The Masters Snooker Betting
Despite this being one of the most prestigious snooker tournaments, the Masters is not a ranking one. The Masters is an invitational event and it has been up and running since 1975.
Even though there are no ranking points on offer, it is one of snooker’s Triple Crown tournaments along with the UK Championship and the World Championship.
In the context of the history of snooker, The Masters is the second-longest running in the world.
The tournament has a special feel about it, because it is only open to invitees only. Those who get invited are generally the current top 16 players from the Snooker World Rankings.
Even though the event is played at the start of the year, it is not the start of the season, as the Masters pretty much falls two-thirds of the way through the regular snooker season, which is split over two years.
Qualification for the Masters has a cutoff qualification period which is after the preceding UK Championships for that given season. The top sixteen players on the Order of Merit for the season at the close of the UK Championships all get their invite to the Masters.
Masters Snooker History
The original format of the Masters Snooker only featured 10 players. It was basically designed to have a special tournament for only the top ten players in the world.
That was the original idea behind The Masters, which had its start in 1975. That first edition featured Ray Reardon v John Spencer in the final, with the latter winning in the deciding frame.
The tournament expanded in 1981 to twelve players and just a couple of years later was bumped up to 16 players in 1983. One year later the tradition began of only the top 16 players in the world getting invited to the tournament.
That’s the way it has stayed now into the modern era.
There were some slight changes along the way, such as wild-cards, which were subsequently dropped. So the Masters has, by and large, stayed in its familiar set up for a long time, really since 1984.
The early tournaments were held in the West Centre Hotel and the Wembley Conference Centre. It settled into its new home of the Alexandra Palace in the capital in 2012.
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Former Winners
The first man to win the Masters twice was Alex Higgins. He collected his first title in 1978 before doubling up in 1981. In the early to mid-80s Cliff Thorburn surpassed him.
The Canadaian earned his first Masters title in 1983 and then went on to claim it again in 1985 and 1986, making him the first player to win back to back Masters titles and the first man to win it three times.
Stephen Hendry then basically blew Thorbburn’s record out of the water by winning it for five consecutive years between 1989 and 1993 inclusive. He beat John Parrott in two of those finals, and Mike Hallett in the other two.
Ronnie O’Sullivan opened his Master’s account with a 1995 success over Hendry, breaking the Scotsman’s grip on the tournament, although Hendry would win it one more time in 1996.
However, when O’Sullivan lifted the Masters title in 2017 with a victory over Joe Perry, he surpassed Hendry’s record of six Masters titles to become the new all-time most successful player in the history of the tournament.
Other former greats to have won the Masters include Jimmy White (1), Dennis Taylor (1) and Steve Davis (3).
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2020 Masters Snooker Review
For the 2020 Masters Snooker edition, Ronnie O’Sullivan, who had qualified to enter, decided to take a pass on the tournament. So instead it was Ali Carter who took his place in the field.
Carter would have a major impact as well as, from being in the position as the lowest-ranked player in the field, he booked a place in the final.
Big names fall early
The 2020 Masters saw some major early casualties. Top seed Judd Trump fell in the first round along with 3rd seed Neil Robertson and 5th seed Mark Selby, both previous Masters champions.
In the quarter-finals, there was just one top-five seed in the draw, that being John Higgins, who lost to Carter at that stage.
Carter and Bingham meet in the final
Ali Carter had been the one to send Mark Selby packing in the opening round and after getting past Higgins, he then secured a semi-final victory over Shaun Murphy to get through to the final.
From the other half of the draw, it was former World Champion Stuart Bingham who was making all the waves.
He beat second seed Mark Williams in the opening round, before then eliminating Kyren Wilson and David Gilbert in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
The Final of the 2020 Masters would prove to be a really close battle.
Bingham had just pulled ahead at the end of the afternoon session, but Carter came right back at him at the start of the evening session. But Bingham would go on to hold out for a 10-8 win to win his first Masters title.
2021 Masters Snooker
The details for the 2021 Masters Snooker tournament are to be announced.
You can find betting odds, previews and predictions in our news category Snooker Betting: