James Cooper previews the Welsh Open outright market and advises two bets, including a young player firmly on the upgrade.
Snooker betting tips: Welsh Open
1pt e.w. Neil Robertson to win the Welsh Open at 9/1 (Unibet, Bet MGM 1/2 1,2)
0.5pt e.w. Wu Yize to win the Welsh Open at 20/1 (William Hill 1/2 1,2)
We’re on the eve of the final Home Nations tournament of the season and at the time of writing, Ronnie O’Sullivan is in the draw for the Welsh Open, which starts on Monday morning.
As is his prerogative, Judd Trump has swerved this engagement and in his absence, O’Sullivan heads the betting in favour of Kyren Wilson and Mark Selby.
In some ways I’m surprised the recent German Masters and current world champion, Wilson, isn’t the pre-tournament jolly given his sustained period of excellence.
What to expect from O'Sullivan?
The Rocket has seemingly kept himself fairly busy in exhibition events domestically and abroad having missed a plethora of events, notably the prestigious Masters invitational.
Who could forget his 2013 Crucible win having missed pretty much the entire season but 12 years on, I can’t really make a case for O’Sullivan at 5/1 in the rat-a-tat of best-of-seven matches that requires competitors to hit the ground running.
Wilson traded four centuries with Barry Hawkins before ultimately edging the decider in Berlin and with the German Masters now under his belt, the former is cementing a very solid CV.
He’s probably the closest I came to recommending one at the very head of the market but Marco Fu is no penalty kick in the opening round and Shaun Murphy, Wilson’s conqueror at Alexandra Palace last month, is a bang in-form danger in his section of the draw.
Rely on hungry Robertson
Wilson is second in the BetVictor Series rankings with a bonus £150,000 on the line and the person at the head of affairs is NEIL ROBERTSON.
Twice a winner of this event, famously when beating Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Steve Davis in the same tournament back in 2007, Robertson presumably has fond memories of the Welsh Open.
Having looked the best player in the game for a spell, Robertson has had his share of ups and downs but he’s a tournament winner this season and he looked in fine nick when seeing off the current standard-setter Judd Trump in Berlin.
Quarter one is also a favourable-looking slot which is why I understood initial quotes of 13/2 and 7/1 about the Australian.
There’s now some 9/1 knocking about (also 10/1 with AK Bets at 1/3 1-2 for each way purposes) which looks a very fair proposition.
This may sound a shade contradictory given I’ve made the case for Mark Davis being very competitive in their clash tomorrow but ultimately, I do expect Robertson to come through that match and the likeable Aussie certainly won't shirk the issue if he does go deep this week.
The Welsh Open has been the place for big-price winners in recent times with Jordan Brown, Joe Perry, Robert Milkins and Gary Wilson the last four to taste success.
It’s fairly logical that the short-format matches can mask the superiority of the top players so siding with a few outsiders would be an understandable play.
Chinese star too hot to ignore
Junxu Pang looked the pick of the 50/1+ runners but he’s in the same quadrant as Neil Robertson so instead I will add WU YIZE to the staking plan.
Wu Yize's potting was one of the joys of 2024 👌#Bestof2024 pic.twitter.com/1ba6h6UNyv
— WST (@WeAreWST) December 31, 2024
I’ve got previous with Yize having tipped him to win the Scottish Open in December.
We landed place returns but it was more than a little disappointing that he couldn’t get the better of Peifan Lei having been sent off a warm order at 4/9 to prevail in the final.
The 33/1 on that occasion is no longer around but that is understandable he’s now shown his hand as arguably the best prospect in the game at present.
Having defeated Mark Allen earlier at the Tempodrom, Yize really didn’t do a great deal wrong in the quarter-final against Barry Hawkins, ultimately losing 5-3.
There’s just enough juice in the 20/1 price to row in again with Yize.
Published at 1840 GMT on 09/02/25
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