Gambling on snooker is suddenly more difficult

As we have often commented in these pages sports gambling is big business in Ireland, and the opportunities presented by online sports gambling has dramatically increased the range of sports regularly followed by sports gambling fans. Gambling on snooker for example used to be confined to tournaments which were being televised live, but the internet and online sports gambling sites now means that snooker gambling fans can follow almost every snooker tournament in the world if they choose. There have been several periods over the past twenty years or so when there have been one or two dominant players in the game of snooker, which is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to encouraging gambling on snooker, but the current crop of snooker players appear to be more evenly matched so that snooker gambling enthusiasts find it more difficult to pick a winner. The plus side is of course that a successful prediction of the winner will probably pay better odds. Last month’s Shanghai Masters was a perfect example of the depth of talent which world snooker now has, and very few if any serious snooker gambling fans are likely to have predicted the success of Kyren Wilson before the tournament began. Ranked number 54 in the world at the time and never having been anywhere near appearing in the final of a world ranking snooker tournament, he managed to beat world number 7 Judd Trump 10-9 in a final which he led all the way, and claim the £85,000 prize. His success must encourage many other talented players who have not yet managed to hit the big time, and certainly makes picking a winner for sports gambling fans who enjoy gambling on snooker more difficult than it has been for years. Fortunately gambling on snooker is not confined to picking the tournament winner, and there are many other gambling opportunities associated with the sport.