Riyadh Season Snooker 2024 Predictions: Can Ding hit the magic 167?

Next up is the last event on the Snooker calendar for 2024, in the form of the Riyahd Season Snooker, where a huge cash bonus is available for anyone hitting a 167 break!

As always we have our snooker expert Dean Strand (@DSSnookerTips) on hand, with his comprehensive preview and Riyahd Season Snooker 2024 Predictions.

History, Location and Format

The Riyadh Season Snooker Championship is the first edition of this tournament, that comes on the back of the World Masters of Snooker, which was held for the first time back in March.

The 12-player tournament is being held at Boulevard City, Saudi Arabia and runs from Wednesday 18th to Friday 20th December.

Just like the World Masters, this tournament features a unique Gold Ball, worth 20 points that can only be potted at the end of a 147, totalling a 167 maximum break. This gimmick may sound daft but it carries a huge $1,000,000 prize for anyone clearing all the 22 balls.

The tournament features the top 10 in the world, as well as two regional wildcards.

Prize Money

Riyadh Season Snooker Championship Odds

1 pt - Ding Junhui to win Outright @ 18/1

With a short format of best-of-seven matches til the final, followed by a best-of-nine to decide the winner, it won’t be a surprise to see any of these players lift the trophy. They’re all proven winners having won multiple trophies each and for that reason I’ll be favouring two of the outsiders this week.

Ding Junhui is my first pick, having been in good form this season, particularly in recent weeks, including winning the International Championship.

In ranking events this season every defeat apart from one has came in a decider and that was a 5-3 defeat to Chris Wakelin. His only heavy defeat came in the Champion of Champions to Judd Trump and that came just a couple of days after travelling back from China following his International Championship win.

1 pt  - Luca Brecel to win Outright @ 25/1

My second pick is understandably the highest-priced player in the tournament in Luca Brecel.

Brecel's form has been terrible since winning the World Championship last year but he’s a player that can turn it on at any point and it still wouldn’t be a huge shock to see him win this week.

He’s never been a player who struggled with pressure and the huge prize money on offer this week won’t phase him.

The Belgian did show some good signs that he might be rediscovering some form in Scotland last week, with very good performances beating Zhou Yuelong and Ding.

In the first edition of this tournament last year he had wins over Ali Carter and Mark Allen to reach the final, where he was beaten by Ronnie.

Brecel likely faces Zhang Anda first up, who has been in poor form lately too and Brecel dominates the head-to-head with five wins out of seven, a win there would put him into the quarter finals.

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