Trump's cue to glory
Snooker's Premier league is back on Thursday and Sky Bet have all the markets covered.
Last Updated: 17/08/11 5:37pm
Snooker ready for Premier League shake-up
Snooker's Premier league is back this Thursday from Skegness with a hefty tweak to the old format.
Four players play best of five frames each night, with two semi finals and a final. The shot clock is now just 20 seconds; if a match goes to a deciding frame, then they play shootout rules within a ten minute frame.
John Higgins is favourite to win Thursday night's event and has an opening match against crowd favourite Jimmy White; Higgins is 2/7, while White is 11/4. The other match features Neil Robertson against Matthew Stevens with 2010 world champion Robinson slight favourite at 4/6.
Higgins is 11/10 to win week one's event, and it appears the punters back him to do so given Sky Bet's most popular bet so far is a 3-0 victory over White at 23/10.
O'Sullivan is still favourite to win the Premier League at 11/4 but will face stiff opposition from Williams, Trump, Junhui and Murphy.
Sky Bet's snooker betting expert Andy Thorp said: "The new format with an even quicker shot clock should be right up Ronnie's street; however, there are plenty of players capable of beating him so he will have to be right on his game.
"Young Judd Trump is my fancy at 13/2 to become the new king of the Premier League and it would be great to see him take on Ronnie in the final."
