Free snooker betting tips | Championship League preview

Free snooker tips, best bets and analysis for the Championship League live on ITV4.

Best bets

R O'Sullivan
1pt 9-2 Betfred, Betway, Boyles
G Wilson
0.5pts 66-1 general
B Woollaston
0.5pts 250-1 general

Outright preview

The boys are back on the baize for the Championship League from the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, and what better way for snooker to return than a 64-man round-robin spectacular?

All 128 World Snooker Tour card-holders were invited to participate and the top 64 who entered lined up in 16 groups of four.

The 16 table-toppers will progress to the winners stage of four sections, and the triumphant quartet then lock horns in one final group.

All matches will be over a quickfire best-of-four-frames format, with three points awarded for a victory and one point for a draw.

It's no shock to see Judd Trump installed as favourite given he has won six ranking events this season, is the Betfred World Champion and was in sparkling form prior to snooker's suspension.

However, it's a short and fairly convoluted format in this tournament and there doesn't seem to be much value in the 5-2 on offer about the Ace.

It may have come as a bit of a surprise to see that Ronnie O'Sullivan has entered this event given he missed the Masters in January, but the Rocket is in action and at 9-2 he looks worthy of support.

O'Sullivan won nine of the 16 stagings of the Premier League, which although far from identical is probably the closest short-format tournament to the Championship League, even though there's no crowd in Milton Keynes.

The Rocket's talents are there for all to see and he has been motivated by new challenges in the past so perhaps this event could get his juices flowing.

The best-of-four format certainly increases the chances of an upset but O'Sullivan shouldn't have too much to worry about in a section containing Chris Wakelin, Michael Georgiou and Kishan Hirani.

Further down the betting Gary Wilson could come through his group and outrun odds of 70-1.

Wilson is housed with Matthew Stevens, John Astley and Mitchell Mann, and while they are tough match players, the The Tyneside Terror has the scoring power to progress.

Ben Woollaston has been struggling for results but his trio of opponents Jimmy Robertson, Liam Highfield, Alex Ursenbacher haven't been in great form and this could be a decent chance for the Leicester man to get some wins under his belt. If his confidence returns Woollaston could prove a dangerous opponent and he looks worth taking a chance on at 275-1.

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