhang currently sits at number three on the 1 Year List in the rankings.
Only Judd Trump and Ronnie O'Sullivan currently sit above him on that list and he has beaten some big names this term, including that pair and Mark Selby and John Higgins.
Zhang has the all-round game to thrive anywhere, but while his scoring has gone through the roof this term – notching 30 centuries and counting this season compared to only nine last – his safety play and generally patient, disciplined approach promises to thrive at the World Championship.
He can win ugly and whoever he comes up against, Zhang will be a very hard man to beat if maintaining his recent form levels.
He'll fancy his chances against Jak Jones first up and though he could face Mark Williams after that, Zhang is more than capable of putting it up to the Welshman, as was the case when he prevailed in their meeting at the International Championship in November.
Trump could lie in wait later down the line, but that's another match Zhang wouldn't run scared from, and he looks a sporting bet to win the 3rd Quarter at a general 8/1. (Richard Mann)
Related snooker links
- World Championship outright preview
- Nick Metcalfe on the World Championship
- Watch: World Championship preview show
- World Championship draw and results
- Top 16 player profiles for 2024 World Championship
- Gary Wilson exclusive interview
- History of snooker's number ones
- Ronnie O'Sullivan's maximum breaks
- Watch all the Crucible 147 breaks
- History of 147 breaks
- Snooker's GOAT: O'Sullivan by the numbers
- O'Sullivan: One of a kind
- Ronnie on the unbreakable record
- Best players never to win the world title
- Crucible memories: Ronnie's finest hour
- Crucible memories: Higgins denies Trump
- Crucible memories: White a People's Champion
- Crucible memories: Johnson stuns Davis
- Crucible memories: Foulds' dream debut
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