Ronnie O’Sullivan v He Guoqiang LIVE: Score and latest updates from 2026 World Snooker Championship

The World Snooker Championship is underway at the Crucible, with the world’s best players descending on Sheffield for one of the most-watched and most-wagered-on sporting events of spring.

Names including Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump will be contesting the tournament, with significant betting interest generated too, from outrights wagers through to in-play frame betting.

UK bookmakers also run dedicated promotions around the event, with betting offers and betting specials. Here’s our guide to some of the best offers from six key bookies:

An update from this morning’s session at the Crucible where yet another seed advanced. That’s now 12 matches completed and 12 seeds going through…

Could we have a first-ever clean sweep of all 16 seeds making it through the first round?

The latest was 13th seed Chris Wakelin who looked to be in a battle with talented 20-year-old debutant Liam Pullen when the youngster pulled the match back to 5-5 but Wakelin went through the gears from there and eventually emerged a 10-6 winner.

The reigning Scottish Open champion will now face Neil Robertson or Pang Junxu in the last 16.

Ronnie O’Sullivan was on fire yesterday afternoon and this shot was symptomatic of his form.

If The Rocket is knocking in the long balls, then the rest of the field must beware…

Wu Yize hails from Lanzhou in the northwest of China, a city famous for its beef noodles. It is a clear beef broth with radish slices, chilli oil and herbs, and aside from his family, it is the thing he misses most: there are plenty of Chinese restaurants in Sheffield, but they don’t do it like home.

It is a small cost for being one of the best young snooker players in the world. Wu moved his life to Yorkshire three years ago to be part of the growing stable of Chinese players in the city, and he could be the next superstar from the group.

The 22-year-old reached finals at the English Open and Scottish Open last season, and comes into the World Snooker Championship as the 10th seed and among the contenders for the title.

Read Lawrence Ostlere’s full profile of Wu:

The “Crucible Curse” is snooker’s most famous hex. Twenty men who have won their first World Snooker Championship title at the iconic Crucible Theatre since the tournament moved there in 1977 have tried to defend it the next year. All 20 have failed.

Everyone, from surprise, one-off champions to the greatest of all time who would go on to dominate their era have fallen short the year after their first world crown.

But Zhao Xintong might just be different…

Things could hardly have gone better for Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first session yesterday

Well over half the first-round matches have now been completed at the Crucible and we’ve got a unique situation brewing. So far, every single seeded player has won their match – normally he first round is an absolute bloodbath for the higher-ranked players.

Never in the history of the World Championship has there been a clean sweep of all 16 seeds reaching the second round. Will we see it this year? Surely not…

Zhao Xintong (1) 10-7 Liam Highfield

Mark Allen (14) 10-6 Zhang Anda

Barry Hawkins (11) 10-4 Matthew Stevens

Xiao Guodong (9) 10-6 Zhou Yuelong

Mark Williams (6) 10-4 Antoni Kowalski

Ding Junhui (16) 10-5 David Gilbert

John Higgins (5) 10-7 Ali Carter

Kyren Wilson (3) 10-7 Stan Moody

Wu Yize (10) 10-2 Lei Peifan

Judd Trump (2) 10-5 Gary Wilson

Shaun Murphy (8) 10-9 Fan Zhengyi

Shaun Murphy has criticised fellow former world champions Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump for missing the launch of the 2026 World Championship in Sheffield.

This year’s players gathered in Tudor Square outside the Crucible Theatre on Friday for a green-carpet ceremony celebrating the relationship between snooker and Sheffield, before media commitments with press and broadcasters inside the venue.

But O’Sullivan and Trump did not appear and unless they can provide a valid reason for their absence, such as a medical issue, they face a sanction from the World Snooker Tour.

Even by Ronnie O’Sullivan’s absurd standards, this has been an astonishing season, achieving unfathomable feats including one break which left casual observers wondering how it is possible to score 153, six more than the “maximum” 147.

Even at the age of 50, O’Sullivan is still redefining what is possible on a twelve-by-six table.

O’Sullivan was winning major titles before the current world champion, Zhao Xintong, was born, yet he is still producing moments of unfettered genius.

He arrives at the Crucible chasing a historic eighth world title, which would stand him alone in rarified air, one clear of Stephen Hendry. Significantly, despite his long love-hate relationship with snooker, O’Sullivan has shown he is still motivated to break new ground.

Read Lawrence Ostlere’s full analysis of ‘The Rocket’s’ latest pursuit of history:

Ronnie O’Sullivan concludes his best-of-19, first-round encounter against Chinese debutant He Guoqiang this afternoon.

The second session, which begins with O’Sullivan leading 7-2, starts at 2.30pm.

If O’Sullivan gets through, then his second-round contest will be the best of 25 frames, across three sessions against John Higgins. The first session is on Saturday 25 April at 7pm, the second session is on Sunday 26 April at 7pm and the final, concluding session will be the following afternoon – Monday 27 April at 1pm.

Every session of every match at the 2026 World Snooker Championship will be live on the BBC, with BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC red button, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website all utilised for coverage across the 17 days.

The tournament is also broadcast on TNT Sports in the UK, with every session shown across their channels and subscribers can also use streaming service HBO Max to watch TNT Sports.