Betting tips / Mike Norman / 14 January 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Sifting through nearly 40 years of Masters' history, Mike Norman unearthed some interesting facts that lead him to believe Mark Selby will take out the Masters...just.

The 2012 Masters will be the first Triple Crown snooker tournament in over 30 years not to include either of the game's two most successful players, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.

With a stat like that the rest of this piece can only go down hill (or in-off given this is a snooker article) so let's file it under 'sentimental stat' and have a re-rack.

To snooker lovers such as myself, a tournament without Davis and Hendry is like going on holiday without your wife and her sister; the people you love and admire (don't ask which is which) won't be in attendance, but there's plenty of other talent on show to get you excited.

And yes, the forthcoming Masters tournament promises to be one of the most exciting weeks of snooker in a very long time. It kicks off with Ronnie O'Sullivan -- available to back at [7.4] in the Winner market -- versus Ding Junhui ([18.0]).

Ding is of course the defending champion, having defeated Marco Fu 10-4 in last year's final. Only two of the 18 individual first-time winners (Hendry and Paul Hunter) have successfully defended their crown a year later however.

Debutants don't have a particularly good record either. Since the event was switched to a 16-man format way back in 1983, only Hendry (1989) and Mark Selby (2008) have won the Masters at the first attempt. This stat doesn't auger well for the brilliant and wonderfully exciting tournament favourite Judd Trump ([7.2]). Trump lost at the Wild Card stage in 2009 but is making his debut in the first round proper. Martin Gould ([46.0]) and Stuart Bingham ([65.0]) are also making their debuts this year.

Incidentally, O'Sullivan has won the event more times (four) than any other player competing this year. Selby ([7.8]), John Higgins ([8.0]) and Mark Williams ([14.0]) are the other multiple winners in the competition with two victories apiece.

England has registered more Masters victories than any other nation with 14 titles to its name, ahead of Scotland (nine), Wales (six), Northern Ireland (three), Canada (three), South Africa (one) and China (one). Half of this year's 16-man field are English, three are Scottish, two are Welsh, and there's one player each from Australia, China and Northern Ireland.

In summary, first time winners have a poor record at defending, debutants don't fare well, multiple winners are quite common and England is the nation of players to look towards. O'Sullivan and Selby fit the bill perfectly then, but with the former having a tough opening match and a potential meeting with Trump in the quarter-final, Selby is the selection in the Winner market.

Surprisingly for a tournament of such prestige and one littered with world-class performers, maximum breaks are very rare at the Masters. Exactly 4,860 frames of snooker have been played in 37 years of Masters matches and over 100,000 balls have been potted, yet that magical sequence of 36 successive pots has been achieved on just two occasions - by Kirk Stevens in 1984 and Ding Junhui in 2007.

Finally, if Selby is knocked out before the final and a 147 is achieved then don't worry, we can get our losses back on the final itself, in the Correct Score market to be more precise.

Six of the last 14 finals went all the way to a final-frame decider whilst 10 of the last 15 were won by a margin of no greater than two frames. The advice is to back 10-9 and 10-8 either way in next Sunday's final, regardless of the players in contention.

Masters Stats Top Tips
Back Mark Selby @ [7.8] in Winner market
Dutch 10-8 and 10-9 both ways in the final