Friday, March 4, 2011

Making sense of the World Snooker Championship odds

You would think that the Snooker World Rankings and Ladbrokes Snooker Betting for the forthcoming World Snooker Championship would follow similar lines. However, there are some surprising differences.

It's no surprise that world number one John Higgins is the 5/1 favourite with Ladbrokes to claim his fourth world title. He has won the crown twice in the last four years – in 2007 and 2009 – and has also tasted success at the UK Championship and Welsh Open this season.

However, Ladbrokes' second-favourite is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who is currently ranked number 10 in the world. On his day, 'The Rocket' can be unplayable but he has shown patchy recent form. He has won the Premier League of Snooker and reached the final of the World Open during 2010/11 but crashed out of the UK Championship and the Welsh Open at the First Round stage. He is 6/1 in the Snooker World Championship betting.

Ladbrokes' third-favourite is world number five and current Masters champion Ding Junhui. The popular Chinaman is currently on a high after his Masters success whilst he has also reached the quarter-finals of the World Open, German Masters and Welsh Open this campaign. He will be hoping to do one better than his appearance in the final of last year's China Open before improving on his poor record at The Crucible, where he has never been beyond the Second Round. He is 7/1 in Ladbrokes Snooker Betting to secure his first world title.

World numbers two, three and four - Mark Williams, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby – are all 8/1 in Ladbrokes Snooker Betting and prove that the field will be highly competitive in Sheffield when the tournament begins on 16 April. Robertson will be aiming to defend his crown despite having an indifferent season to date but he has the ability to raise his game on the day.

It is clear that the World Championship will be extremely competitive and that it will be a rollercoaster ride of potting action and top snooker, and as for staking a claim on a winner – it truly is a tough one to call.

No comments:

Post a Comment