How to Bet on Snooker From Canada

Snooker is a pretty popular sport. In 1985 18.5 million tuned in to watch the World Snooker Championship final where Dennis Taylor defeated Steve Davis. Since then, Snooker’s popularity has grown from strength to strength and especially in the World’s most popular country, China.

A lot has changed since 1985, back then betting shops used to be closed on Sundays making it impossible to place a bet on the matchday. Placing live bets on Snooker was also impossible back then as well.

But today you can place a bet on Snooker 24/7 with many bookmakers even allowing you to place a bet on a Snooker game live. 

Match Format in 2021 Snooker World Championship

Knowledge is power and this applies to the world of snooker betting as well. The first thing you need to know before you start betting on Snooker is the match format of a match and the format of the World Snooker Championship.

Over-worked odds compilers will doubtlessly have bulk standard statistics available to them, such as lifetime head-to-heads between two players.

You should know that in the world snooker championship the matches are decided on the basis of several games between two players.

These individual games are called “frames”.

We have laid down the format of the 2021 below:

In the first round 16 matches will be played between 2 players each in a best of 19 frames format

In the second round, the field will be reduced to 16 players and 8 matches. Each match will be played in a best of 25 frames format.

In the quarter finals, there will 4 matches that will be played in a best of 25 frames again.

In the semi final, 4 players will be left and there will be 2 matches played in a best of 33 frames format.

The finals of the 2021 World Snooker Championship will take place on the second and third of May 2021 and will be played in a best of 35 frames format.

The Englishman Ronnie O’Sullivan, won the 2020 edition of the World Snooker Championship. This was Ronnie’s 6th title after winning the competition in 2001,2004,2008,2012 and 2013.

The winner of the World Snooker Championship walks away with a prize of $500,000.

We have placed the odds of the winners of the 2021 World Snooker Championship below as well as the latest player rankings for Snooker

Bookmaker odds for the Winner of the 2021 World Snooker Championship

Player	Odds in Fractions	Odds in Decimal Format	Odds in American Format
Judd Trump	11/5	3.2	220
Mark Selby	16/5	4.2	320
Neil Robertson	22/5	5.4	440
Mark Williams	13/1	14	1300
Kyren Wilson	16/1	17	1600
Anthony McGill	16/1	17	1600

Top 10 Snooker Players World Rankings

We have listed the top 10 Snooker players according to the ranking set by the WPSBA (World Professional Snooker and Billiards Association):

Rank	Player	Nationality
1	Judd Trump	England
2	Ronnie O’Sullivan	England
3	Neil Robertson	Australia
4	Mark Selby	England
5	John Higgins	Scotland
6	Kyren Wilson	England
7	Shaun Murphy	England
8	Stephen Maguire	Scotland
9	Ding Junhui	China
10	Yan Bingtao	China

Types of bets in Snooker

There are many different types of bets your would encounter in Snooker while betting on the World Snooker Championship:

1. Tournament Winner bet

This type of bet falls under the “outrights” market. The outrights market consists of bets where you place a bet on the player who will win the tournament. In other sports you could also bet on players who will score the most goals during a tournament as well. 

We have mentioned the world rankings of the top 10 snooker players above as well as the bookmaker odds for the winner of the 2021 World Snooker Championship so that you can make your own decision on who would win.

2. Match Winner bets in Snooker

The next popular type of bet in Snooker is also the easiest to place. In match winner bets you simply place a bet on who will win the match. Keep in mind that during tournaments 1 match is played across many games called “frames”. There are no draws in a Snooker match.

3. Correct Score

 In this type of bet you predict the correct score of the match. These types of bets have pretty good odds but that being said, it’s very hard to predict the exact score in a Snooker match. We recommend you to avoid placing this bet unless you have studied past matchups between the two players and are fairly confident about your prediction. 

4. Maximal Break in Snooker

a bookmaker asks you which snooker player will reach the maximum number of points in one series (continuous series of hits). You can bet on maximal break during a certain match and the whole tournament.

5. Handicap Betting in Snooker

Just like in other sports you have the option of placing handicap bets in Snooker matches. Bookmakers will offer handicaps in the form of frames for a match. 

The amount of frames handicaps in the World Snooker Championship may differ and depend on many factors such as how many frames the match will be decided on and the difference in rankings between the two players. 

While placing a handicap bet in Snooker you should look into past matchups between the two players to get an idea what handicap bet you should place.

6. Over/under betting in Snooker

Compared to over/under betting in Football,Over/ under betting in Snooker is a bit tricky especially in matches with a lot of frames. Essentially what you bet on is the whether the total number of frames that will be played during a particular snooker match.

This can vary wildly again depending on the stage of the Snooker tournament and the quality of the players. If 2 players are equally matched you can expect a tight contest and bet on more frames to be played.

One hot tip while betting on the over/under market in Snooker is to look up the rankings and past performance of both the players involved in the match.

7. 147 bet in Snooker

This is a type of proposition bet in Snooker. Essentially a proposition bet (or a prop bet) is a bet where you bet on the occurrence of a particular bet during a game. In a 147 bet in Snooker you bet on whether any of the players will get the maximum number of points during the match, the maximum number of points being 147. These bets are hard to predict and have high odds.

8. Century markets in Snooker

These days a lot of proficient players manage to rack up over 100 points per frame. If you do your research on the number of centuries your competitor has achieved in each match for the season, you can bet on how many he scores in the next game. The payouts for this market are very high.

9. Live Snooker Betting

There are several types of live betting. The most popular “Who wins the match”, “Who wins the current frame”, “Who wins the following frame”, or “Who scores the following ball”. Betting for a winner live you should be attentive, especially at the time of ball break – it is part of a match when the odds change from second to second and you can catch valuable odds. Snooker, in spite of vision, is a very dynamic discipline and the situation on the pool table and in the tournament table changes constantly. Thus, this type of bets is recommended only to punters with huge experience and nerves of steel. 

Snooker Betting Tips

Snooker Betting Tip 1: Find a Bookmaker in Canada That Offers Good Odds for Snooker Betting

Bookmakers operating in Canada are legally only allowed to offer you parlay bets. If you would like to properly bet on baseball and other sports this severely restricts your betting options. It is perfectly legal for residents of Canada to bet on  baseball on online bookmakers based outside of Canada. 

In our experience, bookmakers based in the EU have the best offers for Canadian players. We have scoured the internet and dropped the best offers for Snooker betting from Canada below:

Snooker Betting Tip 2: Take Into Account the Style of Play of Different Players

Snooker is a very unpredictable game. All your efforts at looking at the past performance of different players and predictions could prove to be useless when there is a match between two players with contrasting playing styles.

Some players are aggressive, majoring in long potting and beak building. Others major in safety play and win their frames in low-scoring tactical style. Similarly there are a number of fast players, 2019 World Champion Judd Trump comes to mind, as does five-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and the top-16 ranked Jack Lisowsi. None of these waste much time in taking their shots, but others are naturally slow, regularly taking an average shot time in excess of 30sec. They include Rod Lawler, Lee Walker and Anthony Hamilton.

When two contrasting playing styles collide apple carts are often upturned and on more than one occasion the form book could have been set alight in long format matches on the sport’s biggest stage.

Neither Ronnie O’Sullivan or 2002 World Champion Peter Ebdon made an impact on the 2005 World Championship but their quarter-final meeting is still talked about to this day. In it O’Sullivan had raced away to a seemingly unassailable 8-frames-to-2 lead but it was Ebdon who ultimately won the game 13-11.

He did not do so by upping his performance, he did so by slowing the pace of the game to a proverbial crawl. He regularly took over a minute to select a shot, asked for the white ball to be cleaned by the referee on countless occasions and even asked for his intervention to clean coloured balls, something that is rarely seen.

As O’Sullivan became visually frustrated at his time-wasting antics Ebdon slowed down his game yet further. It reached outrageous proportions when the underdog took five-and-a-half minutes to register a break of 12. Compare that to O’Sullivan’s 1997 record 147 beak which he completed in five-minutes and eight-seconds!

Clearly the format of a match, the styles of play and approach to a game by its contestants are all variables you need to feed into calculations when making your betting decisions and they may not necessarily be the same pieces of information bookmakers are keying into their hallowed algorithms when pricing-up their markets.

Snooker Betting Tip 3 Bet on ranked players initially

If you are new to betting on Snooker we recommend you to start off safe. Bet on matches where there is a clear underdog and a clear favorite. You can also bet on matches between ranked players and unranked players to be extra safe.

Snooker Betting Tip 4 Check out Player Form Before Betting on a Snooker Match

It’s challenging for Snooker players to maintain top form throughout a tournament because they many frames and matches and are under a lot of pressure to give their all during every frame.

Rankings in Snooker are very volatile and change with every match and frame and so do the odds.

As we mentioned earlier it’s uncommon for underdogs to pull a surprise and beat the favorites. 

Before you bet on a Snooker match you should ideally check out statistics, head to head matches history, watch a few games etc. Find out in what condition the snooker player you will be betting on is, how his preparation looks and what aims he puts before him for the current season.

Snooker is a game that requires a clear mind and a lot of focus. An insight into the players mindset and the amount of mental pressure he is in prior to the match can impact his game and the outcome of a match. You should look out for rumors about his recent private and/or public life to see if he is under some personal pressure for instance, if he had a recent breakup or personal setback. Injuries also impact a player’s performance so check out their recent injury record.

Snooker Betting Tip 5 SET YOURSELF A BETTING BUDGET

Successful sports betting is usually a matter of self-control. Rather than relying on emotions to make your bets, it’s always best to think carefully about how much you are wagering and set yourself a responsible betting budget. This way you can enjoy the experience and think clearly rather than worrying about betting with money that is beyond your means.