Free snooker betting tips: Champion of Champions preview

09:48 · MON November 06, 2017

Our Simon Crawford is siding with the favourite and also has a 14/1 pick for this week's Champion of Champions snooker tournament in Coventry.

While I still believe Ronnie O'Sullivan's 'A game' is the best in world snooker, I remain happy to oppose him in tournaments outside the UK.

The Rocket is obviously a creature of habit, one who relishes home comforts and as little disruption to his carefully-planned routine as possible.

So long flights to far-flung destinations in Asia do not appear to bring the best out of him, as recent events show.

Last week he made an early exit at the International Championship in China, losing 6-1 to 17-year-old Yan Bingtao - although O'Sullivan did claim after the match that only Stephen Hendry and John Higgins had ever played better against him.

That setback came hot on the heels of his superb win in the English Open in Barnsley, where he imperiously thrashed Kyren Wilson 9-2 in the final after having put out Higgins and compiled no fewer than 12 centuries en route.

While two tournaments could easily be written off as co-incidence, look back further and there is definitely a trend. It is more than interesting to note that O'Sullivan's last 11 major tournament successes have all come in UK-based events.

That is enough for me to put him top of my staking plan for this week's Champion of Champions invitational event in Coventry.

Five-time world champion O'Sullivan, 41, has an outstanding record in the tournament since it was resurrected in 2013 to replace the Premier League, winning it twice (2013 and 2014) and finishing runner-up last year to Higgins.

The two are set lock horns again this year having been drawn in the same 'group', with O'Sullivan to face Neil Robertson and Higgins up against fellow Scot Anthony McGill. The winners of those games then face each other for a place in the semi-finals.

The early format of best-of-seven frames seems to suit O'Sullivan's all-action style, just as it did in the English Open and if he does meet Higgins,then he leads their head-to-head 32-27 and has won four of their last six meetings.

It's a tough event to win with the field made up of the players who have all won major tournaments in the past year, but crowd favourite O'Sullivan - who has 29 ranking titles to his name - has the perfect game to make it a hat-trick of titles.

Most importantly, he showed in Barnsley that he is focused on his snooker and that makes him very dangerous, so I'm happy to take the market best 5/1 being offered by SunBets for him to win the event.

Shaun Murphy is still waiting for his season to ignite but such is his quality that you know it will do sooner, rather than later.

Shaun Murphy: Decent 14/1 shot in Coventry

A former world champion and winner of the prestigious Triple Crown (World and UK Championships, plus the Masters), the 35-year-old was a beaten finalist in both the China Championship and Paul Hunter Classic earlier in the season, but since then there has been little of note and last week he went out 6-2 to Ali Carter in the third round of the International Championship.

There is no disputing Murphy's quality, as seven ranking titles prove, but what I like about him in this event is the draw he has been given.

He opens against fellow Englishman Mark King on Tuesday leading their head-to-head 12-1 and, if successful, will face either a badly out of form Marco Fu or erratic Welshman Michael White.

I strongly fancy him to come through that and once into the semi-finals and a longer format, then he has as much claim to winning the event as anyone so I believe he is well worth an each-way interest at a general 14/1.

Where to watch: ITV4