How Can You Beat the Bookies in Snooker’s Shoot Out?
This week a hectic January snooker schedule will be complemented by the sport’s most chaotic event. Leicester’s Morningside Arena will host the 14th BetVictor Snooker Shootout competition over four days starting on Wednesday.
Hossein Vafaei won the 2022 Snooker Shootout. The Iranian player will meet Shaun Murphy in the first round of this year’s competition. ©GettyImages
A world-ranking event since 2017, the competition features a unique set of rules which guarantees drama. Each match lasts a maximum of ten minutes, with a 15-second shot clock for the first five minutes and ten seconds for the last five.
In all, there are 128 players in the field, meaning the eventual winner will need to succeed in seven successive matches. It was Iranian professional Hossein Vafaei who completed that winning sequence to take the prize 12 months ago.
Minnows Can Swim with the Sharks
A random draw for each round gives the competition an FA Cup feel. It also serves to allow relative minnows to enjoy a deep run. Last year little-known Billy Joe Castle made it to the quarter-finals, as did amateur player Daniel Womersley.
Similarly, the world’s elite can clash at any time. On Wednesday, man-of-the-moment – with three ranking tournament wins this season – Mark Allen will meet the rapidly-improving world number-12 Jack Lisowski.
Another noteworthy first-round match is former world champion Shaun Murphy’s face-off with defending champion, Hossein Vafaei. Amongst other world champions that are in action is Mark Williams. The Welshman will play Craig Steadman.
1997 world champ Ken Doherty meets former world number-two, Stephen Maguire. Mark Selby will play the popular veteran Mark Davis. And 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham plays the most successful female player in snooker history, Reanne Evans.
World Champions Have Made Multiple Finals
To date, a world champion has never won the Shoot Out. But Mark Williams was runner-up in 2022, as was Mark Selby in 2021. Bingham also came second in 2014, and Graeme Dott, the 2006 world champion came second to Barry Hawkins in the 2012 Snooker Shoot Out.
Predicting a former world champion can go close this week is relatively simple. However, identifying the winner – even with five or six selections on a betting slip – is a far more difficult task.
In addition to Hossein Vafaei last year, the Shoot Out represented a first and only ranking tournament victory for Michael Holt in 2020, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in 2019, and Michael Georgiou in 2018.
Which Players Offer the Best Value?
Comb through the best snooker betting sites and you will find it is Kyren Wilson the bookmakers narrowly favor. The world number eight is 20/1 in the outright betting. He faces 14-year-old Riley Powell in his opening game which is scheduled to start at 1 pm on Thursday.
Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, Ding Junhui, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Ali Carter, Dave Gilbert and Barry Hawkins are the other players priced below 33/1 with snooker specialists bet365.
With each-way terms of half-the-odds positions 1-2, backing some of the big-priced contenders could prove fruitful. Suggestions include Dominic Dale – as he won this tournament in 2014 – and last year’s semi-finalist, Robbie Williams.
Williams is in good form, enjoying a trip to the semi-finals of the British Open earlier in the season. Similarly, Joe O’Connor is on a roll. The 27-year-old beat Rickly Walden, Neil Robertson, Dinh Junhui and Mark Williams en route to the final of the Scottish Open in December.
Last week O’Connor pushed Mark Allen to a 4-3 scoreline in the second round of the World Grand Prix. Allen went on to win Sunday’s final. As a result, the 2018 English Amateur champion should be full of confidence heading into the Shoot Out.
