Snooker World Championships 2016/17
Mark Selby is bidding for a fifth ranking tournament crown of the season, and we are backing the Englishman to finish on a high at 9/2.
Our Bets:
Mark Selby to Win E/W at 9/2
Ali Carter to Win E/W at 50/1
Profit Loss Pending
Selby beat Marco Fu 17-15 here last time around, so will be determined to defend his title, and make it three World Championships in four years.
Having already won the Paul Hunter Classic, the International Championship, the UK Championship and the China Open, Selby is in great form.
Seedings for the World Championship are based on points won in previous ranking events - Selby comes in at 943,000 points - enough to place him number 1 by a distance - his nearest rival is Judd Trump on 598,000 points. Here is the top 12:
No.1 Mark Selby 943,425
No.2 Judd Trump 598,000
No.3 Stuart Bingham 588,762
No.4 Ding Junhui 465,950
No.5 Shaun Murphy 457,350
No.6 John Higgins 423,000
No.7 Barry Hawkins 380,250
No.8 Marco Fu 376,125
No.9 Neil Robertson 363,125
No.10 Ali Carter 322,575
No.11 Mark Allen 302,650
No.12 Ronnie O'Sullivan 291,250
Unfortunately, not all rankings are even, with victory at the World Champs contributing a whopping 375,000 points for instance, compared to, for example, just 90,000 at the World Open or 70,000 at the Welsh Open.
We tried normalising the points for all events of the season, and came up with some new points. We also awarded each player with average points for any event they missed, so remove the issue of players underscoring for events they chose not to play. Finally, we removed the Indian Open, the Shoot Out and the Paul Hunter Championship given so many of the top 10 skipped those events.
Mark Selby 392,000 - 9/2
Judd Trump 381,000 - 9/2
Stuart Bingham 199,000 - 25/1
Ding Junhui 257,000 - 14/1
Shaun Murphy 168,000 - 25/1
John Higgins 148,000 - 18/1
Barry Hawkins 226,000 - 16/1
Marco Fu 208,000 - 22/1
Neil Robertson 186,000 - 12/1
Ali Carter 190.000 - 50/1
Mark Allen 80,000 - 50/1
Ronnie O'Sullivan 167,000 - 11/2
This still brings out Selby at the top, and we are comfortable that his consistency makes him a better pick than the excitement wagon that always follows Judd Trump around, but has yet to reliably land the silverware his natural talents suggest should deliver at some stage.
We also like the look of Ali Carter at 50/1 - it's all about the price here, and he'll have plenty to do to return on this, but does have an outside chance. The long format suits this gritty type, and he's twice been runner up here (2008 and 2012)
Well there you go, a World Championship preview where we barely mentioned Ronnie O'Sullivan....d'oh