Sports Blog 20/04/2015: Tournament Preview - World Snooker Championship 2015, Saturday 18th April to Monday 4th May 2015

The World Snooker Championship is well under way, and Spreadex is offering a multitude of sports spread betting and fixed odds options throughout the tournament.

From Name the Finalists spreads to Make the Final fixed odds, Top English, Scottish and Welsh 50-30-20-10 spreads to Top Qualifier fixed odds, Spreadex has you covered for snooker betting options. Looking ahead to the end of the tournament, Spreadex is offering fixed odds for the winner, as well as an Outright Index 100-60-40-20-10-0 spread, where the winner receives 100 points, runner-up 60 points, the losing semi-finalists 40 points apiece, whilst the losing quarter-finalists receive 20 points, the losing last 16-ers 10 points and everyone else a big fat zero.

With this in mind, we are previewing the tournament’s current Top 10 Outright Index players, starting with The Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan. Ranked 2nd in the world, Ronnie sits atop our Outright Index with a spread of 52-55, and fixed odds of 7/4; he plays his first match of the tournament on Tuesday against Craig Steadman. Unsurprisingly the excellent, if sometimes unpredictable, O’Sullivan is favourite at an O’Sullivan/Steadman 10-3 Supremacy spread betting quote of 23.5-26.5. A 10-3 Supremacy spread betting quote is a prediction of the margin of victory of one player over the other, whereby the winner receives 10 points plus a further 3 points for each frame the game is won by.



Next up is Neil Robertson, ranked 4th in the world and at an Outright Index spread of 39-42 with fixed odds of 9/2. Robertson is continuing his first round tie against Jamie Jones later today with a 7-2 lead, leaving him with the edge in Spreadex’s Robertson/Jones 10-3 Supremacy quote of 26.5-29.5.

Close on Robertson’s heels is defending champion Mark Selby, ranked 1st in the world and already through to the second round after narrowly beating Kurt Maflin 10-9. Selby is at an Outright Index spread of 39-42, with a fixed odds price of 5/1. The Jester from Leicester will face Anthony McGill (himself at an Outright Index spread of 12-14) on Wednesday; Spreadex are also offering a Name the Finalist spread of 24.5-27.5 for an O’Sullivan/Selby rematch of last year’s final.

Judd Trump, ranked 6th, is then at an Outright Index spread of 34.5-37.5, and faces Stuart Carrington on Wednesday, whilst Shaun Murphy, ranked 8th, is at an Outright Index spread of 28-31 ahead of his first round match against Robin Hull.

John Higgins, ranked 14th and at a 20.5-23.5 Outright Index spread, is already in the second round after beating Robert Milkins 10-5. Higgins will face the winner of Ding Junhui and Mark Davis; Junhui is ranked 3rd in the world and has an Outright Index spread of 17-20 with a fixed odds price of 14/1. Junhui is expected to get a narrow win over Davis, a match that starts later today, with a Junhui/Davis 10-3 Supremacy spread of 8-11.



In play at the moment are Barry Hawkins and Matthew Selt, with the former currently winning 7-4. Hawkins is ranked 5th in the world and has an Outright Index spread of 19.5-22.5; however, his Hawkins/Selt 10-3 Supremacy quote has begun to shrink after Selt took back a few frames, with 16-19 the current spread offered.

Rounding out the top 10 are two players already through to the second round. Graeme Dott, who surprisingly beat 7th ranked Ricky Walden 10-8 in the first round, faces the winner of Stuart Bingham and Robbie Williams on Friday, and has an Outright Index spread of 16.5-18.5. Finally Marco Fu, ranked 11th in the world and at an Outright Index of 15.5-17.5, beat Jimmy Robertson 10-6 in the first round and will face the winner of Trump/Carrington on Sunday.