World Snooker Championship tips

The World Snooker Championship produces drama like no other tournament and the Crucible stage is set for two weeks of baize battles.

Ronnie O’Sullivan bids to make history by landing a record eighth world title and the Rocket heads the outright betting at 9/4.

Judd Trump has enjoyed a multi-tournament winning season, but the 4/1 second favourite looks to have been handed a tough first-round draw against Hossein Vafaei.

Four-time Crucible king John Higgins takes on Jamie Jones in the opening round, while 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 world champion Mark Selby will face Joe O’Connor.

Tip 1 Luca Brecel (each-way) to win the World Championship

Luca Brecel came of age when winning the World Championship last year and, at 20/1 https://www.betuk.com/betting#event/1019628779, the Belgian Bullet looks good value to retain his crown.

Brecel’s results in ranking events this season wouldn’t inspire confidence in a repeat Sheffield victory, but the 29-year-old has said himself that snooker hasn’t been his top priority since he lifted the Crucible crown.

However, the Dilsen-Stokkem cueman did make the final of the Shanghai Masters and World Masters earlier in the campaign and perhaps that’s a better guide to Brecel’s chances given that he declined the invitation to many of the early season ranking events.

Last year’s Sheffield success showed that Brecel has the game to win snooker’s biggest prize and the Belgian Bullet beat two of Sheffield’s most decorated performers in O’Sullivan and Selby on the way to the title..

Robert Milkins, Ali Carter and Shaun Murphy are the seeded players in Brecel’s quarter and the 29-year-old looks to hold the edge over those opponents.

Murphy and Milkins have been badly out-of-sorts this season, while Carter’s recent Crucible record is poor.

Tournament favorites O’Sullivan and Trump are housed in the opposite half of the draw to the defending champion and, while a first-round tie against Dave Gilbert would have once rated a tricky tie, the Tamworth cueman has won only three matches in the last six ranking events he has contested, outside of the World Championship qualifiers, and his peak appears to be in the past.

Brecel can progress from a below-par quarter and an each-way bet on the defending champion, looks to have a strong chance of paying dividends.

Tip 2 Kyren Wilson each-way to win the World Championship

The second quarter of the tournament looks more competitive, with Higgins, Selby, Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson the seeded quartet.

Throw in Jones, who beat Neil Roberton in the qualifiers and capable performers O’Connor and Robbie Williams and it’s a fierce line-up.

Selby, Allen and Higgins are all ahead of Wilson in the outright betting, but the 28/1 on offer about the Warrior could hold some each-way value.

Of course, Selby and Higgins have eight world titles between them and they are two of the sport’s great performers, but they have both struggled for form this season and Wilson’s Crucible record is eye-catching.

The Kettering cueman is a three-time Crucible quarter-finalist, a two-time semi-finalist and the Warrior made the final of the 2020 Sheffield showpiece.

There has been limited success on the tour for Wilson this season, but there have been a whole host of final-frame defeats for the Warrior and the performances have been better than results suggest.

The 32-year-old is second behind Trump on the tournament centuries count this season and that scoring power could carry Wilson a long way in Sheffield.