🎱 British Open Snooker Betting Preview, Stats and Analysis

British Open Snooker 2024

The 2024 British Open was played at the Centaur in Cheltenham from 23rd to the 29th September. 

Mark Selby won the 2024 event, beating John Higgins 10-5 in the Final. 

Selby's victory may have been his first in the British Open but it was the forty-one-year-old's twenty-third win in a ranking event. 

John Higgins' trip to the final ensured he quickly made it back into the top sixteen rankings where he has almost constantly been since 1995. Higgins is still looking for his first win in a major event since February 2021. His loss to Selby was his sixth consecutive defeat in major finals.

The total prize money fund for the event was £502,000 with £100,000 going to the winner.

The highest break winner was Mark Allen who received £5000 for his break of 147 in his third round match against Ben Mertens.

Unsure of who to back in the British Open? Why not check out all the latest snooker tips on OLBG.

British Open 2024: Format and draw

Matches are of a duration of seven frames up to and including Round Four. For the Quarter-Finals the match length is nine frames. The Semi-Finals are over eleven frames and the Final is a best of nineteen.

The British Open is unusual in that there is a random draw before each round (like the FA Cup) rather than the traditional draw format which is based on rankings. 

Final - Best of nineteen frames

Mark Selby v John Higgins 10-5

Semi-Finals - Best of eleven frames

Mark Selby v Mark Allen 6-3

John Higgins v Oliver Lines 6-0

Quarter Finals - Best of nine frames

David Gilbert v Mark Selby 4-5

Elliot Slessor v John Higgins 1-5

Jak Jones v Oliver Lines 4-5

Judd Trump v Mark Allen 3-5 (Trump made his 1000th century in this match)

Round 4 - Best of seven frames

John Higgins v Rory Thor 4-0

Judd Trump v Stephen Maguire 4-2

Oliver Lines v Stan Moody 4-1

David Gilbert v Lyu Haotian 4-3

Mark Selby v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-3

Mark Allen v Chris Wakelin 4-3

Elliot Slessor v Kyren Wilson 4-2

Jak Jones v Luca Brecel 4-2

Round 3 - Best of seven

Yuan Sijun v Mark Selby 3-4

Jak Jones v Iulian Boiko 4-1

Zhang Anda v Stan Moody 3-4

Haris Tahir v Lyu Haotian 2-4

Neil Robertson v Rory Thor 4-1

Stuart Bingham v Stephen Maguire 3-4

David GIlbert v Ashley Carty 4-3

Elliot Slessor v Xu Si 4-3

John Higgins v Graeme Dott 4-2

Mark Davis v Judd Trump 2-4

Ricky Walden v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 3-4

Oliver Lines v Sunny Akani 4-3

Marco Fu v Kyren Wilson 0-4

Ben Mertens v Mark Allen 1-4 (Allen made a 147)

Liam Davies v Luca Brecel 1-4

David Grace v Chris Wakelin 2-4

Round 2 - Best of seven

Aaron Hill v Mark Allen 1-4

Yuan Sijun v Robbie Williams 4-2

Ashley Carty v Long Zehuang 4-0

Bulcsu Revesz v Stuart Bingham 0-4

David Gilbert v Ben Woollaston 4-1

Sunny Akani v Antoni Kowalski 4-1

Mark Selby W/O Lim Kok Leong

Hossein Vafaei v Zhang Anda 1-4

Tian Pengfei v Luca Brecel 2-4

Rory Thor v Mark Joyce 4-3

Allan Taylor v Lyu Haotian 1-4

Hammad Miah v Ben Mertens

Neil Robertson v Chris Totten 4-1

Kyren Wilson v Duane Jones 4-1

David Grace v Lewis Ullah

Ryan Day v Judd Trump 2-4

Haris Tahir v Simon Blackwell 4-1

Marco Fu v Ma Hailong 4-2

Graeme Dott v Zhou Yuelong 4-1

Stan Moody v Michael Holt 4-0

Xu Si v Gong Chenzi 4-1

Jak Jones v Alfie Burden 4-0

Ricky Walden v Jamie Clarke 4-0

Elliot Slessor v Martin O'Donnell 4-3

Stephen Maguire v Liam Graham 4-1

Anton Kazakov v Liam Davies 0-4

Thepchaiya Un Nooh v Noppon Saengkham 4-0

Chris Wakelin v Wu Yize 4-2

Iulian Bolko v Si Jiahui 4-1

Cheung Ka Wai v Oliver Lines 3-4

Mark Davis v Xiao Guodong 4-2

John Higgins v Shaun Murphy

Qualifying

Some of the bigger named players have had their qualifying matches held over the main venue (all of these matches to played on Monday 23rd September):

Mark WIlliams v Rory Thor 1-4

Ross Muir v John Higgins 1-4

Bulcsu Revesz v Ali Carter 4-3

Lewis Ullah v Manasawin Phetmalaikul 4-2 (Phetmalaikul was originally due to play Ronnie O'Sullivan who withdrew)

Pang Junxu v Mark Selby 3-4

Ryan Day v Louis Heathcote 4-1

Robert Milkins v Judd Trump 1-4

Gary Wilson v Mark Allen 3-4

Jordan Brown v Zhang Anda 2-4

Sanderson Lam v Jak Jones 2-4

Luca Brecel v Mohammed Shebab 4-1

Ding Junhui v Aaron Hill 3-4

Barry Hawkins v Liam Davies 1-4

Shaun Murphy v Ian Burns 4-0

Kyren Wilson v Julien Leclercq 4-0

The qualifying event was played at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. Some of the big names who didn’t make it through qualifying this year were: Jack Lisowski, Tom Ford, Matt Selt and Anthony McGill

Noppon Saengkham made the high break of 127 at the qualifying arena.

Which bookmaker should you use for your snooker bets? Our best bookmakers for snooker betting guide gives you all the answers you could need.

British Open Snooker: History and Last Ten Winners

The British Open dates back as far as 1985 when Silvino Francisco beat Kirk Stevens 12-9 in the first official Final. The tournament was withdrawn from the circuit in 2004 but was revived for the 2021/22 season. 

Some unexpected winners can be found in the British Open's history, not least the aforementioned Francisco, whose victory proved to be his only win in a ranking event during his career. Similarly, Nigel Bond’s only ranking event victory came in this event when the Derbyshire player beat Scotland’s John Higgins in the 1996 Final. Irish professional, Fergal O'Brien, was another player who found crossing the winning line in the British Open the highlight of his thirty-year career when winning the event in 1999.

Canadian Bob Chaperon, who played on the tour for fifteen seasons, recorded his only ranking event victory when defeating Alex Higgins 10-8 in Higgins’ last appearance in a major final in 1990. Popular 1980s player Tony Meo had plenty of success partnering Steve Davis in the World Doubles Championships but achieved his only ranking event win as a solo player in the British Open in 1989. Players such as Mike Hallett, Dean Reynolds, Gary Wilkinson, Ian McCulloch and James Wattana (three times) also made the Final of the British Open.

Some more familiar names have also had notable success in the British Open. 

Seven-time World Champion, Stephen Hendry won the British Open four times (1988, 1991, 1999 and 2003) and made the Final on two other occasions. Hendry notably beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-6 in the British Open Final in 2003, the only time Hendry beat O’Sullivan in a ranking event Final. Hendry and O’Sullivan played each other in six major finals with The Rocket winning on five occasions.

John Higgins also won the British Open four times (1995, 1998, 2001 and 2004) as well as losing 9-8 to Nigel Bond in the Final in 1996. Higgins lost 4-3 in the First Round of this event in 2022, thirty-years after playing in the British Open for the first time.

The last ten winners of the British Open are detailed below:

If you need more information for your snooker bets why not head over to the Best Snooker Tipsters page to see which of the top OLBG tipsters currently have tips on snooker. The highlighted tipsters have shown a recent profit for their snooker tips.

Other Snooker Articles on OLBG

• The Masters
• UK Championship
• European Masters
• Wuhan Open
• Home Nations Series  (covers Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open, English Open and Welsh Open)
• World Championship
• Best Matches of the 80s and the 90s
• Evolution of maximum breaks
• Shanghai Masters
• Player Form in China since 2015
• How much can snooker players earn

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