Snooker

Snooker Tour Championship Betting Preview (2025)

6 months ago

| BY Sam Cox

Snooker Tour Championship Tournament Preview

The penultimate event of the 2024/25 snooker season, the Tour Championship takes place at Manchester Central from March 31 to April 6.

Top seed Judd Trump is the pre-tournament snooker betting favourite, despite having never reached the final at the previous editions of the event.

Mark Williams is the defending champion after a 10-5 win over Ronnie O’Sullivan in last year’s final. Williams is set for a tight live betting matchup in the first round of the 2025 competition as he takes on Ding Junhui.

The field for the Tour Championship comprises of the top 12 players in the one-year rankings at the end of the Players Championship.

Kyren Wilson is coming off a 10-9 win over Trump in the Players’ final – the pair are on course to matchup again in the Tour Championship final if they win their first two matches.

In-Form Wilson

Is Wilson peaking at the right time? He was exceptional at the Players’, seeing off Williams and Robertson before getting the better of Trump. He could potentially face Williams, Robertson, and Trump in Manchester.

Losses to Zhou Yuelong at the World Open and John Higgins at the World Grand Prix are firmly in the rearview mirror for the 33-year-old.

World champion in 2024, Wilson has won five ranking finals in a row, including deciding-frame victories at the German Masters and Players Championship already in 2025.

Often reserving his best snooker for the latter stages of competitions, the short format of the Tour Championship could work in Wilson’s favour. He has a higher winning percentage in semi-finals and finals than he does in any of the earlier rounds.

Trump’s Break Building

Trump has 18 century breaks over the last three tournaments. He pushed an in-form Wilson all the way at the Players Championship after reaching the last four at the World Grand Prix with emphatic wins over Gary Wilson and Hossein Vafaei.

The Tour Championship hasn’t been a successful tournament for Trump in the past, but there’s not a great deal to read into that. He’s the top-ranked player in the world for a reason.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Trump and Wilson – the world’s two best players – meet again in the final. They rightly enter as the two favourites ahead of the first round, even if both have had some uncharacteristic slip-ups in recent months.

Rest of the Field

Dominant over Stuart Bingham in the final of the World Open and losing to Wilson in a deciding set at the Players Championship, Neil Robertson is the biggest threat to the top two.

Robertson is a two-time Tour Championship winner, but made a single century break at the last event, which puts him at a disadvantage when facing Trump or Wilson.

John Higgins is the only other player to receive a bye to the second round. Higgins was runner-up to Robertson in 2022 and has won 11 of his last 13 matches, including a win over Wilson.

His loss to Trump in the semis of the Players’ stands as a warning for bettors, though, as Higgins will almost certainly need to beat two of the Trump, Wilson, and Robertson to lift the trophy.