It’s less than a week since we saw an incredible world darts final at Alexandra Palace and now we have one of the best snooker events of the year, The Masters, taking place at the same venue. We’ve taken a look at the history and format of the event and provided you with our best two bets for the tournament. 

The Masters Snooker 2023 Tips

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History and format

The Masters isn’t technically a ranking event but is one of the three Triple Crown events in the snooker season and is one of the most prestigious of all snooker titles. It’s history dates back to 1975 when ten leading players were invited to the West Centre hotel in London and the inaugural tournament was won by John Spencer, who defeated Welshman Ray Reardon in the final. Over the years the event has been expanded to automatically include the top 16 in the world rankings and that is still the format to this date.

The event was held for many years at Wembley, first at the Conference Centre and latterly at the Arena. In 2012 the tournament was moved to it’s current home – The Alexandra Palace in London and it has remained there ever since. The title was won in 2022 by the Australian, Neil Robertson, for the second time.

The 16 players compete for the Paul Hunter Trophy, named after the late three-time Masters champion, who passed away back in 2006.

The tournament runs from 8th to 15th January and will be broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport.

Stage:  Prize

Winner: £250,000
Runner-up: £100,000
Semi-final: £60,000
Quarter-final: £30,000
Last 16: £15,000
Highest break: £15,000
Total: £725,000

Draw

Due to the ongoing fallout from the ban of ten Chinese players in relation to a match-fixing probe, 2021 Masters Champion Yan Bingtao and world number 9 Zhao Xintong have been removed from the Masters draw and replaced by #17 David Gilbert and #18 Hossein Vafaei.

1 Neil Robertson (AUS)
12 Shaun Murphy (ENG)

8 Kyren Wilson (ENG)
14 Stuart Bingham (ENG)

5 Mark Allen (NIR)
13 Barry Hawkins (ENG)

4 Judd Trump (ENG)
15 Ryan Day (WAL)

3 Mark Selby (ENG)
Hossein Vafaei (IRN)

6 John Higgins (SCO)
10 Jack Lisowski (ENG)

7 Mark Williams (WAL)
David Gilbert (ENG)

2 Ronnie O’Sullivan (ENG)
11 Luca Brecel (BEL)

Snooker Betting Odds

Ronnie O’Sullivan to win – 5/1 (Boost)

The GOAT has had a disappointing couple of months following two quick fire wins in Hong Kong and at the Champion of Champions.

Early knock out losses at the Scottish and English Opens, as well as a 6-0 mauling from Ding Junhui at the UK Championships have put the brakes on what was looking like ‘The Rocket’s’ best period of form for years.

However, the longer format of the Masters, in conjunction with what is normally a raucous crowd at ‘Ally Pally’ could be a great boiling pot for O’Sullivan to get back to his blistering best.

Ronnie loves this tournament, as witnessed by his record seven titles and with Betfred going top price at 5/1, it would be rude not to hop on board the Rocket train.

Mark Allen each-way (1/2 2 places) – 11/1

Another man having a superb season is Mark Allen. The Northern Irishman won his home Open in Belfast back in October, before scooping the UK Championship title just a month later.

Allen made the semi-final of the English Open last month, before losing to the runner-up Luca Brecel.

The 36-year-old has a tough looking draw and will likely need to beat Judd Trump and Neil Robertson to reach the final but his game is so well rounded now and he is bang in form.

*All prices correct at the time of writing.

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