The snooker season continues apace with the lucrative Snooker Championship commencing on Wednesday. James Cooper previews the action.
Snooker betting tips: Snooker Championship
1pt Ronnie O’Sullivan to win the Snooker Championship at 13/2 (General)
1pt Mark Williams to win the Snooker Championship at 10/1 (General)
1pt Mark Williams to beat Judd Trump -1.5 frames at 12/5 (bet365)
Scheduling issues dominated the early talk in last week’s Champion of Champions and the game’s elite are clocking up further air miles with a trip to Riyadh for the Snooker Championship, which starts on Wednesday.
The event comprises a dozen players: the defending champion Mark Allen (first seed) the current World Champion Zhao Xintong (2), the eight other highest-ranked players after the 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix, and two local wildcards.
Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy must see off their amateur opponents before facing John Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan respectively in what is effectively round two.
The winners of those clashes then complete the quarter-final draw with every match best-of-seven right up until the final, which is uniquely just best-of-nine in length.
The Jasper Carrottesque $1,000,000 golden ball returns and the bumper prize is not just restricted to the first player to do it this time.
With the pockets more generous, particularly abroad, the maximum rate is on the rise (we are already at 13 this season) so it wouldn’t be a major surprise were a player to at least have at attempt at the 167-ball.
The tiered nature of the draw makes it a slightly harder assignment for the layers to price up but as was the case in Leicester, I’m very keen to be against Zhao Xintong and Judd Trump at the head of the market.
The former played really well against Mark Allen but was very fortunate to defeat Kyren Wilson (I’m pocket talking but it’s correct this time) given a huge fluke helped no end when 5-3 down and having missed what was effectively a match ball blue, Wilson couldn’t get on the final black to complete the clearance and following a Xintong safety error, Wilson missed the elusive final ball, leaving it right over the hole to boot.
From 2-0 up, Xintong’s next performance against a seemingly vulnerable Trump was meek to put it mildly and while he remains capable of bursts of genius, he’s definitely struggling to replicate his Sheffield brilliance at present.
As for Trump, he emerges with credit for reaching back-to-back finals but he’s clearly not firing on all cylinders either (albeit not at the 10% he was quoted when asked about his game) with his newish cue cited as the main reason.
Trump’s unique cue action and sighting of the ball probably exacerbates his reliance on equipment given he’s so dependant on timing. With that in mind, this quick turnaround will surely present a big problem if he ditches his current piece of ash for his old one.
He’s too good a player to keep away from the winner’s circle for long and as is evident from his results, he’s far from in the doldrums but he had a soft draw last week and his current shortcomings in the final were brutally exposed at the hands of Mark Selby, who is the master at pouncing on chinks in an opponent’s armour.
With that pair in the bottom half of the draw, RONNIE O’SULLIVAN, Shaun Murphy and MARK WILLIAMS enter the reckoning for betting purposes.
A refreshed O’Sullivan was the notable omission from the Champion of Champions, though on eligibility grounds this time and this is now something of a 'home' event for the Saudi ambassador who now resides in neighbouring Dubai.
To say that O’Sullivan has had the measure of Murphy historically would be an understatement (16 wins to 4) and the two old foes will almost certainly face off again in the second round.
Murphy has played as well as anyone this season and those of a forgiving nature will excuse his defeat to Peifan Lei given his far-from-ideal prep/turnaround from China.
There’s no doubt he’ll fancy a crack at the Rocket and he’ll be nicely acclimatised this time but that head-to-head record is something that is hard to get away from.
O’Sullivan’s form is harder to get a handle on, with 11 wins from 15 matches this season, which includes a painful 10-9 reversal in the final of the 2025 Saudi Arabia Masters.
To be fair, O’Sullivan is a lightly-raced campaigner these days so that conundrum presents itself fairly often and what we do know is that he’s sure to be well prepared for this and unlike Trump, he’s reportedly very happy with his current apparatus.
Quotes of 13/2 look perfectly fair in a section of the draw that may not be as formidable as it would have looked at the start of the campaign.
Of those competing this week, Mark Williams is second on my list of “wins over expected” this season as he gained a somewhat unwanted accolade as the oldest ranking event winner when landing the Xi’an Grand Prix last month.
Willo looked in good nick on return from a short illness when a 4-0 winner over the Senior World Champion (and two years his junior) Alfie Burden last week and a 6-5 reversal to eventual winner Mark Selby was clearly no disgrace.
He’s seeded six so is straight into the quarter-final against Judd Trump and as well as an outright bet, I am keen to back Williams on the alternative -1.5 handicap in this best-of-seven.
There’s a bit more feel to this bet than I usually employ and the early exchanges will be key here.
If Trump starts well the bet is clearly in trouble but if Williams gets ahead early, Trump’s demeanour, which didn’t look good in Leicester, could hold him back again and ensure a smooth success for Williams, who may feel that he owes Trump one having missed tournament ball when the pair met in the Saudi Arabia Masters last year.
The temptation with an outright preview is to pick one from each half but the top section looks really trappy to me.
It’s easiest to construct a case for Kyren Wilson and Neil Robertson but they meet each other in the quarter-final and head the betting of those in that bracket so I’ll stick with two from the other berth.
Posted at 1335 GMT on 18/11/25
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