When and where is the draw for the 2025 World Snooker Championship?

Carrying a prize fund in excess of £2.3 million, the winner of snooker's blue riband event will walk away with £500,000.

Kyren Wilson is set to defend the title for the first time having conquered the Crucible in 2024 when he defeated qualifier Jak Jones 18-14 in the final.

As per tradition, reigning champion Wilson - who is trying to break the famous 'Crucible Curse' - will play on the opening morning of the Championship and complete his round one match later on the same day.

How does the draw for the 2025 World Snooker Championship work?

In total, 32 players will be in the main draw for the Crucible stages of the 2025 World Snooker Championship.

The world's top 16 ranked players after the 2025 Tour Championship will go straight through to the Crucible and be seeds for the tournament.

Defending champion Wilson will be the number one seed at the top of the draw, while world number one Judd Trump will be seed two at the bottom of the draw.

The remaining positions of the seed players in the fixed draw are determined by the world rankings - the world number three will be seed three etc. Therefore, if all seeds won their first round match at the Crucible, the last 16 draw would be seed 1 v seed 16, seed 2 v seed 15, 3 v 14 etc.

The 16 seeds will be drawn at random against the 16 players who come through the qualifying rounds which take place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield between April 7-16.

In total, 144 players are set to play in the 2025 World Snooker Championship, although all entrants ranked outside the world's top 16 need to go to the qualifiers.

These qualifiers feature a host of well-known names, such as former world champions Stuart Bingham, Graeme Dott, Ken Doherty, and the legendary Jimmy White - six times a Crucible finalist who will be taking part in his 45th World Championship campaign.

There are four qualifying rounds with a tiered system used, meaning players enter depending on their world ranking position. The lowest ranked contestants - and amateur invites - will start out in the opening qualifying round.

All fixtures at the qualifiers are the best of 19 frames, with two scheduled sessions for each match.

The qualifying rounds draw has already been made and published on the World Snooker Tour website here.

The qualifiers finish on the evening of Wednesday 16th April. The next morning, the live draw for the Crucible stages will take place on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website at approximately 08:45BST.

Although the seeds will already be fixed into their positions within the draw, there will be two bags of balls - one with the seeds in, the other with the qualifiers in - adding to the excitement.