Northern Ireland Open Snooker 2024 Predictions: Can Allen win on home soil again?
The Snooker calendar continues at pace as we travel to Belfast for the seventh ranking event of the season - the Northern Ireland Open.
As always, we have snooker expert Dean Strand (@DSSnookerTips) on-hand with his comprehensive preview and Northern Ireland Open 2024 predictions.
Northern Ireland Open Snooker Tips
History, Location and Format
The Northern Ireland Open is a ranking tournament that was initially introduced in 2016 as part of the Home Nations series and has been a ranking event ever since.
Entering its ninth year, the tournament has been held in Belfast on every occasion bar one, when it was hosted in Milton Keynes in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. This year's event is held at the Waterfront Hall once again and runs from Sunday 20th to Sunday 27th October. The event will be broadcast on Eurosport and discovery+ in the UK.
The field consists of 64 players once qualification was complete and the top 32 players will be automatically seeded for the last 64.
There have been two multiple champions, with Judd Trump picking up the Alex Higgins Trophy on four occasions and local hero Mark Allen winning twice.
The defending champion is Englishman Trump, after beating Chris Wakelin 9-3 in the final.
Prize Money
| Position | Prize Money |
|---|---|
| Winner | £100,000 |
| Runner-Up | £45,000 |
| Semi Final | £21,000 |
| Quarter Final | £13,200 |
| Last 16 | £9,000 |
| Last 32 | £5,400 |
| Last 64 | £3,600 |
| Last 96 | £1,000 |
| Highest Break | £5,000 |
| Total | £550,400 |
1 pt Mark Allen outright @ 10/1
With the top half of the draw dominated by big names including Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump, I think the value lies within the bottom half.
Home favourite Mark Allen is the obvious pick for me at 10/1, after struggling to hit form in this event in its first few editions he managed to put an end to that in 2021, beating John Higgins in the deciding frame of the final to lift the trophy and then managed to retain the following year with a dominant win over Zhou Yuelong.
He’s always had a tendency to start the season slowly but often finds his best form around this time of year and his last two events have seen him reach the quarter and semi finals, so he definitely looks to be finding his form again.
He won’t have any easy matches but the out of form Luca Brecel is the only other top 10 player in his quarter so he’ll definitely fancy his chances of going deep again this week.
Odds correct at time of publishing.
1 pt Pang Junxu to win Quarter 3 @ 10/1
One other player I do like the look of in the bottom half of Allen's quarter is Pang Junxu.
Junxu could potentially face Brecel in the last 32 and I’d make him a shorter price than the Belgian. He’s in much better form than Brecel and has already beaten him twice this season.
Every one of Junxu’s ranking event defeats this season have been in deciding frames and only one of them have been against a player ranked lower than him. He’s consistently beating the lower ranked players and giving everybody a tough match.
In a favourable section of the draw 10/1 looks a decent price for him to reach the semis.
Odds correct at time of publishing.
1 pt Anthony McGill to win Quarter 4 @ 16/1
There are two outsiders I like the look of in Quarter 4 and the first of these is Anthony McGill.
McGill has been in poor form for a while and slipped down the rankings but he’s still a very capable player on his day who often struggles to motivate himself for the smaller events.
The Waterfront always produces good crowds and it’s definitely the kind of event I could see McGill getting motivated for - two years ago he reached the semi finals here, losing narrowly to Zhou Yuelong.
He faces Stephen Maguire first up, another player who’s been struggling lately and he’s won three of the last head to heads against Maguire.
Odds correct at time of publishing.
0.5pts Stan Moody to win Quarter 4 @ 50/1
My second pick for this quarter is Stan Moody. A player who’s always been very highly rated at youth level and in recent weeks has been playing some great snooker.
10 wins in his last 14 matches with notable wins over Matthew Stevens, Zhang Anda, Tom Ford and Ryan Day, he faces Day again in the first round this week.
Definitely a player high on confidence at the moment and 50/1 for a run to the semis looks worth a punt.
Odds correct at time of publishing.
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