Bookmakers Say Snooker’s 2025 UK Championship Is Wide Open

by Roy Brindley, 28 November 2025

Bookmaker odds suggest Snooker’s 2025 Victorian Plumbing UK Championship is wide-open.

Zhao Xintong has won the UK Championship before and arrives in York on the back of victory in the Riyadh Season Championship. © Getty Images

Key Facts:

• This week’s UK Championship is Snooker’s first Triple Crown event of the 2025/26 season.
• Trump and Xintong are joint-favourites to land the £250,000 winner’s prize.
• Julien Leclercq, ranked world No. 81, is out to make a statement.
• BBC and TNT Sports will broadcast live UK Championship action.

The first leg of Snooker’s Triple Crown, the 2025 Victorian Plumbing UK Championship, gets underway this week. Nine days of play will conclude on Sunday, December 7, when the winner will collect a £250,000 prize.

Second only to the World Championship in the prestige stakes, the pre-event odds offered by the UK’s online betting sites suggest this year’s event is wide-open. Judd Trump and Zhao Xintong share favouritism on 9/2 odds; five other players are quoted under 10/1.

The top 16 players in the world rankings have been given an automatic spot in the UK Championship. The remaining 16 contenders progressed through qualifying rounds played at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan.

Players Ranked in Their Teens Miss Out

Julien Leclercq, world ranked 81, is the lowest-ranked player in the competition. Success over Haris Tahir, Jak Jones, and He Guoqiang has earned the 22-year-old Belgian a place in the televised ‘last-32’ stage and an appointment with Neil Robertson.

There is no place in the main draw for world-ranked 17 Chris Wakelin, the 2025 World Championship quarter-finalist, who lost 6-3 to Mitchell Mann in the ‘last 80’ stage. Jak Jones (ranked 18), Ali Carter (19), and former World Champion Stuart Bingham (20) are among those who failed to advance through the qualifying rounds.

The highest-ranked player in the main draw who is not a member of the top-16 club is Elliott Slessor (21). Recent Northern Ireland Open winner Jack Lisowski, one place behind Slessor in the current rankings, is another who failed to reach the ‘last-32’ stage.

No Joy for 147 Break Builders

The UK Championship has already seen two 147 breaks. Liam Pullen recorded his maiden maximum break in his 6‍-‍1 victory over amateur player Kaylan Patel. Nevertheless, he was eliminated from the competition (6-5) by Stuart Bingham a few days later.

Chang Bingyu only played 21 frames in the competition – beating Dylan Emmery 6-4 and losing 5-6 to Stephan Maguire – but during these two matches, he registered 137, 101 and 101 breaks before producing a fabled 147 against Maguire.

Bulcsú Révész confirmed his status as a player to follow with 144, 124 and 101 breaks. The Hungarian failed to overcome Elliott Slessor (5-6) in the ‘last 80’ stage, but, aged 18, experts believe he is set to climb up the rankings in the coming seasons. The 2024 WSF World Junior Champion is currently ranked 85.

Xintong Is in Form, but the 11-From-11 Stat Is a Concern

Seeded 1 and 2, Judd Trump and Zhao Xintong are situated at opposite ends of the draw, meaning the pair could clash in the final. Having landed the 2025 Riyadh Season Championship in late November, Xintong is an in-form player, and he won this contest in 2021.

Zhao Xintong is king of the snooker world but it was at the UK Championship where he made his name!

He is eyeing triple crown title number 3 in York | @allbritish_ pic.twitter.com/xMmwJlWeAX

— WST (@WeAreWST) November 25, 2025

Judd Trump’s breakthrough major success came in the 2011 UK Championship, and he is the defending champion. However, the 36-year-old has not won a title in 2025, and bare results suggest he is not currently close to his best. A tough opening round assignment against UK Championship winner, Stephen Maguire, tempers enthusiasm further.

The 2025/26 season has not been a joyride for any player. Its 11 completed major competitions – eight of which carried ranking status – have produced 11 individual winners. Only Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy have reached more than one final, winning one apiece.

The Rocket Aiming for Eight

Ladbrokes gives Murphy and Robertson cautious 9/1 quotes in their ante-post betting. Mark Selby and Kyren Wilson, like the pair above, are former World Champions and are hovering around the same price.

Only the popular class of ’92 player, Ronnie O’Sullivan, trades shorter than this quartet. The seven-time World Champion has reached the final of the UK Championship eight times, landing the prize on seven occasions.

Despite his advancing years, three of O’Sullivan’s victories have come since 2017 and ‘The Rocket’ can never be safely written off. Zhou Yuelong, a finalist in September’s English Open and a recent Northern Ireland Open semi-finalist, is his first-round opponent. If that assignment is not tricky enough, Mark Selby could be waiting for him in the second round.

How to Watch the UK Snooker Championship

The 2025 UK Championship, played at the York Barbican, runs from November 29 to December 7. BBC Sport will broadcast the action live on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and its streaming service, BBC iPlayer. Matches will also be covered live on TNT Sports/Discovery+.

Afternoon sessions will start at 1 pm each day, and evening sessions begin at 7 pm each day. All games are the ‘best of 19 frames’ except for the final. It is, and has been every year since 1993, a ‘best of 19 frames’ encounter.