Snooker betting tips: Senior World Championship preview and best bets

Snooker betting tips: Senior World Championship

1pt Jimmy White to win the Senior World Championship at 4/1 (William Hill, Unibet)

0.5pt e.w. Stuart Watson to win the Senior World Championship at 33/1 (General 1/2 1-2)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Jimmy White chases a fifth Senior World Championship crown, which is some going given he’s the only multiple winner of an event that has admittedly had a few iterations and qualification criteria tweaks exacerbated by Mark Williams burgling the prize in 2015.

Last season, though, White was more than holding his own on the main circuit, which certainly cannot be said this time around and that provides the main question for punters looking to solve this puzzle.

In fact, just a brace of victories in the Scottish Open is all that White has to show for this season’s exploits, albeit he was awarded a win in World Championship qualifying due to Martin Gould’s withdrawal.

With that in mind, my initial thought leading up to this was that the Whirlwind might be a vulnerable favourite but in fact he’s been installed as 4/1 second favourite behind Ken Doherty.

For context, White went off around 7/2 a year ago but that was a deeper renewal featuring players with more established recent form in the shape of Mark Davis, Alfie Burden, Doherty and Gerard Greene.

The field for this year’s edition is a lot harder to get a handle on for various reasons.

Igor Figueiredo was making a reasonable fist of life on tour around the turn of the decade before his membership lapsed upon his return to his native Brazil.

He looked right at home at the Crucible when dispatching John Parrott and Stephen Hendry in the 2021 renewal of this before coming unstuck against White.

That pair are odds-on to clash again in the quarter-final and while Figueiredo is clearly a very dangerous opponent (he won the first Q Tour event of the season in his homeland this spring) he’s not been missed in the betting, installed as the 11/2 third favourite.

The other imponderables are popular Asian players Dechawat Poomjaeng and James Wattana.

The former regained his tour status last year but for personal reasons, he resigned his card after one season, the highlight being a fairly deep run in the Shoot Out.

A big crowd-pleaser, he’s very likely to take to the Crucible Theatre but he’s in a tricky section with Darren Morgan and Doherty so is passed over.

Wattana has plenty of World Championship form to his name from yesteryear.

He made the semi-final of this in 2019, coming unstuck to White after losing his status on the main circuit.

His appearances in competitive action have been fleeting in recent times (he came through his group in last year’s 6-Red Championship before a narrow defeat to Zhang Anda).

Typically at this sort of event, Wattana brings a touch of class to proceedings but whether the desire and competitive instinct remains is anyone’s guess really.

The best match at last year’s event for my money was Tony Drago’s quarter-final success over Mark Davis, who went at 93% pot success in a best-of-seven, only to fall short in a decider.

The Tornado succumbed to White in the semi-final (there’s a theme, here) but showed he’s a match for anyone at this level on his day despite minimal practice time nowadays in his native Malta.

The last three mentioned players are in the 14/1-16/1 bracket and it’s hard to argue with those odds on what we know.

Doherty goes off favourite and on his performances on the main tour this season, it’s fairly easy to see why.

Six wins (Championship League and Shoot Out aside) from 18 outings is a reasonable return given Doherty’s tough schedule and on my numbers, he exceeded expectations given his expected wins number was 5.47 for the campaign.

At a best of price of 5/2 though, he’s hard to warm to, with just the one final appearance to his name in this event despite regularly being very prominent in the betting.

It wasn’t a routine final defeat either but a painful 5-4 reversal from 4-0 up against White and he’ll probably need to beat Poomjaeng and Wattana en route to the final this time.

At 4/1, I am happy to side with JIMMY WHITE in the hope that a low-key season on the main tour isn’t a sign of serious regression.

He’ll clearly come here well prepared and as the dominant senior player over the course-and-distance, there remains a fear factor for his less-decorated opponents.

At bigger prices, I was tempted by Rodney Goggins, who has plenty of solid senior tour form to his name and has been mixing it well in the European Championship matches this spring but instead, a saver on STUART WATSON is advised.

Watson failed to qualify for this in his own right but has been busy on the senior circuit and tops the rankings despite failing to win (lost a final to Craig Steadman).

A late call-up due to Mohamed Khairy’s visa issues is a real bonus for Watson and he’s strongly fancied to beat Tony Knowles in the opening round.

Of course, he lacks the back class of most of these but in a field of 16 with a favourable first-round tie, 33/1 looks a bit too big.

Posted at 1520 BST on 07/05/24

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