The UK Championship is unquestionably snooker's second biggest event and the 2015 tournament takes place from the 24th November to the 6th December. All of the best players in snooker will be desperate to add their names to the roll call of greats, whilst the huge number of ranking points and £150,000 first prize also make this tournament highly significant. Our UK Championship outright winner preview offers the best betting odds via our live odds comparison, as well as our predictions and betting tips for the great snooker ahead, so read on to get the full lowdown.
The UK Championship was first held in 1977 in Blackpool but has been held at Preston's Guild Hall too, as well as in Bournemouth, before moving to its current home, York's Barbican Centre, in 2001 (although it was held at the Telford International Centre from 2007-2010).
Ronnie O'Sullivan is the defending champion and is the favourite to win what would be a sixth UK Championship, some 22 years after winning his first at the age of just 17. The Rocket is priced at best betting odds of 7/2 with BetVictor and, as ever, will attract plenty of support, both in the betting and the arena. Compared to the other top pros Ronnie plays very little competitive snooker and it will be interesting to see how his build-up to this event goes. Despite the fact that modern snooker has such great strength in depth, O'Sullivan at his best is streets ahead of the rest but it's always difficult to know if he will "turn up".
Since a quiet 2010/11 he has won two World Championships, one UK Championship, one Masters and a host of other big tournaments too, a fine return from four seasons. However, predicting which Ronnie will be on display is always the hard part and odds of 7/2 in the outright betting look just a shade short for us.
In between Ronnie's UK Championship win in 2007 and his triumph last year, six different men have won this event, Ding Junhui and John Higgins claiming their second and third titles and Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson all claiming their maiden victories at snooker's second most prestigious championship.
Any of those men could easily win again, although Higgins, priced at betting odds of 28/1 with Bet365, would need to show a major improvement on recent form to challenge. Trump is the second favourite at odds of 6/1 and we predict this could be a big season for the Bristol cue-man. His game is still maturing and if his approach is right he can go one better than last year when he lost a great final 10-9. He has all the attributes to become the game's top player and we predict he will pocket the winner's cheque here and at very reasonable odds he is our main betting tip.
Those looking for a spot of each way value could do worse than consider Michael White, who may offer some value at decent odds of 80/1 (with Ladbrokes) in the ante post betting. White is another of whom we predict big things in the coming years and the Welsh 24-year-old, who won his first ranking event last season, as well as a non-ranking title, could go well if he can control his nerves and get a little luck in the draw.
The youngest player inside the world's top 16, White won the world amateur title at the age of 14 and whilst, in some ways, his progress has been slower than expected, we think he is now ready to step up and start challenging the very best.
Of course, all of our tips will falter if the snooker's star man brings his best game to York but Ronnie will turn 40 the day before the final and he may just be on the wane. Players like Trump and White are snooker's future and we predict a bright future for them both and a very bright UK Championship.