UK Championship Snooker: Betting Tips, Stats & History
The UK Championships are widely regarded as one of the biggest snooker events in the world. It makes up one leg of the Triple Crown and with it offers a prize pool that is beaten by very few, such is the stature of the event.
It takes place in November and December and is the last of the major tournaments of the Calendar year. It actually comes at the mid-point of the snooker season and is one that many targets as a top ranking event to gain entry into that of the World Championships.
- In This Article:
- Tips
- About
- Format
- Venue
- Money
- Sponsorship
- Statistics
- History
UK Championship Snooker Betting Tips – 28th Nov to 10th Dec 2017
The first Triple Crown event of the snooker season takes place in York this week, with Mark Selby aiming to retain his crown. However, there are other contenders aiming to claim the £170,000 top prize. As always, Ronnie O’Sullivan is up there in the betting, while there are a few top players who have an eye on securing a place at the Masters, which means they need to deliver at the Barbican Centre over the next couple of weeks.
There’s a huge £850,000 in prize money to be dished out at this event, so there’s plenty on the line for the world’s top players. Former world champion Stuart Bingham is the only major name who isn’t appearing here, as he serves a three month ban for betting. There’s going to be some huge competition for the likes of Selby and O’Sullivan, so could we see a big priced winner? Ahead of the tournament, we have a couple of betting tips for you to take a look at.
Tips And Predictions
Defending champion Selby and O’Sullivan are basically level at the top of the betting, which most bookies pricing them up level. The Rocket is best priced at 4/1 with BetVictor to take this title, while Selby can be found at 9/2 with Coral ahead of the tournament. Will either of those two live up to their short odds? Both players are in decent form coming in to this, with O’Sullivan making four finals in his first seven tournaments of the new season, winning two of those. He took the Shanghai Masters title earlier this month, and he has to be a threat to take the top prize in York.
Selby’s recent record hasn’t been quite as impressive, but he did claim the International Championship recently. However, we can’t see him matching up to O’Sullivan’s recent form, and the Rocket should put on a show on his way to the final once again. While he’s priced in to 4/1 with BetVictor, we still think he’s worth backing to secure the big prize on offer here.
Past Winners/Notable Stats
- 2016 - Mark Selby beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-7 in the final
- 2015 - Neil Robertson beat Liang Wenbo 10-5 in the final
- 2014 - Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Judd Trump 10-9 in the final
- 2013 - Neil Robertson beat Mark Selby 10-7 in the final
- 2012 - Mark Selby beat Shaun Murphy 10-6 in the final
Other Bets And Odds
One man who has a point to prove is 2015 winner Neil Robertson, who heads to York knowing he has plenty of work to do. With his victory here two years ago about to be knocked off his tally, he’s in danger of missing out on a place at the Masters. He’ll need an impressive run here to make up for that, and we think it’s worth backing the Australian each-way ahead of this tournament, and he’s priced out at 18/1 with Coral.
About
The tournament is one of the biggest in terms of player numbers with 128 being present over the course of the 2-week format. The qualification process is pretty simple in that the players are based on their World Ranking, so the top 128 players are entered. If a player is unavailable to play or withdraws prior to the start of the tournament, the next ranked player will step in and so on, until the field is full to capacity.
The draw is made up into 8 sections, which includes 16 players in each section. Players are distributed in terms of ranking. So, seed 1 would play seed 128, seed 2 would play seed 127, seed 3 would play seed 126 and so on, working down. The top seeds are kept a part as best they can. Again, Seed 1 plays in the top half and seed 2 plays in the bottom. The earliest the 1stseed would be able to play a top 32 ranked player would be the last 32 round.
Match Format
All rounds in the tournament are played as best of 11 legs. This is until the final where the players will paly best of 19. The format is relatively short considering it’s one of the majors, but with the huge number of games that need to be played, it’s one of the traits of the UK Championships.
The short format is often more interesting as well and upsets are often very common throughout. In 2017, 2ndseed Ding Junhui was knocked out in the first round by that od Leo Fernandez, ranked 127th.
Venue
Unlike a number of the bigger tournaments in world snooker, the UK Championships haven’t had a particularly long-term venue to host. It’s been hosted at the likes of the Preston Guild Hall, Bournemouth International Centre and the Tellford International Centre. It currently resides in the Barbican Centre in York, where it’s been played since 2011 and previously from 2001 to 2007.
The Barbican Centre is one of the biggest arenas in York and holds a capacity crowd of 1,500 for snooker games. It’s had several refurbishments over the years, with the most recent seeing the grand opening happen in 2011 after a £1.5million refurbishment job.
Prize Money
The prize money on offer is the second largest on tour at the minute, with £850,000 on offer from the 2017 tournament. The winner picked up a cheque worth £170,00 which again, is the second largest cheque, behind only that of the World Championships.
The prize money is distributed as the following based on performances:
- Winner: £170,000
- Runner Up: £75,000
- Semi Final: £35,000
- Quarter Final: £22,500
- Last 16: £15,000
- Last 32: £10,000
- Last 64: £5,000
- Highest Break: £5,000
- Total: £850,000
Sponsorship
Sponsorship, as with all sports, plays a huge role in the makeup of the UK Championships. It has actually had periods where there have been no sponsors at all, mainly in 2001, 1996 and 1991. The majority of their longer-standing sponsors have come in the form of bookmakers.
The current sponsors is that of Betway, who have been main sponsors since 2015. Other bookies that have held deals at some point have included the likes of Coral, William Hill and 12Bet.com. Outside of the bookmaker sponsors, they have also been able to utilise money coming from Pukka Pies, Travis Perkins, PowerHouse, Liverpool Victoria, Royal Liver Assurance, StromSeal and Tenants.
Statistics
The most successful player in the tournaments history is that of Steve Davis. He’s won the event on 6 different occasions throughout the 1980’s in a period where he dominated the game. Coupled with Davis is that of Ronnie Sullivan, who has also managed to win 6 career UK Championship titles. What’s most impressive about Sullivan’s record is that he’s made 7 finals in total losing just one to Mark Selby in 2016. Both players are tied for the most final appearances with Stephen Hendry on 10.
Other players who have enjoyed success at the tournament include the likes of John Higgins, Mark Williams and Mark Selby, all multiple winners in their own right.
Stephen Hendry holds the record for the most century breaks in a final with 7. His 10-5 win against Ken Doherty saw the Scotsman rack up the points in a record that hasn’t been broken since 1994.
UK Championship Snooker Results
|
Year |
Winner |
Runner Up |
Score |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2017 |
Ronnie O’Sullivan |
Shaun Murphy |
10-5 |
|
2016 |
Mark Selby |
Ronnie O’Sullivan |
10-7 |
|
2015 |
Neil Robertson |
Liang Wenbo |
10-5 |
|
2014 |
Ronnie O’Sullivan |
Judd Trump |
10-9 |
|
2013 |
Neil Robertson |
Mark Selby |
10-7 |
|
2012 |
Mark Selby |
Shaun Murphy |
10-6 |
|
2011 |
Judd Trump |
Mark Allen |
10-8 |
|
2010 |
John Higgins |
Mark Williams |
10-9 |
|
2009 |
Ding Junhui |
John Higgins |
10-8 |
|
2008 |
Shaun Murphy |
Marco Fu |
10-9 |
History
The first UK Championship was held in 1977 at Tower Circus, Blackpool. It was then known as the United Kingdom Professional Snooker Championship. Originally the event was only open to British players, but this was later amended in 1994 when it was open to all professional snooker players, regardless of nationality.
The first tournament was won by that of Patsy Fagan, who beat Doug Mountjoy, 12-9, with a first prize of £2,000. Just a year later the tournament made its first move to that of the Preston Guild Hall, where it remained up until 1983. The tournament now carries more ranking points than any other on tour, apart from the World Championships, making it a popular tournament for the players.
Over the years the UK Championships has been centre stage for many quality finals. Whilst there are many to choose from, including the likes of John Virgo and Patsy Fagan winning, winning their only major titles, it was in 1989 that was probably as standout a final as there has been.
The 1989 final included that of Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry. Davis had dominated the sport throughout the 80’s and with it was one of the best players of all time. But, he subsequently lost that final to a young Stephen Hendry 16-12, before losing the 1990 final to same player a year later, this time 16-15. It was the start of Hendry’s dominance of the sport throughout the 90’s and the end of Davis’ reign as the world’s best.
In 1993 the structure of the tournament changed, moving from a best of 31 to a best of 19 frame final. In that same year Ronnie Sullivan was to win his first ranking event and became the youngest player to do so at the time aged just 17. 8 years later he inflicted the biggest final defeat, playing against Ken Doherty winning 10-1 with some of the best snooker of his career.
Whilst Davis hadn’t retired from the game altogether, in 2005 he reached his first ranking event final for two years aged 45 and he was up against an 18-year old Ding Junhui. He subsequently lost to Junhui 6-10, but the final was the biggest age gap between two players in any ranking event final.
The Barbican Centre in York had been hosting the event from 2001 through to 2006 and then again from 2011 onwards. The structure of the event changed in to best of 11 frames for all games apart from the final.
Steve Davis
Steve Davis is easily one of the most successful players in the tournaments history. He’s the joint most tournament wins of six, alongside that of Ronnie O’Sullivan. Davis was able to dominate for much of the 1980’s, but at the turn of the 20thcentury, struggle to capture the form and consistency that made him one of the best players of all time.
He’s the only player to have won 4 UK Championship titles in a row and after officially retiring in 2016, some 38 years after first competing, he ended with 28 ranking event wins and 55 non-ranking event wins as part of an illustrious career.
Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui burst onto the scene in 2003, turning professional aged just 16. He’s gone to win 2 UK Championship events in 2005 against Steve Davis and in 2009 against John Higgins, both of which are classed as two of the legends of the sport.
He’s now the most successful Asian player of all time and has 13 ranking event wins to his name, including the World Open, Shanghai Masters (x2) and the Players championship. Aged just 31, he’s made over £3million in prize money, made 6 maximum breaks and 477 century breaks, whilst also being ranked as high as world number 1 in 2014.
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