The Masters Snooker 2025 Round 1 Betting Picks
This weekend, the world’s best snooker players will meet at Alexandra Palace in London, England for the 50th Masters Tournament. Round one of the second Triple Crown event of the season begins on Sunday. Play continues throughout the week and concludes on Sunday January 19th with the crowing of this year’s champion.
Several Masters title holders make up this star-studded field including defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan who is looking for his record ninth win at this event. World rankings leader Judd Trump is seeking his third Masters title.
The field is made up of the top 16 players in the World Rankings with eight first round matches over four days.
How To Bet on Snooker
Just like any other sport, you can choose to take a straight moneyline bet on which player you think will win outright. You can also bet against the spread which takes overall frames won into account. For instance, Judd Trump defeated Kyren Wilson 6-5 in the first round of the 2024 Masters which would have covered a +1.5 frame spread for Wilson.
There are also several props to choose from ranging from highest breaks to centuries and many many more for the more advanced snooker bettor.
Each round of this tournament is a best of 11 contest until the final which is the best of 19.
John Higgins +1.5 vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan (-105 via Hard Rock)
Sunday, January 12th, 8 a.m. ET
Higgins has hung in with one of the best snooker players in the world over the last several months and enters The Masters ranked 15th overall. He has gone toe-to-toe against Judd Trump twice this season. While he hasn’t managed to win one, he has kept it close, losing 5-2 in the Wuhan Open and most recently, 6-5 in the UK Championship.
The Scotsman is 8-1 against this spread over the course of his last nine appearances. On top of that, he has won 10 of his last 15 matches heading into this weekend.
O’Sullivan is the defending champion of this event and is hunting for his ninth Masters title over the course of his illustrious career. However, the 49-year-old has suffered some recent frustrations that could impact his title bid this year.
Earlier this week, O’Sullivan withdrew from the Championship League Tournament after losing three of his four matches in the group stage phase. It’s likely this won’t keep him from advancing to the second round, but it might slow him down enough to keep things close.
These two have each defeated the other for a Masters title with O’Sullivan grabbing the first of his eight career wins against Higgins in 1995. Higgins returned the favor by winning his second Masters tournament in 2006.
Ding Junhui Over Mark Williams (-110 via Caesars)
Monday, January 13th, 8 a.m. ET
Ding Junhui is currently ranked ninth in the overall Masters Ranking this season. The Chinese star broke a five-year title drought by winning the International Championship last November. Ding defeated Chris Wakelin 10-7 in the finals to take home his first title since the 2019 season.
The Dragon has done well advancing out of the first round as of late as he’s successfully lived to see the second round in each of his last three tournaments. He is also one of four players to make a maximum break at The Masters in its 50 year history. In fact, he’s the only one to do it twice.
Mark Williams enters The Masters as the sixth seeded player. The Welshman most recently took home a title by winning the Champion of Champions tournament last November. Williams took down Xiao Guodong 10-6 to win it all. It was a notable win considering Xiao had beaten top seeded Mark Allen to advance to the finals.
Since his big win, Williams has been inconsistent in making deep runs into his tournaments. He was bounced in the first round of the UK Championships. Most recently, he failed to advance to the second round of the World Open losing to the 92nd ranked Sunny Akani of Thailand.
Ding holds a slight edge in his head-to-head meetings as he is 12-8-2 against Williams over the last 20 years.
