The 2025 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2025 Cazoo World Snooker Championship) is an upcoming professional
snooker tournament to be held from 19 April to 5 May 2025.[1] It will be the 49th consecutive edition of the
World Snooker Championship to be held at the
Crucible Theatre in
Sheffield, England.[1]
The main stage of the tournament will be held at the
Crucible Theatre in
Sheffield, England for the 49th consecutive year.
The final of the first
World Snooker Championship took place in
1927 at
Camkin's Hall in
Birmingham, England, and was won by
Joe Davis.[3][4] Staged annually until
1940, the tournament was not held from 1941–45 due to
World War II and went into decline in the post-war era; the
1952 event was contested by only two players and was replaced by the
World Professional Match-play Championship, which was also discontinued in 1957. Joe Davis won the first 15 World Championships, held from 1927 to 1946, and is the only undefeated player in the tournament's history.[5]
Revived on a
challenge basis in
1964, the World Championship reverted to an annual knockout tournament in
1969, which marked the beginning of the championship's "modern era".[6][7] The
1977 tournament was the first staged at the
Crucible Theatre in
Sheffield, England, where it has remained since.[8][9]Stephen Hendry and
Ronnie O'Sullivan are the most successful players in the World Championship's modern era, each having won the title seven times.[10] Hendry is the tournament's youngest winner, having captured his first title in
1990, aged 21 years and 106 days.[11] O'Sullivan is the oldest winner, having secured his seventh title in
2022, aged 46 years and 168 days.[12]
The 2025 event (officially the 2025 Cazoo World Snooker Championship) will be organised by the
World Snooker Tour and sponsored for the third time by car retailer
Cazoo.[1] It will mark the 49th consecutive year that the tournament has been held at the Crucible, and the 57th successive year that the World Championship had been contested through the modern knockout format.[9][13][14]Kyren Wilson will be the defending champion, having defeated
Jak Jones 18–14 in the
2024 final to win his first world title.[2]