Bingham & Wilson Aim To Book Crucible Spots
The race for next week's Snooker World Championship heats up this week at the all-action qualifying
Lewis Watson 
Qualifying for the 2025 Snooker World Championship is up and running in Sheffield this week, with 128 players vying for spots alongside the world's top 16 in the sport's premium and historic event.
Stuart Bingham and Gary Wilson are short prices with online betting sites to book their slots at the Crucible.
Our snooker expert, Lewis Watson, takes a closer look at this week's qualifying sessions in Sheffield.
Crucible Qualifying
It's a long and testing week. Matches are played over lengthy best-of-19 frames and plenty of stamina is needed at the baize in order to succeed in reaching the tournament, starting on April 19.
As always, eyes will be locked in on the thrills and spills of the qualifying campaign, but there are a couple of headline acts that are tipped to make it to the Crucible without too much drama.
Stuart Bingham is one of these players.
"Bull-run" is currently down at number 19 in the world rankings, but has two semi-finals in his last four World Championship appearances to hang his hat on.
The 48-year-old is clearly a player for the big occasion in Sheffield and after recently reaching the final of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong, he enters into the third round of qualifying with a decent bit of form.
Fan Zhengyi is expected to be Bingham's biggest obstacle, but priced 1/2 to win both of his qualifying matches, bookies are heavily relying on his wealth of experience in these long-format encounters.
Another short price is 4/6 Gary Wilson, who sits atop of the draw courtesy of his 17th ranking spot.
The 39-year-old has won two Scottish Opens and a Welsh Open over the last three seasons, but a bad run of form has seen a few question marks raised over his chances in Sheffield.
Still, he has only failed to make the main tournament twice over the last six years and it's hard to imagine the likes of Dominic Dale, Rory Thor or Daniel Wells beating him in a race to 10.
But there will be upsets.
He Guoqiang in the bottom segment is 4/1 with bet365 to reach the Crucible – standing in his way is the out of form Ali Carter and Scott Donaldson who has lost out in ten of his 12 World Championship Qualifying campaigns.
Former world champion Graham Dott also enters the fray in the second round of qualifying attempting to reach his 21st World Championship.
He has lost in qualifying the last five years, but with two final appearances and a 2006 title under his belt, his name will still put fear into the eyes of anyone matched with the Scot.
Jack Lisowski and Hossein Vafaei are probably short-priced players to ignore in the outrights considering their sketchy seasons, opening the door for the aforementioned Dott to get success or even Ricky Walden who is 5/2 to advance from section three.
So buckle up this week for wall-to-wall qualifiers and the drama of "Judgement Day" on Wednesday April 16.
Don't forget to check out the best snooker free bets - ideal for using on all the Crucible action!
