2026 Tour Championship: Odds, predictions & betting tips

By Deniss Novickis | Published: March 28, 2026, 14:00

It’s time for the penultimate ranking tournament of the snooker season! The event will be held at Manchester Central in Manchester, England, and will feature the best 12 players from the one-year ranking list. With the World Championship just three weeks away, this is an ideal opportunity to find out who is capable of going all the way at the Crucible.

All matches are best of 19 frames, the same format that is used in the first round of the World Championship. In this article, we’ll look at the top contenders and their form during the last few months and analyse the odds on winning the Tour Championship, before making a prediction on the winner and providing a few more long-term bets that have value.

For the first time in some time, Judd Trump is not the bookies' top favourite. This is mainly because the top four seeds get byes to the quarter-finals. The Ace in the Pack is only fifth in the one-year ranking and faces Mark Allen in the first round.

Zhao Xintong, the defending world champion and second seed, is the favourite at 4.33. Mark Selby and Trump are both at 5.00. Neil Robertson, the number one seed and best player over the past year, is priced at 6.50.

2026 Tour Championship winner odds

Below, we examine each of the four leading contenders, breaking down their performances during this season and assessing their chances of going all the way based on the draw.

Zhao Xintong

Zhao endured a dreadful opening to the 2025/26 campaign. His form then began to improve, with three semi-final appearances, before a breakthrough in mid-November when Zhao captured the non-ranking Riyadh Season Snooker Championship. That victory was very impressive, earning him £250,000 after victories over Murphy, Trump and Robertson.

He won the World Grand Prix and the Players Championship in February, looking pretty much unbeatable. However, those triumphs were followed by early exits at the Welsh Open and the recent World Open. The quality is always there, but Zhao often has problems with concentration, which leads to unnecessary deciding frames against weaker opposition. Given he is highly likely to play Wu Yize in the quarter-finals, we’ll make a bold prediction that Zhao won’t win this year.

Mark Selby

Selby won the Champion of Champions and the UK Championship during this campaign, beating Trump in both finals. He also reached the semis of the English Open and the British Open. Mark is one of three players to win more than one tournament this season, along with Zhao Xintong and Kyren Wilson. The latter is not participating in the upcoming event.

Mark Selby makes 147 break with a brilliant treble shot#snooker #ilovesnooker @markjesterselby
pic.twitter.com/vgOqS1n9Lv

— I ❤️ Snooker (@ILoveSnooker_) May 20, 2024

The Jester from Leicester has had a very poor 2026, though. He won the Championship League, an unranked low-level tournament. However, Selby couldn’t win two matches in any of the five ranking events this year and withdrew from the World Open. In the meantime, he’s always a menace at the World Championship, showing his best snooker in spring. The best of 19 frames format suits him perfectly, as he is an excellent tactician and a great frontrunner. Facing John Higgins or Mark Williams in the quarter-finals, he should be at least in the Last 4.

Judd Trump

Trump remains the world number one, yet this season was far from his best with a single triumph at the German Masters. He has reached the finals of the Northern Ireland Open, the Champion of Champions and the UK Championship, and also has four semi-finals to his name. Just remember that he has won eight titles during the previous two campaigns.

After the victory in Germany Trump has lost two semi-finals in deciding frames. If he beats Allen in the first round, Shaun Murphy is awaiting in the next round. The Magician is in very good form lately, but Trump seems to find his rhythm again, too. We predict him reaching at least the semi-finals, in fact, he is our pick to reach the final from the top half of the draw.

Neil Robertson

Robertson finished first in the one-year list with a huge handicap over second-placed Zhao. However, his position is so high just because of the victory at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, where he won an astonishing £500,000. Besides that, Robbo has only two ranking semi-finals to his name in the 2025/26 season.

Neil Robertson did this in the deciding frame 😎

Amazing brown and pink! pic.twitter.com/NZlASn3169

— I ❤️ Snooker (@ILoveSnooker_) February 26, 2026

A tremendous long potter and break builder, he can be unplayable if in top form. Yet 2026 is definitely not his year so far. While reaching the semis at the Welsh Open, he was demolished 6-1 in the first round of two other tournaments he took part in. Likely to play against red-hot Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the quarter-finals, anything more than a semi-final will be a huge surprise.

After analysing the draw, the odds, and the form of the players, we see Wu Yize at 10.00 as the most valuable choice. He shouldn’t have many problems against Chris Wakelin in the first round, and then it will be a match against inconsistent Zhao Xintong. Wu has a slight advantage in the head-to-head meetings, and his overall form in 2026 was brilliant, with one final and three semi-finals. This might finally be the week for the International Championship winner.

Just like we said above, Trump should make it to the final, despite starting from the very first round. Obviously, only top players compete here, but Judd’s form makes us think that he should prevail over any opposition in the top half of the draw. The odds of 3.00 look tempting here.

Last but not least, we really like the odds of 2.50 on any player to make a maximum break in Manchester. Twenty-three 147 breaks were made during this campaign, which is already a record for a single season. With matches here being best of 19, and the quality of the players taking part, another maximum break looks highly likely, and the odds are decent enough to take a shot.

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