The Rocket 7-4 to fire to sixth Crucible title

Ronnie O’Sullivan is the 7-4 favourite with leading bookmaker Coral to win the 2016 World Snooker Championship following the draw for the 17-day tournament this morning. Australian Neil Robertson is second best in the betting to lift the trophy at 6-1, Judd Trump is available at 13-2 and defending champion Stuart Bingham is as big as 25-1.

In the first round matches, Ali Carter is 27-20 to knock out Bingham to continue the Crucible curse, while David Gilbert is a 10-1 outsider to defeat O’Sullivan in their opener.

“It’s been all one-way traffic for the Rocket in the Crucible betting ever since his win in the Masters earlier this year. Elsewhere in the outright market, it’s not often the defending champion goes off at 25-1 to retain his title but the layers don’t fancy Bingham to repeat what he did 12 months ago,” said Coral’s John Hill.

**2016 World Snooker Championship

7-4 Ronnie O’Sullivan, 6 Neil Robertson, 13-2 Judd Trump, 10 Mark Selby, 11 Shaun Murphy, 16 John Higgins, 18 Ding Junhui, 20 Mark Allen, 25 Stuart Bingham, 40 Barry Hawkins, Stephen Maguire, Ricky Walden, 50 Bar.

**First round matches

4-7 Stuart Bingham, 27-20 Ali Carter

2-5 Marco Fu, 2 Peter Ebdon

2-5 Stuart Maguire, 2 Alan McManus

1-4 Shaun Murphy, 3 Anthony McGill

3-10 Ricky Walden, 12-5 Robbie Williams

1-16 Ronnie O’Sullivan, 10 David Gilbert

4-6 Mark Williams, 23-20 Graeme Dott

4-9 Michael White, 23-20 Sam Baird