George Weyham shares his best betting tips for the World Seniors Snooker Championship.
The World Championship ended on Monday after an enthralling final and 17 days as a whole. It was fitting it ended with the first deciding frame for 24 years and won by a player who wasn’t even born for it! China’s Wu Yize walked away with the biggest prize in the sport and became the second youngest world champion in history. A staggering performance of such positivity.
Roll onto Wednesday and it’s the Seniors turn under the Crucible spotlight with Shoot-Out champion Alfie Burden back as defending champion following his victory last year over Channel Islands, Aaron Canavan.
It’s safe to say he will have his work cut out to retain though ‘AB of London Town’ is back on tour, a determined character and will be confident of putting up a title defence in Sheffield.
Though three-time World champion Mark Williams has withdrawn, there’s a host of Crucible stalwarts wanting to lift the title on May 10th. 2015 World champion Stuart Bingham, two-time runner-ups Ali Carter and Matthew Stevens enter for the first time, plus recently relegated pro, Rob Milkins are not here for a jolly up!
The 17th edition of the Championship, and eighth at the home of snooker, has been spiced up a little with an appearance from the greatest in history, Ronnie O’Sullivan. I don’t think he’s turning up on the cheap though he’s close pals with the chairman of the Seniors game, Jason Francis and having O’Sullivan on board will only increase the viewing figures on Channel 5.
He’s a fascinating addition to the field. Though he bowed out of the main event at the last 16 stage in a decider to John Higgins, he played some staggering snooker at times, like the Ronnie of old. I do wonder how he would have fared in the rounds after as all the talk was he had put the hard graft in on the practise table.
A repeat of that in a venue he loves, with no pressure makes him the most likely winner. And of course, the red hot favourite with the bookies at 8/11, which is probably understandable. There must be value elsewhere.
Arch enemy Carter is 5/2 and in the opposite side of the draw to O’Sullivan. I can make a decent case for him but 5/2 looks tight. Had he been 4/1+ then I might have been interested.
Tip 1: Stuart Bingham - 1pt Win
Best odds of 6/1 at Ladbrokes/Coral.
O’Sullivan could meet STUART BINGHAM in the last eight, a player he lost to here in the 2024 quarters, 13-10. I would much rather have Bingham on side at 6/1.
‘Ball-Run’ loves the world’s biggest stages, especially the Crucible making the one-table set up on three occasions. He’s trying to become the first player in history to win the World Amateur, World Championship and World Seniors in his career so there a huge incentive for Bingham to succeed.
He’s had a fairly solid season coming in, losing in the Shoot-Out final to Burden and making two ranking quarter-finals. He failed for the second year in succession to qualify for the Crucible following a loss to Stevens in final qualifying after impressing greatly in the penultimate round beating hot future prospect Wang Xinbo 10-2 with 10x 50+ breaks.
Bingham is one of only five players to have beaten O’Sullivan at least twice at the Crucible so he warrants the utmost respect.
I think he is the prime value in the top half.
Tip 2: Joe Perry - 0.5pt EW Win
Best odds available of 14/1 at VirginBet while publishing.
I do expect Carter to make the semis with Craig Steadman and Tony Drago the chief threats to him however I prefer the chance of two in the bottom section, starting with JOE PERRY.
Perry has been in the commentary box for the BBC for the duration of the Worlds so you can half question his preparation for his tilt of Seniors glory, however Perry doesn’t play his opener in round two until Friday afternoon which gives him plenty of time to be match ready.
He made his Seniors debut last year losing to Dominic Dale where Dale just totally outclassed him with breaks of 128, 99 and 97. At the British Open just after Christmas, Perry rolled back the years with a monstrous display beating Bingham 4-0, Stevens 5-3 (included a run of 131) and Jimmy White in the final 7-5 (with a century and 6x 50+ breaks) to lift his first Seniors event.
Perry made the semis here in 2008 and is still and always will be a classy operator who with more youthful dedication could easily still be plying his trade on the main tour.
If he finds the red hot form from December, he’s a real runner for this at 14/1.
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Tip 3: Dominic Dale - 0.25pt EW
Best odds of 40/1 available at Betway during publishing.
Lastly, at 40/1, I can’t resist a flyer at the aforementioned DOMINIC DALE. He’s as short as 16/1 with bet365.
Like Perry, the Welshman has been in commentary duty recently but he’s always been a natural player and I’m not overly concerned of him coming in cold. After that win over Perry last year, he would have been a big favourite to oust Canavan in the semis but lost in a decider 6-5 even though he made breaks of 131 and 109.
He opens with decent amateur Wayne Townsend first who won on this stage last year (defeated then defending champion, Igor Figueiredo) and then it’s onto fellow Welshman Stevens (seeded) who played here in the main draw a few weeks back. A tough ask for the Spaceman though Stevens is 10/1 for the title and Dale is four times the price plus it’s only best-of-seven with no deciding frame (Blue ball shoot-out if any match goes to a decider).
Dale has played here on 10 occasions so knows his way around the place and is likely to have the most fans on his side in the bottom half which he usually thrives on.
I felt 40/1 was too good to turn down on a popular player.
