Snooker betting tips: Preview and best bets for the Northern Ireland Open
James Cooper has looked at the early action in Northern Ireland and recommends two bets in Belfast.
Snooker betting tips: Northern Ireland Open
2.5pts Tom Ford to record the highest break against Rory Thor at 4/5 (bet365, William Hill)
1pt Martin O’Donnell to beat Zhang Anda at 21/10 (Ladbrokes, Coral)
A clash of one overachiever against one major underachiever this season, with Rory Thor, who already has the scalp of Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Daniel Wells and Robert Milkins to his name, taking on TOM FORD, who has won just the one match on tour.
With time on his hands, Ford has been partnering Chris Melling on the pool circuit, with some success too and the Home Nations series affords a chance for Ford to get his campaign going.
The market has of course reacted accordingly to the form of both competitors, with Ford 8/13 to reach four frames first against 11/8 Thor.
The conundrum for punters is whether to swim with the tide and back the Malaysian potter to continue the good work, or back Ford at an inflated price to regain the winning thread.
It’s probably a moot point but this would have been a 2/5 v 5/2 clash with me were this a first match of the campaign tie based on my start-of-season rankings and while it would be foolish to ignore what’s happened in recent months, there’s definitely a case for backing Ford to snap out of his mini-slump at the available prices.
Instead, I’m going to play this slightly differently and recommend Ford at a very appealing 4/5 to compile the highest break in the match.
Again, a cursory glance at this season’s numbers do not make for pleasant reading with Ford recording just the one century against Thor’s five tons but it’s clearly not as simple as that and there’s a body work spanning decades to go at here.
Relative to his ability, Thor has been a mediocre at best break builder while Ford has always been an extremely heavy hitter in the scoring department and while the latter has spent far longer on the tour, he has recorded over 250 more centuries than the former.
With that in mind, there seems to be a severe element of short-term bias in the quotes available, arguably to such a degree that I rate Ford as a safer conveyance to win this market over the actual match prices.
I was expecting Ford to be 4/7 or 8/15 to record the biggest visit so there’s plenty of juice in the available odds, while those with access to both firms should head to bet365 as it would be money back in the very unlikely event of a tie.
The other contest I like the look of from a betting perspective is Zhang Anda against MARTIN O’DONNELL with the gap between the two slightly too big in this best-of-seven clash.
I confess to finding Anda a really tricky player to get right.
His best game is a match for absolutely anyone, which has been demonstrated numerous times in the last 18 months or so.
A breakthrough ranking winner, he looks perfectly at home on the biggest stage but the feeling remains that his “B” and “C” game is a notch or two below other comparable players in the rankings.
Step forward Martin O’Donnell, who quietly goes about his business in an extremely efficient manner and having fallen off the tour, MOD has established himself nicely in the crucial top-64 bracket.
Yes, his ceiling is beneath Anda’s but on the evidence of his early play, 2024/25 should be another productive campaign for O’Donnell and in this quick format, odds of 21/10 look a shade too big.
Based on frame-by-frame prices, this is an 8/15 v 15/8 clash for my money.
Posted at 1445 BST on 18/10/24
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