Bet Fred to sponsor World Snooker Championship

The Gibraltar based online and store fronted company Betfred have confirmed that they will be the main sponsors for the World Snooker Championship for the next four years. The tournament will be now be known as Betfred.com World Snooker Championship.

The new deal has arrived just in time for this year’s televised event which starts on Saturday April 18th through to Monday May 4th at the world famous Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The tournament last year was featured on the BBC receiving over 127 hours of coverage and was viewed by over 24 million people. The event also received coverage on Eurosport and CVTV5 in China where it attracted an audience of 10 million viewers.

Fred Done, chairman of Betfred said: “It’s always been an ambition of mine to sponsor a World Championship and this is a competition with so much history. When it comes to snooker this is the pinnacle of the sport and I look forward to watching the world’s greatest 32 players.”

The World Snooker Association has been looking for a new main sponsor since August of 2008 when the previous sponsors 888.com pulled out of 5 year deal 2 years early citing difficult economic climate as its reason for withdrawing.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ali Carter record 147 Breaks at World Snooker Championship

Ronnie O’Sullivan was celebrating on Monday after netting himself £157,000 for potting a 147 break at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield. The two time former World Champion recorded the maximum break in the final frame of his 13-7 2nd round victory over Mark Williams. The money was put up by Championship sponsors 888.com, £147,000 for any player achieving a maximum break plus £10,000 for the highest break in the tournament.

However, Ronnie O’Sullivan’s winnings were soon depleted on Tuesday when Ali Carter also notched a maximum break during his 13-9 Quarter Final victory over Peter Ebdon. The two players must now share the £157,000 bonus.

The odds of any player recording a maxmimum break in the 2008 World Championship were 7/4 prior to the tournament starting and the odds of two players recording maximum breaks in successive days would have been much bigger, had anybody been clever enough to predict such an occurence.