UK Championship outright predictions and snooker betting tips: Mark your card with Selby and Williams

Where to watch the UK Championship

Live on BBC, Eurosport and discovery+ from 1pm & 7pm Saturday

Best bets for the UK Championship

Mark Selby
1pt each-way 10-1 general

Mark Williams
1pt each-way 16-1 Hills

UK Championship predictions

It is 5-1 the field for the first Triple Crown event of the season, with UK Championship favourite Judd Trump on the drift after landing the dreaded first-round draw against a rejuvenated Neil Robertson.

Trump has been this season’s form man, but a best-of-11 encounter with a Robertson who has his eye in from qualifying and defeated him 6-4 in last week’s Champion of Champions will understandably put punters off.

With defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan under a cloud at present – he has lost four of his last six matches and blew a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 to Xiao Guodong in the Champion of Champions – there are solid grounds to oppose those at the head of the betting at the York Barbican.

Kyren Wilson has been the player for money following the draw, with the world champion landing in a weak-looking bottom quarter where Luca Brecel, Gary Wilson and Chris Wakelin are his fellow seeds.

However, the Warrior can be taken on at the prices and at double-figure odds two-time champion Mark Selby may be the first port of call.

The Jester from Leicester is a winner this season, having been crowned champion of the British Open in September, and he lost little in defeat at the Champion of Champions, where he overcame Shaun Murphy before being edged out 6-5 in a high-quality quarter-final encounter against the in-form Guodong.

Selby is expected to overcome first-round rival Jack Lisowski before having the measure of Ali Carter or Ryan Day, while his likely quarter-final opponent, Mark Allen, is yet to click into top gear.

That makes a deep run on the cards and it is a much easier passage to the latter stages than Trump or O’Sullivan, who has UK Championship specialist Ding Junhui and 2021 champion Zhao Xintong in his section of the draw.

Mark Williams, who won the Champion of Champions following wins over Wilson, Robertson and Guodong, could also take some stopping with a favourable early draw to build from.

The Welshman should never be taken lightly when in the mood to perform and on recent evidence he would be expected to sail past Stuart Bingham and either Zhang Anda or Lei Peifan into the quarter-final.

Trump or Robertson may await in the last eight but Williams looked in such irresistible touch in Bolton that he should be confident of upstaging any opponent that he comes up against.

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