2025 Tour Championship snooker betting tips – Tour title trio for Neil Robertson?

The 2025 Tour Championship – the penultimate event of the professional snooker season – takes place at the Manchester Central between 31 March and 6 April and is live on ITV4 and ITVX for fans in the UK.

Carrying a top prize of £150,000, this is the third and final ‘players series’ tournament of the term, following recent title victories for Neil Robertson at the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong and Kyren Wilson at the Players Championship in Telford.

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Only the top 12 players from this season’s one-year ranking list have been invited, with all matches in Manchester being the best of 19 frames across two sessions – suitable preparation for the World Championship marathon coming up in a few weeks. 

The top four cueists in the seasonal rankings – Judd Trump, Wilson, Robertson and John Higgins – all skip a round and go straight through to the quarter-finals, while those seeded five to 12 play in the opening round with the winners meeting the aforementioned quartet in the last eight.

Trump title favourite in a tournament that is not his favourite

World number one Judd Trump and reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson dished up an epic final at the Players just days ago, with Wilson once again getting the better of Trump in a title decider.

The top two seeds in Manchester, Trump and Wilson are again in separate halves of the draw, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they lined up in a final for the fourth time this season (11/4 ‘Name the finalists’ market with Betway). For the record, Wilson has won all three of their final meetings this campaign.

However, neither player has won this trophy before. This begs the question how much value do short-priced favourites offer bettors?

Trump is the tournament favourite with Coral at 13/8, although some may question his record in longer-format competitions such as these.

He has ‘only’ won the World Championship once (still a great achievement, but perhaps more is expected of him), and in five previous Tour Championship tilts, Trump has yet to reach a final let alone win it. In fact, Trump has lost his opening match in each of his last three appearances in this event.

Crucible king, Wilson – who was runner-up in this event two years ago – is second favourite (4/1 Ladbrokes).

The draw is almost identical to the recent Players Championship as there have been no big changes to the seeding positions since then, although matches will feel different with the multi-session dynamic.

From the six previous editions of the Tour Championship, there have been five different winners, with only Neil Robertson winning it on multiple occasions (2021, 2022).

Having failed to qualify for the past two stagings, Robertson – who was also runner-up in 2019 – is technically on a six-match winning streak in this competition.

Australia’s number one is in the bottom half (Wilson’s side) and would play Mark Selby in the quarter-finals if Selby gets past Si Jiahui.

If Robertson does face Selby, the recent head-to-head record in ranking competition makes for great reading for ‘Robbo’ who has won eight of their last nine meetings – including a victory in Telford.

With a preliminary round, there are only four match-ups we are certain of in Manchester.

This includes an all-Chinese tie between Xiao Guodong and Wu Yize. They played each other in the recent Players, with the tie going all the way, and Xiao coming through a decider.

It wouldn’t be an upset if Wu comes out on top this time, although I suspect Higgins in the following round would be too wily and savvy for the youngster over a long format.

At the bottom of the draw is the defending champion, Mark Williams. The Welshman – who is now 50 – was vintage here last year on his way to the title, defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final.

However, Williams is not in great form and struggling with his eyesight – he will apparently use contact lenses in a tournament for the first time. But he does play Ding Junhui, who is also frustrated at the moment.

The winner of this tie – Williams defeated Ding in Telford – encounters Wilson in the quarter-finals. 

FIRST’s top tip for the 2025 Tour Championship – Neil Robertson

Two-time champion Robertson has the best record in this tournament and goes to Manchester in great form having won the World Grand Prix just weeks ago – an event we tipped him to claim.

Confident with new playing equipment, Robertson nearly made back-to-back final appearances at the Players Championship but was pipped 6-5 by eventual title winner Wilson.

Pick: Neil Robertson is 11/2 with Coral to win the 2025 Tour Championship

Murphy to finally come good again?

Shaun Murphy sensationally won his second Masters title at the start of the year.

‘The Magician’ has largely maintained his excellent form since that triumph at the Alexandra Palace but has somewhat ‘hit the woodwork’ in subsequent events, having been stopped by inspired opponents. He narrowly missed out on the World Grand Prix final, losing out in a deciding frame to Robertson in the last four.

Murphy won this title two years ago, although he didn’t defend it last year as he failed to qualify. Like Robertson, then, he arrives in Manchester on a winning streak in the tournament.

First up Murphy plays Barry Hawkins. It will be the third time in only a matter of weeks they have shared the baize – Murphy got the verdict in both of those encounters.

Despite being whitewashed 6-0 by a rampant Trump in the last eight of the recent Players, Murphy could exploit the world number one’s poor record in this tournament in the quarter-finals to set up a potential semi-final with John Higgins.

FIRST’s value pick – Shaun Murphy

‘The magician’ is a bigger price than he has been for the past couple of events.

Winner of the Tour Championship title in his last outing in the event two years ago, Murphy may come here in a more relaxed state of mind with his seeding for the upcoming World Championship now guaranteed.

Pick: Shaun Murphy is 16/1 with Betway to win the 2025 Tour Championship

If you think Robertson and Murphy can both win their respective halves, Betway go 22/1 for them to face each other in the final.

Odds correct at the time of writing.