Our team nominate their best bets from the first round of the World Snooker Championship, with every match previewed here. <\/p>\n
Snooker betting tips: World Championship round one<\/p>\n
2pts over 16.5 frames in the Mark Selby\/Jak Jones match at 11\/10 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power)<\/p>\n
1pt over 2.5 centuries in the Si Jiahui\/Hossein Vafaei match at 5\/4 (Sporting Index, Spreadex)<\/p>\n
0.5pt Pang Junxu to beat Neil Robertson at 3\/1 (Betfred)<\/p>\n
Sky Bet odds<\/a> | Paddy Power<\/a> | Betfair Sportsbook<\/a> | Free bets<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Selby v Jak Jones<\/p>\n A match derided in some quarters as a potential snoozefest but I certainly don\u2019t transcribe to that notion and this is one of the more intriguing first-round matches.<\/p>\n With the possible exception of Ali Carter, I feel Jak Jones is about as tough a qualifier as Selby could have drawn.<\/p>\n The Welshman made it all the way to the final in 2024 and gave a pretty good account of himself in that showpiece match against Kyren Wilson.<\/p>\n Jones enhanced his reputation as a long-format specialist when hammering Luca Brecel in his final qualifying match and seems almost certain to give a very good account of himself at this venue.<\/p>\n Speaking of Crucible specialists, Mark Selby is right at the top of that list as a four-time World Champion and should he negotiate this hurdle, he\u2019s clearly a danger to all.<\/p>\n Selby\u2019s form around the turn of the year was superb and while he\u2019s been quieter since, that\u2019s not a major concern for me. <\/p>\n The TOTAL FRAMES line is 16.5 and I like the OVERS here at odds against. (Preview by James Cooper)<\/p>\n Si Jiahui v Hossein Vafaei <\/p>\n Two of the game\u2019s entertainers square off in one of the harder-to-call opening raft of matches.<\/p>\n Si is ultra-attacking and gained plenty of admirers when potting his way to a semi-final appearance back in 2023.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t all good news that year though as Si eventually capitulated from a long way ahead of Luca Brecel.<\/p>\n 2023 didn\u2019t show Vafaei in a particularly good light either when he smashed the pack open from the break after a bizarre feud with Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan and the Iranian ended up on the receiving end of a hiding. <\/p>\n This season hasn\u2019t been vintage stuff from either player and Si was a seed I was keen to be against, even though he does seem to raise his game for the big occasion.<\/p>\n The match prices do look about right to me but there could be some mileage in the OVER 2.5 CENTURIES at odds against.<\/p>\n Both are extremely heavy scorers when in stroke and with a high \u201cexpected frames\u201d line in this close match, 3+ tons is a big runner.<\/p>\n The pockets haven\u2019t played like buckets this week but I certainly wouldn\u2019t call them tight either and the odd big bounce off the top cushion aside, the tables look conducive to high breaks. (Preview by James Cooper)<\/p>\n Neil Robertson v Pang Junxu<\/p>\n There were a few flippant comments that Neil Robertson would be happier than most for the World Championship\u2019s temporary relocation in 2029 given his Crucible record.<\/p>\n A winner in 2010, it\u2019s hardly been a washout for the likeable Australian but no semi-final appearance since 2014 is a sub-par return for a player of his class.<\/p>\n I buy into the theory that the two-table set-up is a bit cramped for Robertson to execute his pre-shot routine and he could be vulnerable against the underrated Pang.<\/p>\n On his debut appearance in 2023, Pang gave Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan a real fright before a tough 10-9 reversal against Robert Milkins.<\/p>\n Last year saw Pang gain a deserved breakthrough before finding O\u2019Sullivan all too much but in short, Pang has looked at home at this venue and he\u2019s in good stroke having banged in five centuries in two matches at the Institute of Sport last week.<\/p>\n Robertson leads the head-to-head 4-2 but at 3\/1, I cannot resist a small interest in PANG to cause a big upset. (Preview by James Cooper)<\/p>\n More snooker contentSafer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling.<\/p>\n Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our team nominate their best bets from the first round of the World Snooker Championship, with every match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-410464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}