🎱 International Championship Snooker Betting Tips and Preview

Darren Brett Tipster Competition Manager

Horse Racing, greyhounds and snooker specialist with thirty years experience of writing about sport across multiple platforms. A QPR and Snooker fan

International Championship 2023: Format, Draw and Results

Zhang Anda won his first ranking event and achieved a 147 in the Final as well. He becomes the first player since Judd Trump in the 2022 Turkish Masters to make a 147 in an event and take the title.

A massive result for the bookmakers with pre-tournament 150/1 shot Zhang beating 80/1 shot Tom Ford in the Final.

All matches up to and including the quarter-finals are played over eleven frames. The semi-finals will be played over seventeen frames and the final will be the best of nineteen frames.

The International Championship can be watched in Europe via Eurosport and discovery+

The qualifiying rounds for the International Championship took place at Ponds Forge Sports Centre in Sheffield.

Some of the highest seeds to not make it through qualifiying were:

Robert Milkins (12)
Joe Perry (24)
Graeme Dott (42)

Ryan Day made a 147 in qualifying in his 6-1 defeat of Mink Nutcharut.

Some of the qualifiers for the top seeds have been held over to the main venue.

Final - best of nineteen frames

Zhang Anda 10 Tom Ford 6

Zhang wins his first ranking event two events after making his first ever ranking final. The thirty-one year old has been a professional since 2009.

He also made a 147 in the event so is definitely a player at the top of his game.

Semi-Finals - best of seventeen frames

Tom Ford 9 Jordan Brown 6

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6 Zhang Anda 9

Quarter-Finals - best of eleven frames

Jordan Brown 6 Stephen Maguire 5

Tom Ford 6 Barry Hawkins 4

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6 Ali Carter 4

Zhang Anda 6 Ding Junhui 3

Round Four - best of eleven frames

Stephen Maguire 6 Ryan Day 4

Jordan Brown 6 John Higgins 3

Tom Ford 6 Mark Selby 3

Barry Hawkins 6 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6 Anthony McGill 2

Ali Carter 6 Daniel Wells 1

Zhang Anda 6 Lyu Haotian 3

Ding Junhui 6 Pang Junxu 2

Round Three - best of eleven frames

Stephen Maguire 6 Judd Trump 3

Ryan Day 6 Ross Muir 1

John Higgins 6 Dylan Emery 1

Jordan Brown 6 Kyren WIlson 4

Mark Selby 6 Xiao Guodong 2

Tom Ford 6 Marco Fu 3

Barry Hawkins 6 Ricky Walden 4

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6 Mark Allen 3

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6 Jak Jones 4

Anthony McGill 6 Jack Lisowski 2

Ali Carter 6 Stuart Bingham 4

Daniel Wells 6 Zhou Yuelong 1

Lyu Haotian 6 Dominic Dale 3

Zhang Anda 6 Liam Pullen 3

Ding Junhui 6 Gary Wilson 5

Round Two draw - best of eleven frames

Matches to be played on 5th and 6th of November

Judd Trump 6 Michael White 0

Stephen Maguire 6 Joe O'Connor 4

Ryan Day 6 Jackson Page 5

Hossein Vafaei 5 Ross Muir 6

Wang Xinbo 4 Dylan Emery6

John Higgins 6 David Grace 1

Jordan Brown 6 David Gilbert 3

Kyren Wilson 6 Elliot Slessor 2

Mark Selby 6 Stuart Carrington 2

Jimmy Robertson 3 Xiao Guodong 6

Marco Fu 6 Sanderson Lam 0

Tom Ford 6 Cao Yupeng 0

Ricky Walden 6 Jamie Jones 3

Barry Hawkins 6 Tian Pengfei 0

Matt Selt 5 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6

Mark Allen 6 Oliver Lines 3

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6 Mark Joyce 3

Si Jiahui 4 Jak Jones 6

Jack Lisowski 6 Scott Donaldson 4

Anthony McGill 6 Sam Craigie 3

Stuart Bingham 6 Matthew Stevens 5

Ali Carter 6 John Astley 5

Anthony Hamilton 0 Zhou Yuelong 6

Neil Robertson 1 Daniel Wells 6

Shaun Murphy 3 Dominic Dale 6

Chris Wakelin 1 Lyu Haotian 6

Mark Williams 3 Zhang Anda 6

Noppon Saengkham 5 Liam Pullen 6

Gary Wilson 6 Robbie Williams 4

Ding Junhui 6 Long Zehuang 4

Pang Junxu 6 Fan Zhengyi 5

Luca Brecel 3 Mark Davis 6

If you need some help with who to back in The International Championship, why not check out who OLBG's snooker tipsters are tipping

The previous winners and runners-up from the International Championship are detailed below:

Year	Winner	Runner-up	Final Score	Venue
2023	Zhang Anda	Tom Ford	10-6	Tianjin, China
2019	Judd Trump	Shaun Murphy	10-3	Daqing, China
2018	Mark Allen	Neil Robertson	10-5	Daqing, China
2017	Mark Selby	Mark Allen	10-7	Daqing, China
2016	Mark Selby	Ding Junhui	10-1	Daqing, China
2015	John Higgins	David Gilbert	10-5	Daqing, China
2014	Ricky Walden	Mark Allen	10-7	Chengdu, China
2013	Ding Junhui	Marco Fu	10-9	Chengdu, China
2012	Judd Trump	Neil Robertson	10-8	Chengdu, China

If you are interested in betting on the International Championship you will want to make sure you use the best bookmaker for snooker betting. OLBG have analysed all the top bookies, their offers and coverage of snooker.

The prize money on offer for the 2023 International Championship was as follows:

Winner: £175,000
Runner-up: £75,000
Semi-final: £33,000
Quarter-final: £22,000
Last sixteen: £14,000
Last thirty-two: £9,000
Last sixty-four: £5,000
Highest break: £5000

Ryan Day and Zhang Anda shared the highest break prize as both made 147 breaks!

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 higlighted tipsters have shown a recent profit for their snooker tips.

International Championship 2023 Preview

The tour heads back to China for the third tournament since the end of the covid ban with the International Championship from at the People’s Gymnasium at Tianjin University.

Judd Trump comes into the tournament as favourite and is looking for his twentieth consecutive match victory when he begins this tournament against either Gong Chenzi or Wang Xinzhong. Trump has won his last three tournaments: Northern Ireland Open, Wuhan Open and English Open.

Second favourite for the event is Ronnie O’Sullivan. The Rocket withdrew from playing in Northern Ireland but he seems to enjoy his trips to China more than he used to and is likely to be lining up in the International. O’Sullivan is looking for his first ranking event win in China since the Shanghai Masters in 2019.

Mark Selby appears to really enjoy playing in Asia and has won more tournaments in China than any other player since 2015. Full details of all the top players’ form in China can be found on our China form blog.

Neil Robertson appears to be struggling with his game recently and has lost four of his last five matches on tour. Robertson has stated that he is feeling very homesick for Australia at the moment and until he strings together a run of wins he surely could not be considered a likely winner of an event.

Similarly, Mark Allen has not managed yet to hit the form heights of last season and had only made one quarter-final so far this season. He went out at the second round stage when defending the Northern Ireland Open 4-3 to Andres Petrov and Allen makes little appeal on a betting front for this event.

John Higgins is perennially high up in the bookmakers’ odds for any event but the 48-year-old Scot hasn’t won a ranking event since the Players Championship in February 2021.

Mark Williams has won a title this year but has recently spoken about a problem with his eyes so it remains to be seen how he will perform this week.

Luca Brecel has made no secret that he has cut down on practising since he won the World Title and that the extra media attention that goes with being World Champion has been difficult to acclimatise to. Brecel seems to have benefitted from a favourable draw this week so it will be interesting to see how far he can progress in Tianjin.

Shaun Murphy has been exchanging barbs on social media with Ronnie O’Sullivan again, this time over Murphy’s current preference for using more than one cue at events. Murphy has also suffered some personal tragedy recently and, again, a deep run in this event looks a risky proposition to take on for any punters.

Home favourite Ding Junhui won this title in 2013 and made the Final again in 2016 but his play has been patchy for a couple of years and he has made just one quarter-final so far this season.

With so many doubts surrounding the top players this might be a good event to try a few bets on some outsiders. Hossein Vafaei has been in excellent form this season and got to the semi-final of the British Open where he lost out to eventual winner, Mark Williams. Vafaei has previously made two semi-finals of ranking events in China.

Ricky Walden is another player with an excellent record in China and is a previous winner of this event in 2014. Walden has also made two other finals in China since 2015.

Stuart Bingham won an amazing five titles in China between 2012 and 2014 and has made four semi-finals in China since 2015. Bingham is getting used to playing in glasses so his results so far this season have been mixed but perhaps a return to China will inspire him to get back to top form.

Contributor Information

We are fortunate to have two snooker obsessed staff members at OLBG in Tipster Competition manager Darren Brett and our Editor-In-Chief Steve Madgwick, working together with Dan Tracey our data man, we are proud to provide this International Championship Snooker Betting Tips and Preview article and all major snooker events throughout the year.

Snooker Tips and Content Manager

As the manager of our tipster competition and all the players, Darren brings his passion for snooker to the forefront of his role. His expert knowledge of the game makes him the ideal person to nurture our network of snooker tipsters. Darren is also responsible for all of our snooker content and event updates, meticulously verifying every detail for accuracy before they go live. Darren is truly our ace in the pocket.

- Darren Brett, Tipster competition manager

Snooker Stats on Hand

While snooker might not hold the title as Dan's premiere passion, when it comes to crunching numbers, he is indisputably our mastermind. Harnessing the power of raw data, Dan meticulously compiles results, statistics, and insights, enabling him to unearth unique perspectives. This extensive groundwork lays the foundation for our team to craft high-quality snooker event previews and premium content. With Dan on our team, our snooker coverage is always on cue!

- Dan Tracey, Data scientist and football editor