World Championship Snooker 2025 Predictions: O’Sullivan to land number eight

The snooker season reaches its conclusion this month with the most prestigious event in the sport - the World Championship, which gets underway at the Crucible in Sheffield on Saturday, April 19 and runs until Monday, May 5.

Our man Dean Strand shares his World Championship Snooker 2025 predictions, including a couple of outright selections and one to win the first, third and fourth quarters.

A total of 128 players have already battled it out over the last two weeks to join the 16 seeds in the first round and there are already some big names eliminated with Jack Lisowski, Gary Wilson and former winner Stuart Bingham all missing out on qualifying.

Still plenty of top players who did come through, including twice runner-up Ali Carter and former UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong, returning for the first time since his ban.

Last year saw a somewhat surprising final as Kyren Wilson lifted the trophy following an 18-14 win over Jak Jones and he’ll be looking to make history by being the first player to defend his first World Championship in the Crucible era after a very good season, already winning four ranking events.

1pt Ronnie O'Sullivan to win outright @ 13/2

My main pick for this event is seven-time winner Ronnie O’Sullivan.

There have been question marks about whether O’Sullivan will play this week. He hasn’t featured in any events since walking out of the Championship League in January and throwing away his cue, so this certainly isn’t a pick based on form.

His more recent World Championship wins tend to come in seasons when he’s been showing his best form. In 2022, he’d only managed one ranking event win and in 2020 he didn't win any, failing to reach even the top 16 on the one-year list. More famously, he took a season off in 2013 and still came back to win the World Championship.

World Championship Snooker Odds

Personally, I don’t think he’d enter this week if he hadn’t been practising hard and feeling like he was capable of winning the event. Last season he lifted five trophies including the Masters and UK Championship, so he definitely still has the ability.

His first-round match looks tough on paper against Ali Carter, but Carter is a player he’s always raised his game against. Amazingly, O'Sullivan has won 20 of their 21 previous head-to-heads excluding the Championship League.

1pt Joe O'Connor to win Quarter 3 @ 9/1 & 0.5pts each-way Joe O'Connor to win outright @ 50/1

O’Connor is a player I rate very highly and I would expect him to be in the top 16 in the next couple of seasons.

He does have a tendency to go through some poor spells, but when he’s on form he’s more than capable of mixing it against the best players. He’s already reached three finals in his career.

In his last event at the World Open, he looked unplayable at times with convincing wins over Trump, Holt, Murphy and Carter to reach the final with Murphy claiming it one of the best performances he’d ever seen against him.

O’Connor also looked very good in qualifying this week, beating the in-form Jackson Page to book his place at the Crucible.

It will be his second appearance here - last year on his debut he again looked very good beating Mark Selby 10-6.

Tough match against Higgins in his first round, but he’s beaten Higgins a couple of times before and if he can do so again he’ll have a very winnable quarter with the other highest seed in this section Mark Williams struggling with his eyesight recently.

1pt Jak Jones to win Quarter 1 @ 14/1

Jak Jones has only qualified twice for the Crucible, but he’s proven himself to be a bit of a specialist there.

Two years ago on his debut here he beat Ali Carter and Neil Robertson convincingly before losing a close match against Mark Allen - and last year he impressed even more, going all the way to the final with a notable 13-9 win over Judd Trump in the Quarters.

He doesn’t have an easy draw and will be tested early on by Zhao Xintong, but he’s shown his capabilities here two years running and at these odds I think he looks worth backing again.

1pt Zak Surety to win Quarter 4 @ 25/1

In the fourth quarter, I’m going to take a punt on Crucible debutant Zak Surety.

Surety has shown huge improvements over the last year or so and in particular in recent weeks. He's been playing better than ever so will be full of confidence heading into this week.

In his most recent tournament, the World Open, he beat Jiahui, Hongyu and Ford to reach the semi-final where he was beaten narrowly by John Higgins in a decider.

In qualifying for this event he trailed Jack Lisowski 8-5 but played some incredible snooker to win five in a row, including a couple of centuries - and he followed it up on judgement day with a dominant 10-3 win over Ricky Walden.

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