Handicap acca can pay in World Championship first-round mismatches
Published:At first glance, it may seem difficult to turn any real profit on Tuesday and Wednesday’s World Snooker Championship clashes.
But, with a number of seeming mismatches set to take place, we believe we have identified four players able to overcome a handicap to gift returns exceeding 5/1.
Firstly, we opine that Chinese superstar Ding Junhui can overcome a theoretical 3.5 frame disadvantage against Alan McManus, with 8/15 the price that this is the case.
Ding, 1/9 to simply win the match, triumphed 5-0 in the only previous meeting of the pair, and enters this bout on the back of a PTC Grand Final success earlier this year.
And the man Ding overcame in the final of that tournament accounts for another of our picks, with Neil Robertson expected to make light of a 3.5 frame handicap at 8/13 when meeting Robert Milkins.
In a situation mirroring that of the first match, Robertson meets Milkins for only the second time, having bested the Englishman via a 5-0 scoreline in their initial encounter.
And we indulge in Mark Selby’s 4/6 odds to see off Matthew Selt giving up a 4.5 frame head start, in the latter’s first ever televised Crucible appearance.
By contrast, Selby will be participating at this stage of the tournament for the eighth year in succession, and the beaten 2013 China Open finalist’s superior experience should tell in this tie.
And finally, we confide in Stuart Bingham’s ability to dispel a 2.5 frame disadvantage opposing Sam Baird, a feat he is 8/15 to accomplish.
Like the aforementioned Selt, Baird is set for his maiden outing at this stage of the World Championship, and in Bingham faces a player in decent seasonal form.
Indeed, the Essex cueman has already enjoyed a run to the China Open quarter-finals this year, and suffered only a narrow defeat to Stephen Maguire in the Welsh Open final.
He can be expected to make the last 16 of a rankings event for the fifth time this year with an emphatic disposal of Baird.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
