An event much anticipated by fans of snooker, the Players Championship, is a professional ranking snooker tournament that makes up the second stage of the Cazoo Cup. Following on from December's the snooker Grand Prix and preceding the Tour Championship, the Snooker Players Championship takes place in mid to late February annually in Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton. Read on to learn more about Players Championship snooker betting.
Tournament Structure for Snooker Players Championship
- The Snooker Players Championship is a ranking tournament. It is played between the top 16 players on the WST one year ranking list. Not to be confused with the WST World Rankings, the One Year Ranking List includes all of the prize money that has been won at world ranking events but only during the current season. Because of this, qualification for the Players Championship is determined by the amount of prize money that has been earned between the 2021 Championship League and the 2022 German Masters which takes place between the 26th of January and the 30th of January.
- Players compete in a straightforward knockout stage in best-of-11 frame matches until the last remaining pair face off in the final, which is a best-of-19 frame match. The whole tournament takes just six days to complete and is held at the Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton.
- The one-year ranking list started in 2020, with the cut-off point coming after the Welsh Open which, for the 2021 renewal, finished the day before the Players began, making the Welsh event, for whom Paddy Power offer some fantastic Welsh Open snooker odds, the last opportunity to qualify. For the 2022 Snooker Players Championship, qualification is based on prize money won between the Championship League, which was won by David Gilbert, and the German Masters which are staged at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany. The top 16 will begin in a seeded draw, followed by a knockout format.
- This is one of three events in the Cazoo Cup, following the World Grand Prix in Cheltenham and preceding Tour Championship in March. During the 2021/22 season, the Cazoo Cup started with the Cazoo World Grand Prix in early December.
 Coral
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T&Cs APPLY, 18+ ONLY
18+ New UK+ ROI Customers only. Deposit & Bet min £5 as first bet at minimum odds 1/2 to qualify for 1x £20 Free Bet. Certain deposit methods and bet types excluded. Free bet valid for 7 days, stake not returned. Restrictions apply. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org #ad |
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 Betfair
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 Betfred
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• New UK customers only. Register using the promo code BETFRED60, deposit, and place first bet of £10+ on Sports (cumulative price Evens+) within 7 days of registration. • First bet must be on Sports. £20 in Free Bets to be used on Sports, £10 in Free Bets to be used on Lotto, and 50 Free Spins (20p per spin) credited within 48 hours of bet settlement. • Further £20 in Free Bets credited 5 days after settlement. Bonuses have a 7-day expiry. Payment restrictions apply. SMS verification and/or Proof of I.D and address may be required. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org #ad |
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Betiton
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18+, Welcome Bonus: New Players only, 1st Deposit, Min Deposit,: £10, max £10 free bet valid for 14 days, bets must be placed at odds of 1/1 or greater and be settled within 14 days of placement. System bets not eligible. Neteller,Skrill and Paypal not eligible. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org #ad |
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mr.play
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18+, Welcome Bonus: New Players only, 1st Deposit, Min Deposit: £10, max £15 bonus, valid for 14 days, bets must be placed at a min. odds of 1/1 (2.00) or greater and be settled within 14 days of placement. System bets no eligible. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org #ad |
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Best Bookies for the Players Championship Snooker – Top 5 Ranked
#1 Coral
#2 Betfair
#3 Betfred
#4 Betiton
#5 mr.play
The Snooker Players Championship 2022 Betting Odds, Promotions, Tips & Predictions
Players Championship Snooker Betting Odds 2022
We will publish the best betting odds for the 2022 Players Championship when they are available. Using services such as the snooker betting Oddschecker, we seek out the best value snooker tour championship odds and will publish them here.
Players Championship Snooker Betting Tips & Predictions 2022
The Players Championship will have plenty of fireworks, and it could see Ronnie O’Sullivan put on a collision course with his arch-rival Judd Trump. The rivalry has spanned over 14 years, and Trump – who has two Players Championship titles to his name – will be eager to clinch a third title. Trump (who has notched up 22 ranking titles during his decorated career) is always a threat among the balls, and ‘The Ace’, as he is known, could hold all the cards. And when it comes to the head-to-head record with O’Sullivan, Trump leads 15-13, and he has won each of their past three encounters.
O’Sullivan similarly is a two-time Players Championship winner, and he is seeded third for the tournament. However, he has been struggling in the Championship League of late. Earlier this week, he squandered a two-frame lead over Martin Gould. In his opening four matches, he has won just once, and lost three times. Nevertheless, if O’Sullivan is switched on and doesn’t let his mind drift, then ‘The Rocket’ can wreak havoc, and he will be a menace.
Perhaps one player to keep an eye on this week, is Australian star Neil Robertson. He has a rather intriguing first round encounter with Kyren Wilson, and it will be a repeat of their Champion of Champions encounter, in which Wilson prevailed. O’Sullivan could be lurking or rather awaiting the winner of this match in the quarter-finals should he get through, but Robertson is a powerhouse. Robertson claimed the Masters title last month with a 10-4 demolition of Barry Hawkins, and his success came exactly a decade ago after his last triumph in the same tournament. Robertson has what it takes to go deep in the tournament, and we can’t fault the bookies for sounding him as a serious contender.
The Snooker Players Championship 2022 Betting Promotions
5 Reasons to Bet on the Players Championship Snooker
- It’s a ranking event.
- With the World Championships coming up in May, this tournament also serves as a good form guide.
- It features the top 16 players in the world.
- There are no easy matches.
- It makes for some truly thrilling snooker!
Players Championship Snooker Betting Sites With Live Streaming
Popular Players Championship Snooker Betting Markets
Snooker allows for no shortage of betting options, which is why bookmakers invest so much importance into it. Traditionally a game enjoyed in the British Isles, an explosion in popularity in the Far East has breathed new and international life into the game which now amounts to a vast amount of any online bookmaker’s annual turnover.
Frame Betting
With the frame betting market, punters can put their money on the player that they think will win the next frame. It’s a kind of real-time bet and, like leg betting in darts, the player breaking (or throwing the player) will be considered to be the most likely to win the next frame.
Unlike darts however, where players will take a maximum of three shots each time that it is their time to throw, in snooker, players can stay on the table for as long as they keep potting balls. Because of this, even the slightest mistake can cost a player dearly.
Frame betting provides a real-time reward as opposed to tournament or match betting, which will only pay after the tournament has finished. When backing the frame winner, always remember that momentum and confidence are critical, especially in the last frame which is often said to be the hardest frame in snooker to win.
Best Players Championship Snooker betting site for frames: bet365
Player to Pot First Red Betting
This is snooker’s equivalent of the First Player to Score bet. The break is the first shot in a snooker frame and the red, any red, must be potted first. Of course, there will only ever be two players involved in any given match, so the odds here are not always the longest.
Once a red ball has found the pocket, players can opt for any colour of ball they like and will usually have engineered the best possible chance of potting black (the highest scoring ball worth seven) on their next shot. Bear this in mind if you are thinking of backing a similar kind of bet, such as from the First Colour Potted market.
Best Players Championship Snooker betting site for pot the first red: Betfred
Century Breaks Betting
The century breaks betting market is a simple bet where punters place a wager on whether or not one player, either random or nominated, will make a century break at any point during the match. You can also bet on the number of centuries scored through the duration of a match if you are looking for a better value market.
Best Players Championship Snooker betting site for century breaks: BoyleSports
Total Points Betting
This is quite a flexible market that can be offered for the whole match or for each frame within that match. Taking a combination of both players' scores, punters are required to predict how many points will be scored in total. Rather than picking a number, however, punters will aim to predict from an over/under market.
Best Players Championship Snooker betting site for total points: 32Red
History of the Players Championship Snooker Tournament
The Players Tour Championship Finals was first held in 2011 at The Helix in Dublin, and came about by way of the Players Tour Championship. The idea was that the top 24 players in the Order of Merit would compete over six tournaments – three in Europe and three in the UK – initially at Sheffield, the traditional home of the World Championships.
In 2012, the event was relocated to the Bailey Allen Hall in Galway in Ireland. A year later, the field was expanded to 32 competitors, made up of the top 25 players from the UK and European Order of Merit plus the top four players from the Asian Order of Merit, as well as the three APTC event winners.
By 2014, the event was moved again, this time returning to the UK and taking place in the Guild Hall in Preston. The event has since been reduced to a field of 16 competitors and has been renamed Players Championship, and from 2017 was held in Llandudno, Wales until 2020, when it was moved to Southport for the first time.
In 2021, owing to the pandemic, the Snooker Players Championship was played behind closed doors at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. The event has a new host venue for the 2022 renewal, Leisure Village in Wolverhampton. In the past, the event has been sponsored by PartyCasino.com, Betfair, Dafabet and Coral.
Recent Snooker Players Championship Winners
| Year | Winner | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | John Higgins | Scotland |
| 2020 | Judd Trump | England |
| 2019 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | England |
| 2018 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | England |
| 2017 | Judd Trump | England |
| 2016 | Mark Allen | Northern Ireland |
| 2015 | Joe Perry | England |
| 2014 | Barry Hawkins | England |
| 2013 | Ding Junhui | China |
| 2012 | Stephen Lee | England |
| 2011 | Shaun Murphy | England |
Players Championship Snooker Key Stats
- Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are the only two players to have won this event more than once.
- ‘The Rocket’ won back to back titles in 2018 and 2019.
- Australian Neil Robertson has been a losing finalist here three times.
- Ding Junhui is the only non-Brit to have won this event.
Similar Tournaments to the Players Championship
- 24th – 26th March 2022, BetVictor Gibraltar Open: A ranking tournament that is held at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar and dates back to 2015.
- 28th March – 3rd April 2022, Tour Championship: Another Coral sponsored event and a ranking one too, played each year at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
- 16th April – 2nd May 2022, Betfred World Championship: The biggest event in snooker, this is famously played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Upcoming Sporting Events
Snooker Players Championship Betting FAQs
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You can watch the action unfold on ITV Sport.
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Yes, this is a WPBSA ranking event.
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Yes. Along with the Snooker World Grand Prix, which is leg one, and the Tour Championship, which is stage three, this is the second leg of the Cazoo Cup.
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No, but in 2019 Ronnie O’Sullivan came the closest to do so when he scooped two out of the three qualifying tournaments.
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Yes, some betting sites are likely to offer odds on this.
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Yes, bookmakers will be running live and real-time markets on the Players Championships.
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Surprisingly, no, this has never happened at the Players Championship Snooker.
ThePuntersPage Final Say
Bringing together the top 16 players in world snooker between a set amount of time, the Players Championship follows hot on the heels of the BetVictor Snooker Shootout. Not unlike the Masters which takes place earlier in January, the tournament features the highest placed sixteen players on the WST’s One Year Ranking List. Its unique qualifying criteria makes for an interesting line-up and a fascinating tournament.
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