World Snooker Championship 2022 – Preview And Top Betting Tips

One of the biggest sporting events of the spring in the UK is always the World Snooker Championship and this year’s tournament will get underway at its home venue of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England on Saturday.

All of the top ranked 16 players in the world have been handed a bye into the First Round, with their opponents set to come from any of the 16 players that come through the World Championships qualifying tournament which is taking place this week.

Last year’s champion Mark Selby will get the tournament underway in one of the two opening games and this year, the competition looks as fierce as ever as literally any of the 16 seeded players will feel that they stand a good chance of success.

We are going to preview the tournament this year below, but in addition we will begin by taking a look at the history and some of the top moments from this famous tournament.

Remember, all betting markets and odds shown in this article are taken from bet365 Sport and were correct at the time of writing, but the odds may have changed since the article was first written.

Last year, in an exciting tournament, it was Mark Selby that landed the World Title defeating Shaun Murphy 18-15 in an exciting final to take home the £500,000 prize money.

Selby will of course be back to defend his title this year.

Let’s now take a look back at some of the key events in the timeline of the Snooker World Championship, along with some of its most memorable moments before we then switch our attention to this year’s tournament.

World Snooker Championship – Timeline

• 1927 – The first World Championship is held with ten professional players entering the contest. Joe Davis defeated Tom Dennis in the final and he would hold onto the trophy for the next until 1947, winning 15 titles. He retired from the tournament in 1947 having never lost a match in the event.
• 1947 – Walter Donaldson becomes the first player other than Joe Davis to win the tournament.
• 1964 – The first of a series of seven ‘Challenge Matches” to decide the World Champion was contested. John Pulman won all seven of these contests from 1964 to 1968.
• 1969 – The tournament changes to a knockout event and this tournament is regarded as the beginning of the modern snooker era. John Spencer is the victory in the first of his three titles.
• 1972 – Young Irishman Alex “Hurricane” Higgins stuns the snooker world by coming through qualifying to beat John Pulman, Rex Williams and John Spencer in the final to win the World Championship at his first attempt.
• 1973 – Ray Reardon wins the second of his World Titles and would go on to win the trophy a further five times in the next six years, John Spencer winning the only other title in 1977.
• 1977 – The tournament moves to its new home of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield where it has remained ever since.
• 1980 – The tournament is expanded to a total of 24-players.
• 1981 – Steve Davis wins the first of his six World Snooker titles. He would reach the final every year following 1981 to 1989 other than 1982.
• 1982 – Alex Higgins wins his second World Title defeating Ray Reardon in the final.
• 1983 – Cliff Thorburn of Canada becomes the first player to make a televised break of 147 in the championship.
• 1985 – The Black Ball Final sees Dennis Taylor clinches an 18-17 win over Steve Davis on the black ball in the deciding frame. The match is still the most watched TV programme in the history of BBC Two, attracting 18.5 million viewers.
• 1990 – Stephen Hendry wins the first of his seven World Championships.
• 1997 – Ronnie O’Sullivan records the fastest ever maximum break in snooker history, taking five minutes and eight seconds to clear the table.
• 1998 – John Higgins wins his first of four World Snooker Titles.
• 2000 – Mark Williams wins the first of his three World Snooker Titles.
• 2001 – Ronnie O’Sullivan wins the first of his six World Snooker titles.
• 2010 – Neil Robertson becomes the first Australian player to win the World Championship.
• 2014 – Mark Selby wins the first of his four World titles, he would win in three of the next four years.
• 2019 – Judd Trump wins his first World Championship and the winners cheque hits £500,000.
• 2021 – The 2021 Championship sees a record number of century breaks in one tournament with 108 centuries achieved across the Championships.

World Snooker Champions (1969 Onwards)

1. Stephen Hendry (Sco) – 7 wins
2. Steve Davis (Eng), Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng), Ray Reardon (Wal) – 6 wins
3. John Higgins (Sco), Mark Selby (Eng) – 4 wins
4. Mark Williams (Wal), John Spencer (Eng) – 3 wins
5. Alex Higgins (N.Ir) – 2 wins
6. Shaun Murphy (Eng), Cliff Thorburn (Can), Peter Ebdon (Eng), Graeme Dott (Sco), Ken Doherty. (Ire), Dennis Taylor (N.Ir), Judd Trump (Eng), John Parrott (Eng), Terry Griffiths (Wal), Joe Johnson (Eng), Neil Robertson (Aus), Stuart Bingham (Eng) – 1 win

World Snooker Championship 2022 – Seeds

The 16 seeds for this year’s tournament are:

1. Mark Selby (Eng)
2. Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng)
3. Neil Robertson (Aus)
4. Judd Trump (Eng)
5. Kyren Wilson (Eng)
6. John Higgins (Sco)
7. Zhao Xintong (Chn)
8. Mark Williams (Wal)
9. Barry Hawkins (Eng)
10. Shaun Murphy (Eng)
11. Luca Brecel (Bel)
12. Stuart Bingham (Eng)
13. Anthony McGill (Sco)
14. Jack Lisowski (Eng)
15. Mark Allen (N.Ir)
16. Yan Bingtao (Chn)

The 16 seeds will be drawn against one of the 16 players that make it through the qualifying tournament for the World Championships which is taking place this week.

As is customary, the tournament features a seeded draw, with the 1^st seed (or their opponent) drawn against the 16^th seed (or their opponent) in the second round and so on throughout the draw.

It promises to be a very open championship in keeping with what has been a very open season in World Snooker in 2021 and 2022.

Only three players, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Zhao Xintong have won multiple ranking tournaments, while we have seen a number of surprise winners of events with the likes of veterans Joe Perry, Robert Milkins picking up victories alongside the likes of Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.

Higgins has been arguably the most consistent player on the tour this season reaching six finals, but winning just the one.

With new and emerging stars making a name for themselves alongside the veterans, and with many players yet to win this season including many of the seeded stars at the event, this could well be one of the most keenly contested World Championships in many years.

Who Is Our Tip To Be Snooker’s Next World Champion?

A look at the odds with bet365 Sport for this years event does offer an insight into how open it is.

Neil Robertson is the favourite at 4/1, just ahead of Judd Trump at 9/2, with Ronnie O’Sullivan a 5/1 chance followed by last year’s Champion Mark Selby at 15/2. John Higgins is 10/1 with Kyren Wilson the only other player rated at better than 20/1 with him being a 16/1 chance.

There are plenty of potential winners of this event at higher odds too including the Chinese trio of Zhao Xintong (20/1), Yan Bingtao and Ding Junhui (both 22/1), while Mark Allen is 25/1 and last year’s finalist Shaun Murphy is one of a number of top players including former champions Mark Williams, Stuart Bingham and Barry Hawkins at 33/1.

You can also back Luca Brecel at that price.

Jack Lisowski, who went deep in last year’s tournament is a 50/1 chance and the other longer odds options are generally those players who still remain in the World Cup Qualifying tournament, but who could be eliminated in the final set of games taking place on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

That list includes the likes of Stephen Maguire, Graeme Dott, Ali Carter and Matthew Stevens.

Looking at the form of players this year, I can understand why Robertson is the shortest price option, but I am not quite sure he will win it this year. Given his consistency, I think John Higgins at 10/1 is an outstanding each way option but having endured a poor season so far, I think Mark Selby at 15/2 has the game to battle through and claim another world title.