Big Names and Betting Value in Snooker’s BetVictor English Open
The BetVictor English Open takes place at Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena this week. Seven full days of snooker will conclude on Sunday night with a £70,000 to the winner decider. Judd Trump is the defending champion. He is also the bookies favorite amongst a strong field. It includes Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen.
Judd Trump won this competition last year and is the bookies favorite to retain the title in 2021. ©Rigour
Only one big name is missing from the second event in the BetVictor Home Nations series. Mark Williams, a three-time world champion, has tested positive for Covid and was forced to withdraw from the tournament.
Higgins Loses Weight and Finds His Form
The first leg of the BetVictor Home Nations series, the Northern Ireland Open, was won by home hero Mark Allen. He came from 6-8 behind to beat John Higgins in a final frame decider, 9-8. Higgins still had an excellent tournament recording seven 100+ breaks.
Scotland’s four-time world champion has lost over 50-pounds in weight during the summer and his game looks better for it. The same cannot be said for Ronnie O’Sullivan. The living legend was an early casualty in the Belfast event and lost 5-0 to Hossein Vafaei in a German Masters qualifying event a few days ago.
Given this turn of events it is surprising to see Higgins, at 12/1, is twice the price of O’Sullivan in the sponsor’s outright betting list. Remarkably, the in-form Mark Allen can be backed at 18/1. Hossein Vafaei, a player pundit Neal Foulds put forward as one to follow at the start of the season, is 150/1 at William Hill.
Can Big Breaks be Converted into Big Results?
There are many interesting contenders available at big prices. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has already registered three century breaks during the qualifying stages of the English Open. Last week he recorded the third 147 of his career when playing in a German Masters qualifier.
With this profile and a relatively straightforward first-round assignment – against world-ranked 81 Peter Devlin – 80/1 is a tempting each-way price about the Thai player.
Countryman Sunny Akani stunned Mark Allen with a 5-4 victory in a qualifier for the European Masters on Saturday. That victory – and a 135 break – should fill him with confidence and at 500/1 in the ante-post betting, the 26-year-old is worth a small investment.
Jack Lisowski is another who booked his place in the European Masters with a qualifying win and a big break at the weekend. The world-ranked number 15 registered a 138 break when accounting for German player Simon Lichtenberg.
A finalist in three ranking tournaments last season, Lisowski looks inordinately big at 50/1 for this week’s English Open.
300/1 Lines the Lion From Leeds
Unlike Lisowski, who has to win a qualifying match in Milton Keynes this week to go into the opening round of the English Open, Oliver Lines has already booked his place in the final 64 stage.
The son of professional player Peter Lines, 26-year-old Oliver has made several appearances in the excellent YouTube broadcast Make or Break documentary series.
The entertaining World Snooker Tour production, narrated by Alan McManus, reminds its viewers Oliver Lines is capable of going on long winning steaks. He has also won considerably more frames and matches than he has lost this season.
The Leeds-based player, with over £400,000 in career earnings, is another worth a small investment at a huge price.
Format and How to Watch
Matches during the first three rounds of the BetVictor English Open are a race to four frames. This is followed by a ‘best of nine’ format for the quarter-finals, ‘best of 11’ for the semi-finals, and the eventual competition winner will be the first player to win nine frames in the final.
Televised by Eurosport and Quest in the UK and Ireland, the BetVictor English Open is the second leg of the 2021/22 BetVictor Home Nations series. It will be followed by tournaments in Scotland and Wales.
Outside of Europe, the BetVictor English Open is also televised in China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Canada, New Zealand and Taiwan. Naturally, the action can also be viewed on the best bookmaking sites with a streaming service.
