German Masters Snooker 2025 Predictions: Ford fancied in Berlin

It was Shaun Murphy who became The Masters champion recently but who will become the German Masters equivalent?

As always we have our snooker expert Dean Strand (@DSSnookerTips) on hand, with his comprehensive preview and German Masters Snooker 2025 Predictions.

History, Location and Format

The German Masters is the fifteenth running under its current ranking iteration, having been relaunched in 2011.

The tournament has been held at the Tempodrom in Berlin ever since and this year's event runs from Monday 27th to Sunday 2nd February. The event will be broadcast on Eurosport and discovery+ in the UK.

The format sees the top 32 players in the snooker world rankings taking on 32 qualifiers from 33-128 in the world in the first round, although there have been notable withdrawals for this tournament, including Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui.

Multiple winners include Judd Trump (three times), O'Sullivan, Mark Williams, Ali Carter and John Higgins (all twice).

The defending champion is Trump, who beat China's Si Jiahui 10-5 in the 2024 final.

Prize Money

The Tempodrum has a very unique setup with the four outside tables surrounding the main table, meaning the crowd can watch all five tables at once and some players definitely enjoy this setup and atmosphere more than others.

The tournament has been dominated by Judd Trump in recent years, with the “Ace in the pack” winning three of the last four editions (one of them in Milton Keynes during Covid).

Trump will be seeded first for this event and with Neil Robertson and recent Masters winner Shaun Murphy in that quarter of the draw,  I’ll be looking to the other sections for value this week.

German Masters Odds

0.5 pts David Gilbert each-way (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 33/1

1 pt David Gilbert to win Quarter 2 @ 7/1

Quarter 2 sees Mark Allen leading the betting following Ronnie O’Sullivan’s withdrawal but Allen has never enjoyed playing at this venue, a few years back vowing not to enter this event again.

He didn’t stick to that but his record here is still relatively poor with five first round exits and three second round exits in 10 attempts.

David Gilbert is my pick for this quarter, he’s a player who’s had success here in the past reaching the final in 2019, where he was beaten narrowly by Kyren Wilson after beating Selby and Robertson along the way.

His recent form hasn’t been amazing but it hasn’t been bad either, he’s had a couple of quarter finals this season, beaten a couple of top players and it was only last year that he reached the World Championship Semi Final.

He's likely to face Barry Hawkins in the second round and these two have always been evenly matched in the head to head. They've won three each in total, with the latest three going to deciders, including in the recent UK Championship, with Hawkins winning a high quality last 16 match 6-5.

0.5 pts Tom Ford each-way (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 40/1

1 pt Tom Ford to win Quarter 3 @ 7/1

Tom Ford is another former finalist here and at 40/1 looks a good each way price for this years event.

Ford struggled early on in the season but winning the Shootout gives him plenty of ranking points and he seemed to be playing with much more confidence in the Scottish Open with three good wins, including a 4-1 over Robertson to reach the quarter finals, where he was beaten in a decider by the eventual winner.

He isn’t in a bad section of this draw, the four most dangerous players in this quarter are Selby, Williams, Jiahui and Guodong but he’ll avoid three of them until the quarter finals.

Williams is his toughest potential opponent prior to that, with a meeting in the last 16 if they both get there but Williams hasn’t been in great form either since winning the Champion of Champions with four defeats in his last five.

0.5 pts Pang Junxu each-way (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 40/1

1 pt Pang Junxu to win Quarter 4 @ 9/1

In quarter 4 my pick is Pang Junxu, a player I’ve backed a lot this season and who I still believe has a good chance of winning a ranking event this season.

He did finish 2024 with a couple of poor performances but prior to that he’d been very consistent all season, reached the semi finals of the Northern Ireland Open and was generally tough to beat in all of his matches.

Regularly beats top players, he’s had wins over Allen, Robertson and O’Sullivan this season as well as beating Brecel three times.

Faces Anthony McGill first and McGill certainly isn’t a bad player but his record here is awful, only ever won one match at the Tempodrum and that was back in 2014.

In the second round he’ll have a potential match against Luca Brecel but with three wins already over him this season this certainly won’t be a match he’ll be fearing.

Made the quarter finals here two years ago losing out to eventual winner Ali Carter and was beaten by the same player again last season.

Check out the rest of our Snooker Betting Tips over at Betfred Insights.