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Championship League of Snooker: Host of stars showing on Betfair Live Video from Monday

Suffering from snooker withdrawl symptoms? Catch Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Ryan Day and more free to view on Betfair next week. Paul Krishnamurty previews the betting action

Things are beginning to look up for us snooker addicts.

Over the last few years we've seen a steady decline in the number of televised tournaments, and since Eurosport entered the fray many of those have consisted predominantly of highlights. So the emergence this year of Championship League Snooker has been a welcome bonus. With the matches screened live on Betfair, in-running trading has once again become a viable option.

Before assessing the players, I should explain the rather complex format. The league started in February, and after the forthcoming final group stage, 23 players will have participated.

Each group stage involves a league of seven players, with everyone meeting one another in four-frame contests (bringing the tie into the equation). The top four in the league proceed to a play-off system to produce a group winner, who then automatically qualifies for the final, deciding group. The bottom two in the league are eliminated from the competition, meaning in total three new players enter each new group stage.

Complicated? Well thankfully most of its been sorted out already. Monday and Tuesday see the final group of seven, with the winner taking the final place in the last, deciding group stage which will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

So first to the final qualifying group. Of the seven competitors, I imagine Ali Carter will be a warm order following his Sheffield heroics. Then again, having looked hyped-up and in the zone for 17 days and after earning more money than the rest of his career combined, Ali could be forgiven for taking an early summer holiday. Snooker is impossible if your focus isn't there, especially in these short matches.

There may also be a couple of no-hopers in this first group, Jimmy White and Dave Harold. Mark King played well at Sheffield and could be a factor, while Ian McCulloch and Fergal O'Brien will at least be fresh having failed to qualify for the world championships. The stand-out player here though, and my confident fancy to win the group is Neil Robertson. Robbo had looked in supreme form in the final two group stages played the week before Sheffield, knocking in ten centuries. He played well in the big one too, asides that one decisive session when losing 8-0 to a very much 'On Fire' Maguire. Take that one session away and I could have envisaged him reaching the final.

Awaiting in the final group are the six previous group winners - Ryan Day, Ken Doherty, Antony Hamilton, Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry and Mark Selby. On Sheffield form, its very hard to fancy Doherty or Hamilton, but the other four look closely matched. Murphy and Selby represent the class, but were bitterly disappointing at Sheffield. Of the pair, I'd be far more inclined towards Murphy, who is prolific against inferior opposition whereas Selby seems better suited to long matches than these rapid affairs.

Day had his moments at Sheffield, before yet again letting himself down on the big stage. For that reason, he's off my 'back list' for now. Perry emerged with great credit though, deservedly downing Maguire and only just losing a classic semi-final to Carter. The only question mark with Perry is that, like Carter, he could be forgiven for winding down this week.

But irrespective of the outright betting, the best feature of this new tournament is lots of quick-fire matches to trade in-running. I always tend to feel that backing the tie is a consistently good trading approach in these short games. Not because the odds are 'wrong', but because unless one of the players goes 3-0 ahead you're always going to have roughly a 50/50 chance going into the final frame.

And with so few of the very top players here, few frames are going to be settled in one visit. This suggests to me that the tie is going to trade at odds-on during that final frame in more matches than not.