Mark Allen will begin the 2010 World Snooker Championship with a match against Tom Ford. Allen will be favourite to win the match as Tom Ford is ranked 49th and will be joining Zhang Anda in making his Crucible debut in the tournament. Having made a good start to the season including a win against current snooker World Champion John Higgins in the 2010 Masters, beating him 6 frames to 3, Mark Allen will be confident about his form coming into the competition. He was knocked out of the Masters in the quarter final against Mark Selby, 6 frames to 5. Selby went on to win the tournament beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final. Despite Allen’s lack of a victory in a ranking competition he’s beat some of the best players in the game. In last years World Snooker Championship he reached the semi-finals, beating Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ryan Day to get there. Shortly after he won his first professional tournament, the Jiangsu Classic, beating favourite Ding Junhui 6 frames to 0 in the final.

Tom Ford qualified for World Snooker Championship finals by beating Judd Trump 10 – 3. Trump is currently ranked 19 places higher than Ford in the World Snooker rankings at 49th, indicating he’s in an in form player. During the qualifying stages he made 3 century breaks; 132, 120, 100. Tom Ford’s best title attempt was back in 2005 in the Malta Cup where he beat Ken Doherty but lost to Stephen Hendry who won the competition beating Graeme Dott in the final. He also achieved a rare maximum break in 2007 against Steve Davis in the 2007 Snooker Grand Prix.

Mark Allen Vs Tom Ford Odds

Both Mark Allen and Tom Ford are playing in good form so the match might be more entertaining than the rankings would suggest. Mark Allen is certainly odds favourite to win the match having shown great form on the run up to the World Snooker Championship but if Ford can recreate some of his century breaks in Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre he may be able to make a match of it. Mark Allen v Tom Ford snooker odds certainly favour Allen but none of the online betting sites have written Ford chances off. The odds on an upset in this match are similar to the Stephen Hendry v Zhang Anda first round match.

Mark Allen odds

• Bet365 snooker odds- 2/9
• SkyBet snooker odds – 2/9
• BetFred snooker odds- 1/4
• Extrabet snooker odds – 3/10
• Victor Chandler snooker odds- 2/9
• Paddy Power snooker odds -1/4
• Ladbrokes snooker odds- 2/9

The best snooker odds for Mark Allen to win the World Snooker Championship first round match are currently being offered by Extrabet at 3/10.

Tom Ford

• Bet365 snooker odds- 3/1
• SkyBet snooker odds – 3/1
• BetFred snooker odds- 3/1
• Extrabet snooker odds – 23/10
• Victor Chandler snooker odds- 3/1
• Paddy Power snooker odds – 3/1
• Ladbrokes snooker odds- 3/1

Online snooker betting websites are fairly unanimous in the odds for Tom Ford to win the match with Bet365, SkyBet, BetFred, Victor Chandler, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes all offering 3/1. So look for one of the betting sites in that list you’re not a member of and see if they have any promotional free bets available.