2017 World Snooker Championship 2017 World Snooker Championship The 2017 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 19th and final ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. The tournament was the 40th anniversary of the World Championships at the Crucible and was broadcast in Europe by the BBC and Eurosport. Defending champion Mark Selby retained his title, beating John Higgins 18–15 in the final, despite falling to 4–10 behind
2017 World Snooker Championship at one point. The top 16 seeds automatically qualified for the last 32. Defending champion Mark Selby was seeded 1, while other seedings were allocated based on the latest world rankings. All the other players (from 17th place in ranking) started in the first round of qualifying and were required to win three best-of-19-frame matches to reach the Crucible. Qualifying rounds were held at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield from 5 to 12 April 2017. After losing to Mark Selby in the China Open final, two-time former world champion Mark Williams failed to regain his place in