It’s Milton Keynes rather than Riga for the European Masters starting on Monday as a busy snooker period ramps up. James Cooper has looked at the early matches and selected bets in two of them.
Snooker betting tips: European Masters
2pts Cao Yupeng to beat Joe Perry at 5/4 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power)
2pts Jamie Jones +2.5 frames against Kyren Wilson at 5/4 (Sky Bet)
1pt Jamie Jones to beat Kyren Wilson at 4/1 (Sky Bet)
The first appealing match from a betting perspective comes in the CAO YUPENG versus Joe Perry clash as put simply, I make Yupeng the marginal 10/11 favourite to triumph (0.52) yet he is priced up as the 5/4 underdog with Sky Bet and Paddy Power.
On return from a ban, Cao has really impressed me so far this term, scoring very heavily when in the balls and while he wasn’t at his scintillating best in Friday’s 4-3 win over Fan Zhengyi, it was still a case of job done against an improving opponent in a match consisting of five 60-plus breaks.
Prior to that, a 5-0 demolition of Ryan Day (a similar level of opponent to Perry) was an eye-catching performance to qualify for the Turkish Masters and while Perry’s longevity in the game in-and-around the top 16 has to be commended, there’s evidence to suggest that his powers may be waning slightly.
Relieved would be the word I would use to describe Perry post-match after defeating Steven Hallworth in a drawn-out 5-4 to qualify for this event but a comprehensive 5-1 win over Lee Walker gives hope that the second half of the campaign may be more productive for the Cambridgeshire cueist. Defeating Yupeng is a different matter though and I find it hard to believe that he’s chalked up as the 4/7 favourite for this best-of-nine clash.
Of course, I am recommending a wager without a form line that will become apparent to everyone on Saturday evening when Perry plays Dave Gilbert, but even a convincing win wouldn’t put me off siding with his Chinese opponent at odds-against so I am happy to get involved prior to that match.
I was surprised to see Xiao Guodong against Andy Hicks priced up as close as a 2/5 v 7/4 encounter, particularly as I am usually against Xiao Guodong but the fact Xiao failed to turn up on time and was docked two frames in Friday’s 4-0 defeat to Michael White is off-putting in a major way so I will resist a minus handicap wager in that game and instead back JAMIE JONES on the plus handicap as well as in the match betting against Kyren Wilson.
It’s been rather stop-start for Jamie Jones this season with early exits in the British, Northern Ireland and English Opens as well as the UK Championship and German Masters hardly screaming a player you want to back against a player of Wilson’s class. That said, Jones is a quality operator in his own right and edging a high-level encounter with Zhou Yuelong in the Welsh Open qualifiers on Friday may just be the catalyst for a much better end to the campaign.
It hasn’t all been doom and gloom for Jones this season anyway, he was after all one frame away from a place in the last eight of the Scottish Open, only for a measured break from Ronnie O’Sullivan and like my first selection, there is a hunger from the Welshman to make up for lost time as he too has had to serve an enforced time away from the game.
We all know that Wilson is a match for anyone but he didn’t look entirely comfortable with his game (albeit against the machine that is Neil Robertson) in the Players Championship and for a player with aspirations to be the very best, I would call it a solid if unspectacular season for the Warrior so far, for all that he was unfortunate to come up against a rampant Luca Brecel in the semi-finals of the UK Championship.
In terms of the numbers, even a cautious view within the ratings band I have for Jones makes him no bigger than a 3/1 shot to beat Wilson in a race to five so the 4/1 available is a no-brainer bet. As is often the case backing the outsider, there’s also mileage playing on the handicap, with +2.5 at 5/4 a very attractive proposition given I am 0.55 (5/6) for Jones to register at least three frames.
Preview posted at 0755 GMT on 19/02/22
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