World Open Snooker 2024 Tips: Allen worth a look in outright market

The World Open becomes the third Chinese ranking event of the season to make its return to the tour for the first time since 2019. Judd Trump is the top seed heading into the event as defending Champion from the 2019 season where he beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the final.

Our man Dean Strand - aka @DSSnookertips is here to preview all the action, which you can follow live on Eurosport and Discovery+.

1pt - Mark Allen to win Outright @ 11/1

The form players this season have undoubtedly been Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump, but odds of 2/1 and 5/2 respectively don’t particularly appeal for the two favourites, as they still have to get past a lot of good players to lift the trophy.

Allen looks the value pick out of the front runners to me - Selby is third-favourite in the betting but it should be Allen in my opinion. He’s beaten Selby in their two most recent meetings and more importantly has still managed to win three trophies in 17 events this season, despite Ronnie and Judd's dominance.

In the Champion of Champions, he beat Trump 10-3 and he also won the most recent ranking event last month at the Players Championship.

0.5pts - Dominic Dale to win Quarter 1  @ 40/1

Trump obviously leads the way in Quarter 1 but odds of 40/1 look appealing for Dominic Dale.

‘The Spaceman’ is enjoying his best season in years at the age of 52, reaching two quarter-finals and picking up ranking points in every event apart from one to sit 31st on the one-year list.

In the recent Welsh Open he impressed to reach the quarter-finals where he was beaten narrowly by Elliot Slessor.

He beat Jak Jones 4-0 for that event, a player that’s only 14/1 for this quarter.

0.5pts - Lyu Haotian to win Quarter 3 @ 25/1

Haotian tends to play some of his best snooker in China with two semi-finals, a quarter and a couple of last-16 finishes in the past.

This season in Wuhan, he had convincing wins over Chris Wakelin and Zhang Anda before beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-1 to reach the semi-finals.

He as a favourable first-round draw against Aaron Hill this week, before a potential second-round clash against Ronnie, but he can definitely go into that one with confidence. If he can beat him again, he’ll have easier last-16 and quarter-final matches with an out-of-form Shaun Murphy, who is the next highest ranked player in this section.

1pt - Tom Ford to win Quarter 4 @ 12/1

My final pick is Tom Ford to win Quarter 4.

Another player who tends to play better overseas, in his last two Chinese events pre-covid, he reached the quarter-finals in both and last season reached the final of the German Masters.

In the two Chinese events this season he reached the quarter-finals in Wuhan losing out to eventual winner Trump, before making it to the final of the International Championship, beating Hawkins and Selby along the way.

He's fifth-favourite for this quarter behind Robertson, Hawkins, Carter and Brecel, but he’s already beaten Hawkins twice this season and is ahead of the other three on the one-year list.

You can follow Dean's Snooker Betting Tips throughout the season with us here on Betfred Insights.