Snooker Championship League Betting Tips: Can Trump win again?
Published:
Snooker will be one of the first sports back on our screens this afternoon when the Championship League gets underway from the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are just two of the high profile names taking part in the event, which is being held behind closed doors over the next 11 days.
You’ll be able to follow every shot live on ITV4, while we’ve outlined everything you need to know about the competition, including the outright odds.
How does the tournament work?
The Championship League starts off with 64 players split into 16 groups of four, with the player who finishes top of each group making it through to the second round.
These groups will run from June 1st to June 8th with all players in an individual group facing off against each other once using a best-of-four frames format.
Then it’s onto the second round, which will see the 16 group winners split into four more groups of four (keeping up?) to determine who makes it through to the tournament finals on June 11th.
In a surprising twist, the finals will follow the same format as the previous two rounds and once the final ball is potted one player will walk away with the £20,000 prize.
Who are the tournament favourites?
Now the admin’s out of the way, let’s get onto the interesting stuff. There are no prizes for guessing who’s at the head of the betting to win the Championship League, with Judd Trump a short price favourite at 5/2.
The Juddernaut was enjoying a superb time of things prior to sport’s suspension, with victory in March’s Gibraltar Open, which was also held behind closed doors, his sixth ranking tournament win of the year.
Can anyone stop Trump claiming a fourth Championship League title? Our traders have the evergreen O’Sullivan down as his nearest challenger at 4/1, followed by Neil Robertson at 9/2.
At those prices it could be the Aussie potter who’s of more interest. The Thunder from Down Under has won three ranking titles this season, while O’Sullivan may face some difficulty with the nature of the short format.
Elsewhere, Mark Selby, who was horribly out of form earlier this year, is a 15/2 shot, while Kyren Wilson (16/1), Stuart Bingham (22/1) and Jack Lisowski (40/1) are all likely to have their individual suitors.
What about the group betting?
All the big names are heavily odds-on to win their group, so we’re looking at some of the lesser lights.
Michael Holt showed a liking for the short format in the Snooker Shootout earlier this year and is 13/8 to top a group containing Mark Davis, Mark Joyce and Louis Heathcote.
11/4 poke Liang Wenbo will also fancy his chances in Group 5 where Selby is a 4/7 shot to prevail. The Jester from Leicester has lost his last two matches to Wenbo which could be crucial in a potential group decider.
Another vulnerable favourite could be Ali Carter. The Captain has gone out at the round robin stage in each of his last two appearances in the competition. Two-time semi-finalist Matthew Selt is 10/3 to top Group 6.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
