Snooker World Championship 2025: First look and 20/1 + 33/1 outright picks

The most glorious time of the year for snooker fans is upon us again.

The Crucible awaits the World Championship and our tipster Adam Drury explains his early thinking – alongside 20/1 and 33/1 tips – when it comes to picking an outright winner.

Snooker World Championship analysis – Profile of a champion

There is enough reason to believe that the outright market for this tournament is inherently worth distrusting.

In a field where, by my reckoning, 20+ players have the game to triumph, our eyes should automatically be wondering down the page rather than up it.

The market is formed partly on the basis of pedigree – Ronnie O’Sullivan, who hasn’t played a professional match since January, is second-favourite with some firms – but partly on account of recent form, which there’s a strong case for completely ignoring. 

The tournament is unique in its make-up – requiring 71 frames to be won across 17 days, 35 of which come on the final Thursday to Monday – and long enough that champions don’t so much need to head to Sheffield feeling good as to discover the winning feeling while they’re there.

Those who have had a quiet season may, essentially, be about to enjoy their turn to peak – but that isn’t factored into the prices.

It would be churlish to suggest those at the top of the market aren’t there for good reason, considering the track records of Judd Trump, O’Sullivan and Mark Selby.

But 2023 and 2024 first-time champions Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson had achieved little else to shout about in the months prior and it does seem this tournament is heading the way of being an ecosystem of its own.

While it feels counterintuitive to put a black mark by the names of players who head to Sheffield in prime form, there is every reason to believe the best value can be found by doing so.

Snooker World Championship 2025 - Why opposing the favourites might pay

It is instructive, for example, that going back to 2010, only one of the 15 world champions reached the final of the event prior to the Crucible.

Mark Selby – at the very peak of his powers, a winning machine – won the China Open and followed it up with a world title in 2017, but that has proved to be an anomaly.

Indeed, three of the five winners in Sheffield since 2020 didn’t even take part in the Tour Championship, which took over as the penultimate event of the season that year – including both of the last two, Wilson and Brecel.

Higgins lifted that trophy this time after an epic 10-8 final win over Selby, so we’ll ignore both on the basis of this working theory. You sense Selby fancies the job but the Scot may well have reached his summit for the season.

We’re leaving O’Sullivan alone as his prolonged absence gives us nothing to go on and his status right at the top of the market is not justified.

Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy make up the top seven and have all won major titles of their own this season. A case can be made for all three but they don’t fit the profile I’m leaning towards.

Instead, I’ve got my eye on two world-class players who have been backed out after quiet campaigns and, I believe, are ready to thrive.

Snooker World Championship 2025 betting tips

Allen and Ding ticking over nicely

The first of those is Mark Allen, going completely under the radar after not winning a ranking event in 2024/25.

Allen was fourth-favourite this time 12 months ago having won the Champion of Champions and Players Championship in 2023/24, eliminated by one of the all-time great clearances from Higgins in a second-round decider.

This year, his only title is the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship – a knockaround that will have taken nothing out of him – while runs to the semi-finals of the UK Championship and the Masters tell us he’s ticking over perfectly OK.

Of more importance is that he has honed in on peaking for this event. He said in January that “all eyes are on Sheffield” and that he has been “experimenting here and there” in order to find the right formula.

While the Northern Irishman should not lose sight of what he does best naturally, everything about his approach ticks the boxes we’re looking to be ticked.

He has the game and the capacity to get it together at just the right time. A quarter-final with Wilson could be decisive, by which time – if we’re correct – he will be hitting his stride and his opponent will be flagging.

For similar reasons, we’re going to have a small interest on Ding Junhui.

Questions are asked of the iconic Chinese player’s temperament and ability under intense pressure, but you don’t have the career he’s had without the ability to deal with scrutiny.

Winning the International Championship in front of his adoring home fans was a reminder of his class, while he was beaten by Murphy and Trump in the two majors, which doesn’t worry us.

When Ding gets going, which there have been signs of this season, he can wipe the floor with any player on the circuit and at 33/1, we’ll take the chance.

A potential last-16 clash with Brecel in the last looks favourable, before a quarter-final with Trump or Murphy, who we hope have taken lumps out of each other if they meet.

Adam Drury's early outright fancies for the 2025 Snooker World Championship

Mark Allen to win the World Snooker Championship (20/1) – 0.5pts e/w with AK Bets

Ding Junhui to win the World Snooker Championship (33/1) – 0.5pts e/w with Midnite