Defending champion Mark Selby advances

Mark Selby won Group 4 of Championship League Snooker on Saturday, prolonging his defence of the invitational event in Leicester.

The local lad triumphed at the Mattioli Arena last year and will have an opportunity to repeat the success when he competes in February’s Winners’ Group.

Selby won four out of his six round-robin fixtures across the two days of action in Group 4 to comfortably reach the knockout phase.

In the semi-finals, the former world champion edged Joe O’Connor 3-1 in what was a repeat of the overall title-deciding contest from 2024.

In the Group 4 final, Selby compiled breaks of 134, 84, and 80 to then easily dispatch the challenge of Jak Jones.

It was the fourth time in as many groups to start the month of January that Jones had been denied a spot in the Winners’ Group in a final.

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Prize Money

Groups 1–7
Winner: £3,000
Runner-up: £2,000
Semi-final: £1,000
Frame-win (league stage): £100
Frame-win (play-offs): £300
Highest break: £500

Winners’ Group
Winner: £10,000
Runner-up: £5,000
Semi-final: £3,000
Frame-win (league stage): £200
Frame-win (play-offs): £300
Highest break: £1,000

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Mark Selby will instead move forward in the competition, joining Hossein Vafaei, Si Jiahui, and Kyren Wilson in the Winners’ Group.

As usual, the Championship League Snooker winner next month will receive an invitation to the lucrative Champion of Champions toward the end of the year.

Jones, who despite falling at the last hurdle on so many occasions will have already banked a decent amount of money from this tournament through the various bonuses on offer, will have another crack in Group 5 after the Masters.

The Welshman will be joined by O’Connor and Stuart Bingham, who had topped the Group 4 league table before losing to Jones in the semi-finals.

Matthew Selt also gets a second chance having finished in fifth place after the round-robin play.

The quartet will be joined by newcomers Neil Robertson, Tom Ford, and Judd Trump – the latter a three-time former champion of the event.

Jimmy Robertson and Jackson Page were eliminated after placing at the bottom of Group 4.

Who is the betting favourite?

Reigning Championship League Snooker winner Selby, meanwhile, moves to the front of the outright betting market for this year’s edition of the invitational competition.

The 41 year-old boasts odds of 3/1 with world champion Kyren Wilson priced the same ahead of Si Jiahui, who is 5/1.

There are plenty of betting apps not on GamStop, which give punters the option to bet on snooker without restrictions and with higher betting limits.

The next opportunity to bet on Championship League Snooker will be in Group 5, which is scheduled for January 20th and 21st.

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Schedule

Group 1: January 3–4
Hossein Vafaei
Jak Jones
Pang Junxu
Ryan Day
Chris Wakelin
Elliot Slessor
Gary Wilson

Group 2: January 6–7
Si Jiahui
Jak Jones
Ali Carter
Chris Wakelin
Robert Milkins
Ryan Day
Pang Junxu

Group 3: January 8–9
Kyren Wilson
Jak Jones
Mark Selby
Ali Carter
Chris Wakelin
Robert Milkins
Ronnie O’Sullivan

Group 4: January 10–11
Mark Selby
Jak Jones
Stuart Bingham
Joe O’Connor
Matthew Selt
Jimmy Robertson
Jackson Page

Group 5: January 20–21
Judd Trump
Tom Ford
Neil Robertson
Jak Jones
Stuart Bingham
Matthew Selt
Jackson Page

Group 6: January 22–23
David Gilbert
Jack Lisowski
Noppon Saengkham

Group 7: January 24–25
Xiao Guodong
Zhou Yuelong
Matthew Selt

Winners’ Group: February 3–4

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Featured photo credit: WST