History of snooker
Snooker is a sport that first began in the late 19th century. It emerged in the military classes, with British officers first playing the game in India. It was army officer Neville Chamberlain who first devised the rules that are still mostly adhered to today. Chamberlain came up with the sequential scoring system and alternation between the potting of red and coloured balls. The sport was formalised in 1919, with snooker’s first ever World Championship being held in 1927.
What is snooker?
Snooker is a table-based game that requires the players to hit balls into pockets around the table using a stick called a cue. It’s a game played between two players. A snooker table is a rectangular table that measures 12 feet in length and six feet in width. Located around the snooker table are six pockets. Four are located at each corner, with two being placed either side of the middle. In total, there are 22 snooker balls that make up the game. There is one cue ball; 15 red balls; and one yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black ball. Players should always hit the white cue ball first, which should then hit one of the coloured balls. The objective is to pot a red ball, before then hitting a coloured ball.
Snooker works in sequences, so after the successful potting of a red and coloured ball, the player then needs to go back to a red ball before then potting another coloured ball. Each coloured ball has a different score associated to it. The black ball is worth seven points, whereas the yellow ball is worth two points. The maximum score that a player can achieve is 147.
A player can only have their turn at the table until they miss the opportunity to pot a ball. If the player misses, the opponent will take their turn. Once all the balls have been potted, the winner of the game (frame) is the player who has scored the most points. A match can often consist of several frames.
Snooker is a global game with players competing from all over the world. The biggest events are the World Championship, Masters and UK Championship. These three events are known as the Triple Crown. The most successful snooker player is Stephen Hendry, who has won the World Championship a total of seven times.
Betting in snooker
Snooker betting is vast and varied and provides bettors with ample opportunity to wager on the sport. Like most sports, bettors can back the outcome of the match, backing player A to beat player B. However, there are lots of in-frame bets that can be made. A bettor could bet on how many times the black ball will be potted. A bettor can also bet on things such as whether a player will score over 100 points or the overall winning margin in the frame. Handicap betting is also prevalent in snooker. If one player is fancied to beat another fairly convincingly, bookmakers might give the underdog a few frames head start. The introduction of handicap betting provides better value to bettors. To find out more about snooker betting, be sure to bookmark our superdog picks!
