Snooker World Championships Betting Tips

April has already seen a number of major betting events with the Boat race, US Masters and soon the Grand National. Soon it is the turn of the Snooker World Championships to take centre stage with the 17 day event starting Saturday 15th April. The draw has not been favourable to a few of the big guns with Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins all in the same half. Also lurking on that side of the draw is seven time winner Stephen Hendry who at present is the provisional number one after a solid two years on the snooker circuit. In truth an argument could be made for each of the four named players above. Ronnie O'Sullivan can never be discounted despite not winning a ranking match for the best part of six months. The former Champion should come through against Dave Harold in the first round, followed by Joe Perry or Ryan Day in the second round. By the quarterfinal stage, when he should play either John Higgins or Mark Williams, the confidence should have returned in abundance and that is when the Rocket is at his most lethal. Of course it could all go horribly wrong, and either Higgins or Williams make it instead through to the last four. John Higgins has arguably been the player of the season, winning two titles. However, a best price of 4/1 is a little too skinny to bother with given Mark Williams is a likely opponent in the second round. The Welshman recently beat Higgins in the China open final 9-8, a very hard fought affair in which neither player could edge more than a frame ahead at anyone time. It could infact be argued that Williams is most attractively priced of the four heavyweights. Earlier this season, the two time World Championship winner stood 25th in the provisional rankings but has now improved considerably to seventh. The 31-year-old, twice a winner at the Crucible, freely admits he got lazy after completing the grand slam of BBC televised tournaments by winning the LG Cup in October 2003. It proved to be his last title for 29 months until Beijing.Quarter-final appearances in the Malta Cup and Welsh Open helped restore some much-needed confidence and Williams was able to up his game considerably to capture the China Open. At a best price of 14/1 at VCBet, Williams is our first selection. For the second selection, we are going to go against the history books and select Shaun Murphy to successfully defend the title he won twelve months ago. Although not in the greatest form this season, returning to the Crucible could just be the ticket to rediscovering that winning formula. His draw also looks superb with Jame Wattana in the first round, then either Stephen Davis or Andy Hicks, followed most likely by Peter Ebdon in the quarters. A semi-final against Ken Doherty, Matthew Stevens or Stephen Maguire ought then not to pose too many concerns. While many will point to the fact that no first time champion has ever made a successful title defence in the 29 years of the Championship being staged at Sheffield, Shaun Murphy has already shown a distint lack of respect for the history books by becoming the first qualifier in over a quarter of a century to win the World title. Take the 13/2 on a successful defence at the Crucible.