Snooker may not be the most exciting spectator sport for everyone, but it still has plenty of fans, and there are a variety of snooker bet types for willing punters to get stuck into if they’re keen on seeing who pockets what.
It is a game that is largely reliant on skill and precision, and as such, only the best players get to take away the big trophies.
If it’s your first time betting on snooker, or if you need a little refresher on what to expect from the game when it comes to odds and markets, here is our guide to the various types of bets available from bookmaker to bookmaker.
Snooker Spread Betting
Unlike outright bets, snooker spread betting allows you to take advantage of either side of a given result, score or outcome. For example, over and under betting could be seen as a spreading opportunity.
This is where you would bet either over or under a set score earmarked by a bookmaker. What’s more, spread betting has a slight edge over outright wins and scores as you can opt to place money on either side of a result.
Therefore, you won’t necessarily have to bear witness to a chosen player winning a match by much at all to profit.
Snooker Tournament Bets
Many popular snooker bet types and markets fall under the biggest tournaments on the sport’s calendar, which means it is always worth keeping an eye out for the biggest trophies which roll around from year to year.
Some of the biggest tournaments on the snooker calendar include the following:
- The Masters – an invitation-only tournament, which means only the best are involved.
- The Snooker World Championship – the biggest event on the calendar and the chance for World Champion to be crowned.
- The Grand Prix – formerly known as the LG Cup, this tournament contributes towards world player ranking indexes.
- The UK Championship – another ranking event, this tournament is less prestigious than the World equivalent but is no less nail-biting.
Outright Bets
Outright bets are simple, and when it comes to putting money on snooker, you’re going to be looking at wagering on who wins each match, or even on who wins a tournament or league outright. If you are unsure, you could check out what snooker tipsters recommend before betting.
You can also go each-way in an outright bet, meaning that you don’t always have to pick the winner in a tournament set-up. You can pick who you think will come, runner-up, too.
These bets are fairly popular in the mainstream, though success in this market will depend largely upon your ability to correctly call the more likely winner – which means keeping an eye on form.
Snooker Handicap Betting
Snooker handicap betting works somewhat like other handicap bets, in that a bookmaker, like Coral, will often choose to level the playing field by giving a more likely winner an extra hurdle to get over.
This means that you could stand to get better odds and an increased chance of winning big if you choose to opt for a player who has been handicapped. Essentially, the bookmaker adds win conditions to the bet.
Your pick doesn’t simply just have to win – they may have to win by a certain number of points, or there may be other conditions in place to help make things fairer for the other party, who may be considered an underdog.
The handicap system does help to make things easier on the bookmaker as well as the better, interestingly, which means you will likely see this snooker bet type offered as standard both on the high street as well as online.
Major Snooker Events
Major snooker events, as we have listed above in our guide, are brilliant opportunities for betters to really get to grips with the sport.
These tournaments, while they are the perfect opportunity for the best of the best to really prove themselves, they can also be prone to upsets and surprises.
This is why it is always worth keeping an eye on a form, changes in the market and in terms of varying odds from bookmaker to bookmaker.
The biggest events on the calendar are well worth paying attention to – as they make all the difference to the biggest players, meaning they should all be bringing their A-game to the table.
Snooker Match Bets
Snooker match bets are amongst the most basic of snooker bet types, and they fall under the outright category.
With match betting, instead of looking at the bigger picture of a tournament, or even the nitty-gritty of certain scores and so forth, you are simply betting on who you think will win a match outright.
Whether you follow the UK or US betting rules and legends, it should be fairly easy for you to spot the favourite and the underdog in each matchup – but always be aware that an underdog isn’t necessarily going to fall flat on their face, even with a handicap applied the other way.
Snooker Frame Betting
Snooker frame betting allows you to fine-tune your betting experience even further. You can not only decide who is going to win the most frames, how many will be won and who by – but you can also predict how many frames will be played at all.
The later the games in a competition bracket, the more frames players will be required to win.
For example, the players lucky enough to reach the World Championship final will need to play to a best of 35 frames – which means a bookmaker can offer you odds on anything up to that number, with individual frames predicted for each player.
Exact Score Betting
Want to make things that little bit more exciting? Try betting on the exact score you think will come from a given match.
Consider that snooker is fairly unpredictable especially under pressure – and you have an exceptionally tight market for a prop bet which could land you a huge return.
Alternatively, you may wish to stick to outrights – as this online sports betting type is reserved for the bravest of betters.
