One of the biggest dates on the calendar year for snooker is with us in mid November. The UK Championship 2016 will bring a high quality, high intensity tournament to the season and the big guns will be pushing to land the prestigious tournament. The tournament generally throws up some cracking snooker and Australia’s Neil Robertson will head back to the Barbican Centre in York, to defend the title that he picked up last year in beating out Liang Wenbo 10-5 in the final. Robertson is a 10/1 shot to win the title again this year with online betting site Bet Victor.
The winner of the UK Championship 2016 will walk away with a £170,000 prize in his pocket and this is the 10th ranking tournament of the season. This is an enormous tournament with 128 players scrapping it out in the first round of the tournament. So there is a very long road to the final in this one and it’s not usually until the round of 64 that things really start getting interesting in the tournament. But the more predictable match ups in the first round of action can actually lead to some great in-play betting opportunities.
Heading up the outright winner market in UK Championship 2016 Betting is Ronnie O’Sullivan at a price of 7/2 and that’s not a price that will particularly attract a lot of punters. O’Sullivan hasn’t been hanging around the winner’s circle of tournaments like he used to when he was dominating the game. He’s more around when the interest in the game is there as opposed to having the mentality of going out and having to win everything. O’Sullivan, should he win this year, would land his sixth title after having won the title on each of his five previous appearances in the final.
Former Champion Mark Selby is a price of 13/2 to land the win, with Judd Trump at 6/1 and Ding Junhui at 7/1. Those are the main contenders, but this is such a long grind that you can start looking at the outside chances of the likes of John Higgins, who is carrying some form and Shaun Murphy at 14/1. The rest of the field then are running at a price of 28/1 or bigger to come through the pack for the victory. But this generally a tournament where the top seeds come through with Trump, Selby, Robertson and O’Sullivan having shared the last five titles between them. It’s not often at all that an underdog come through.
Snooker Betway UK Championship 2016 Betting Odds
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4/1, Mark Selby 5/1, Judd Trump 13/2, Ding Junhui 7/1, Neil Robertson 10/1, Shaun Murphy 18/1, John Higgins 20/1, Stuart Bingham 22/1, 33/1 bar
Snooker Betway UK Championship 2016 Betting Promotion
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Snooker Betway UK Championship 2016 Draw
So there is a massive field here at the Barbican Centre and you can break your betting down into sections. You will find a high seed in each of the eight sections and top seed Neil Robertson is the big gun in the first section. Ronnie O’Sullivan goes in the second section which means that down the line, there could be a quarter final clash between Robertson and O’Sullivan.
From section three and four respectively you would have Ding Junhui and Judd Trump on a quarter final collision course and then the winner of that would square off against the winner of the potential, Robertson v O’Sullivan match up in final four. So there is no easy path to the final that’s for sure from the key players in the top half of the draw, although it would be a big surprise if they weren’t all there at that quarter final stage.
Stuart Bingham heads up the fifth section and Shaun Murphy in section 6 in the top part of the bottom half of the draw. Those actually look very wide opens sections of the draw really with some notable contenders floating around like Barry Hawkins, last year’s losing finalist Liang Wenbo and Graeme Dott. That is the area of the draw which looks like a bit of a crap shoot, which is good news for the bottom section of the bottom half of the draw.
John Higgins is top seed in the seventh section, opposing Mark Selby in the eighth section. So those two could potentially clash up in the quarter finals, which may well lead to the winner of that having a relatively comfortable semi final opponent from the weaker top half of the bottom half of the draw.
The first four rounds of the Snooker Betway UK Championship 2016 is all over 11 frames. That continues then through the quarter finals and the semi finals, but the final itself steps up to the best of 19 frames. The Final will be contested on December 4th and split between and afternoon and evening session.
Snooker Betway UK Championship 2016 Betting Prediction
It is worth a look at the previous nine ranking tournaments across the season to see where the titles have gone to. Of the main contenders for the UK Championship 2016, you have Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui all having won a ranking even this season. Of them, Selby is the only one to have claimed two this season with the title in the recent International Championship to add to his Paul Hunter Classic win back in August. So you would be leaning towards Selby with form and perhaps Ding Junhui, who ranking win came at the end of September at the Shanghai Masters and that followed a win at the Six-Red World Championship.
You have had an English or Chinese winner in eight of the last nine tournament (ranking and unranking) this season. So there is that to look at and of course, the history of the UK Championship itself. This is where O’Sullivan comes into play a little but but he’s been to the final just once in the last eight seasons so is worth skipping over. Mark Selby has been to two of the last four finals and Judd Trump has been to two of the last five finals. Australia’s Neil Robertson has been to two of the last three.
So again, going back to something we mentioned earlier, you are leaning towards the top ranking players in the game. Now to break it down further and we would be looking at Mark Selby to come through the field. He has one of the more comfortable draws and looks as solid wager as he is a steady performer in the UK Championship. His confidence should be high as well after his recent win at the International Championship. Mark Selby 6/1 outright at Bet Victor is our tip.
