How One Punter Turned £100 to £100k on a 15-Fold Snooker Bet

Maybe Mr World Open was lucky, or maybe the British punter who won £100,000 betting on that Chinese snooker tournament hit upon a winning strategy.

Pre-match betting on snooker is seen as poor value compared to its vibrant in-play alternative, Betfair’s exchanges seeing 90% of action coming after a match has started.

“Almost 90% of volume is after the match starts as customers trade their position and react to the match unfolding,” explained Barry Orr, Head of Media Relations at Betfair. “With the pace of play in snooker, there are lots of chances to reassess the match situation and bet in-play.”

That exchange traded £33million on last year’s Snooker World Championships, while William Hill took in £3.5million, the majority of punters playing the frames in-running market.

In-Play Loves Snooker

“The most popular markets to bet on are frames in-running,” said Rupert Adams, William Hill PR Manager. “It is head and shoulders above every other market, including ‘To Win the Match’, which is next best. Some punters like to bet on total points in a frame as well (third most popular market).”

On the exchanges, it’s all about match winner, in-play. That’s the recognised way to turn a profit in snooker betting, spotting an in-play blip that inflates a price on an otherwise odds-on favourite, but our £100k punter had another idea.

The man from Somerset, South England also broke another key snooker betting trend; the game’s biggest draw wasn’t even there.

“Snooker has undergone somewhat of a renaissance in the past few years with Barry Hearn taking over the sport,” said Orr. “Prior to this there were less than 10 ranking events per season, this has now grown to 24. This, along with the games top draw, Ronnie O’Sullivan, seeming to go from strength to strength, leaves snooker as our ninth biggest sport on Sportsbook.”

“The popularity of snooker betting will mainly surround having the better players going deep into the tournament, turnover will also benefit from Ronnie on top form,” Adams added.

It’s no football or horse racing, but thanks to Hearn’s new tours and their online or live television coverage, snooker has flown up the betting stakes, now ranking near cricket and tennis, with the World Championships, which begin this Saturday, generating some 30% of all snooker betting.

It was still a surprise to see a bet as ambitious as Mr World Open’s 15-fold accumulator, but when you see the players he backed and their odds, he didn’t actually make many big calls.

Is This The Greatest Snooker Acca Ever?

That Snooker Acca Explained

On August 6, in the first round of the World Open in China 2018, there were 32 games, and Mr Somerset Punter backed the winners of 15 of those matches in a 15-fold accumulator with Ladbrokes.

He picked all the big favourites - the likes of Marco Fu, Stephen Maguire and Robert Milkins at 4/11, Ali Carter at 2/9 and Barry Hawkins at 3/10 - taking bigger risks on Irishman Fergal O’Brien at 11/8 and on 25-year-old Jak Jones at 8/5.

Winning 15-Fold Accumulator

1. Matthew Selt beat Lee Walker 5-4 - 4/5
2. Robert Milkins beat David Lilley 5-4 - 4/11
3. Ricky Walden beat Dominic Dale 5-3 - 2/5
4. Fergal O’Brien beat Zhao Xintong 5-4 - 11/8
5. Marco Fu beat Peter Ebdon 5-4 - 4/11
6. Noppon Saengkham beat Rod Lawler 5-4 - 4/9
7. Stephen Maguire beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 - 4/11
8. Jamie Jones beat Zhou Yuelong 5-2 - 1/1
9. Barry Hawkins beat Sunny Akani 5-2 - 3/10
10. Gary Wilson beat Tom Ford 5-3 - 5/6
11. Jack Lisowski beat Chris Wakelin 5-0 - 2/5
12. Jak Jones beat Zhang Anda 5-3 - 8/5
13. Ali Carter beat Rory McLeod 5-0 - 2/9
14. Ryan Day beat Robbie Williams 5-2 - 1/3
15. Luca Brecel beat Scott Donaldson 5-4 - 8/13

While Barry Hawkins, Jamie Jones, Ryan Day, Ali Carter and Jack Lisowski sailed through virtually unchallenged, there were a nerve-wracking seven 5-4 games in this bet, including the very last one to close.

Belgium player Luca Brecel had our punter’s backing and set the early standard against Scott Donaldson. He won three of the first four frames, but then his Scottish opponent warmed up.

As our punter sweated, Donaldson landed three of the next four frames to take the match to a tie-break. Brecel, perhaps hearing the calls from Somerset, returned to form to win 63-19, netting our punter £100,124.82.

Getting beaten by Fergal O’Brien in the next round, Brecel didn’t advance any further, but two picks from this accumulator did make the semi-finals - Barry Hawkins and Noppon Saengkham.

Could You Do It Too?

You do require luck to pull off any big accumulator, but does this strategy look achievable for the most novice of snooker bettors?

There are 16 games in the opening round of the World Championships at The Crucible, all boasting odds-on favourites, some of them as short as 1/25 and 1/10.

For an accumulator here, you would just forget about them - not worth the risk, however minimal - then bet the likes of our Belgian friend Brecel at 2/7 and World Open winner Mark Williams at ⅖.

There is a decent 14-fold accumulator in that World Championships first round, with only a few games requiring a big call - Jack Lisowski versus Ali Carter shaping as a real decider for this bet as the last game of the round on Wednesday.

The betting ranks Lisowski the 10/11 favourite over Carter, who is 6/5. Few matches in the opening round will be as tight, if the odds are to be believed.