Who is the favourite to win the UK Snooker Championship 2024? Mini tournament preview

Part of the fabled Triple Crown Series, the UK Championship is the biggest and most prestigious event of the 2024/25 professional snooker season, so far.

Taking place at the Barbican Centre in York between November 23 to December 1, there is a total prize fund of over £1.2 million attached to the tournament, with £250,000 going to the eventual champion.

For round one of the competition, the world's top 16 players have been randomly drawn against the 16 qualifiers who emerged from the preliminary phase at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. The draw cooked up several mouth-watering clashes for the opening round of the televised stages.

Trump won his first, and to date only, UK Championship crown in 2011. The Bristolian claimed two huge titles earlier this season - the invitational Shanghai Masters and the ranked Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters - and is currently miles out in front at the top of the world rankings. Regardless of results in York, Trump is guaranteed to finish the event as the world number one.

However, the 35-year-old has been handed arguably the toughest opening round match he could have received, being drawn against current world number 18 and three-time UK Champion Neil Robertson.

The two have been involved in a plethora of huge, epic matches - including finals. Robertson famously pipped Trump on the final pink in the deciding frame of the 2020 UK Championship final.

Only last week Robertson bested Trump in another late-night finish at the quarter-finals stage of the Champion of Champions.

There are several other very decorated champions in Trump's quarter of the draw, though, with John Higgins, Stuart Bingham and Mark Williams all present in that particular section. Three-time World Champion Williams will travel to York high on confidence having just won his first Champion of Champions crown.

Record eight-time UK Champion O'Sullivan is the second-favourite for the 2024 UK Championship. The number one seed sits at the top of the draw, but like Trump has been handed a fiendish opening test against multiple-time ranking event winner Barry Hawkins, in what is a mini rerun of their 2013 World Championship final meeting.

Should O'Sullivan get past Hawkins, he could meet Xiao Guodong in the last 16. Wuhan Open Champion Xiao is on the crest of a wave and enjoying, by far, the best and most consistent spell of his professional career.

After claiming his maiden ranking title in Wuhan, he reached the semi-finals of the International Championship, secured a top 16 spot for the first time, and made the final of the Champion of Champions where he en route memorably came back from 3-0 down to stun O'Sullivan 4-3 in the opening round in Bolton.

Elsewhere in the top quarter of the draw there are three other UK Champions - Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy and the returning Zhao Xintong. Along with qualifiers David Gilbert and Robert Milkins, everyone in this section has tasted ranking event glory on the World Snooker Tour.

Three-time UK Champion Ding - and runner-up in each of the last two years - recently ended a near five-year wait for a ranking event title at the International Championship in Nanjing.

Third favourite for UK Championship glory this year is Kyren Wilson, who is aiming to become only the seventh player in snooker history to win World and UK Championship titles within the same calendar year.

The current Crucible King has had a sensational seven months. Following his maiden world crowning in Sheffield in May, Wilson has lifted two more ranking event trophies at the Xi'an Grand Prix and Northern Ireland Open. On both occasions he denied Trump in the final.

Wilson is a warm favourite to progress from the bottom quarter of the draw but has to first navigate Stephen Maguire in round one.

Maguire loves playing in the UK Championship; he has made the final three times, and claimed the title two decades ago in 2004. The Scot has slipped down the rankings in recent times, but as he proved with a quarter-final run at the last World Championship, he thrives on the big stage where he is still a very dangerous opponent for anyone in the sport.

Trump, O'Sullivan and Trump are comfortably the top three favourites in the outright tournament betting, but there is a plethora of very decorated players who can be backed at double-digit prices.

One of those is four-time World Champion Mark Selby, who won the British Open title several weeks ago. A two-time UK Champion, Selby will be involved in a blockbuster opening round tie with the unpredictable Jack Lisowski who is arguably the best player on tour without a ranking title to his name.

Elsewhere in the second quarter of the draw alongside Selby is world number three Mark Allen who was the champion here two years ago.

Allen - who began the season as the world number one - is another player to possess a very impressive UK Championship record having reached the final three times in total.

This could be the greatest last 32 line-up in UK Championship history, with over a third of the field having won the title at least once before. In fact, 25 of the 32 contestants have been ranking event champions.

For full details on the 2024 UK Championship, including the draw, results, prize money breakdown, format and how to watch, please visit our tournament information centre here.