Scottish Open outright preview and best bets

Snooker betting tips: Scottish Open

1pt Kyren Wilson to win the Scottish Open at 13/2 (William Hill, Betway)

1pt Neil Robertson to win the Scottish Open at 9/1 (Betfred)

0.5pt e.w. Wu Yize to win the Scottish Open at 33/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

We’ve become accustomed to the likely favourite pulling out of Home Nations evens in recent seasons but it’s Judd Trump rather than Ronnie O’Sullivan this time.

Potential burnout with loftier targets in 2025 has been cited as the reason for the Trump withdrawal and that seems fair enough when you consider the volume of matches he has already amassed this campaign, primarily due to the fact that he’s become something of a winning machine.

The recent UK champion was due to be housed in quarter three in a section with O’Sullivan, home favourite John Higgins and York runner-up Barry Hawkins among others, so even in his absence, that looks the strongest segment.

Quarter one on the other hand is missing Champion of Champions winner Mark Williams and that presents NEIL ROBERTSON with a great opening.

With the depth on the tour these days there is of course no easy route and when you consider it’s best-of-seven until the quarter-final stage, there’s little margin for error but there are still easier routes than others.

Gary Wilson may revive back at his presumed favourite venue but he’s hard to warm to on this season’s exploits while Tom Ford’s emotional Shoot Out win on Saturday was a popular victory, but he too is very hard to support on his performances in regulation events lately.

Robertson, though, is already a Home Nations winner this season, holding off a stunning Wu Yize fightback (more on him shortly) to claim the English Open at Brentwood.

Yes, Robertson isn’t quite as consistent as he once was but that’s a very high bar as he was the best player in the game for a spell and in Williams and Trump in the Champion of Champions and UK Championship respectively, he lost to the eventual winner of the tournament.

What you do get with Robertson is a granite match player who has the belief to beat anyone in the field and the 9/1 on offer looks acceptable given his draw.

I can see the angle that these short-format matches in events where the game’s elite do not place maximum importance in can represent a chance to back a few bigger-priced players but motivation is something that’s never lacking where KYREN WILSON is concerned.

The mantle of world champion can weigh heavy on some but certainly not Wilson, who has bagged two titles already this term, latterly hammering Trump in the Northern Ireland Open final.

There’s a very strong case to be made that Wilson is the form player in the field minus Trump and along with quarter one, quarter four looks the other nice spot to attack from given the seeded players aside from Ding Junhui and Xiao Guodong are not pulling up any trees this season.

I’ve long since had Wilson down as a long-format beast but increasingly, there’s evidence that he can do it over any match length and given how the draw has panned out an argument that he should be pre-tournament favourite is certainly valid, so the 13/2 looks very fair.

Many earmarked the WU YIZE against Si Jiahui clash at York as the battle of potential future Chinese world champions.

The latter has plenty of Crucible exposure under his belt already but it was striking how the former edged the safety battle before ultimately prevailing 6-4 in what was an edgy climax.

Wu lost by the same score line to Mark Allen but that doesn’t really tell the whole story of the match and in the process of that drawn-out tussle, he showcased all-round nous to go with his prodigious potting, which has never been in question.

He’s berthed in the tricky third quarter but it could have been a whole lot tougher had Trump turned up and in short, I think Wu’s long potting will see him get in first in so many frames and with that, he could develop into a prolific winner, particularly in these best-of-seven early tournaments.

He’s sure to have derived plenty from what transpired at Brentwood and the available 33/1 appeals.

Posted at 1825 GMT on 08/12/24

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