Snooker
UK Snooker Championship Semi-Final Predictions & Betting Tips (2025)
The 2025 Snooker UK Championship semi finals take place on Saturday. Judd Trump and Neil Robertson match up in the first contest, followed by Mark Selby against Shaun Murphy.
Trump is the defending champion and two-time winner of the event. He’s the odds-on snooker betting favourite for his duel with Robertson.
A three-time champion, Robertson is not one to write off on the big stage. Selby, a two-time winner in this tournament, last made the final in 2016. Murphy won the event in 2008 and lost finals in 2012 and 2017 to Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan, respectively.
Judd Trump vs Neil Robertson
Trump’s route to the semi finals couldn’t have been much smoother. The world number one saw off Ding Junhui 6-2 in the last eight, setting up a contest with Robertson. It’s a matchup Trump will be happy to see, having won three of his last four matches against Robertson, including a 6-2 win in the Shanghai Masters.
After his win, Trump said, “In the last couple of events I have found the confidence to go for it.
“It has not been vintage but the difference this tournament has been the timing, when I have needed to make a clearance or pot an important ball they have been going in.
“I feel a lot more confident. Event though I am not back to my best I’ve done everything I need to do at the crucial times.”
It’s worth noting that this is a rematch of the 2020 final, which Robertson won 10-9 in dramatic fashion. Both players are highly experienced in events of this calibre and have met in semi finals on six previous occasions.
Since their epic duel in 2020, Trump has covered this line in seven out of nine matches against Robertson.
Pick: Judd Trump -1.5 (19/20)
Mark Selby vs Shaun Murphy
Selby bemoaned the quality of the surface after beating Barry Hawkins 6-2 in the quarter finals.
The Jester from Leicester said, “It was an awful match from both. It’s mad because it only got recovered before my last-16 game. Every time you played a screw shot the sound of the contact was like you were getting a kick.”
These aren’t the first complaints about the conditions in York. It’s bound to be a factor in both semifinals and could lead to multiple opportunities per player in each frame with the increased number of errors.
Murphy hammered Selby 6-1 in the British Open earlier this year, but Selby won 6-0 against Murphy in the Shanghai Masters.
Despite his gripes, Selby has been the more fluent of the two in this UK Championship. Murphy had to scrap his way to the last four – he’ll need to be much more consistent if he’s to make this into a competitive match.
It’s tempting to take under 9.5 total frames with how one-sided the last two matches between these players have been. We’d stay away from backing the over on any centuries markets given the conditions.
Selby is the man to back with what each player has shown us thus far.
Pick: Mark Selby to win (4/6)
*Odds subject to change – prices accurate at the time of writing*
