The biggest PDC World Championship there has ever been begins on Thursday when a whopping 96 players head to Alexandra Palace looking to achieve their dream of being crowned the champion of the world and waltzing off with a mammoth £500,000 for winning the title.
Dreams are made and shattered at one of the most iconic sports venues in London and nothing will change in that regard over the three weeks of this event. Rob Cross had all his Christmases come true 12 months ago when he thrashed Phil Taylor to win the title.
Recent Winners
2018 – Rob Cross
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Gary Anderson
2015 – Gary Anderson
2014 – Michael van Gerwen
2013 – Phil Taylor
2012 – Adrian Lewis
2011 – Adrian Lewis
2010 – Phil Taylor
2009 – Phil Taylor
The Format
The extended draw this year has made a huge difference to the format. The top 32 in the world rankings, the seeded players, have been given a bye into the second round. The first round sees the 32 pro tour qualifiers taking on one of the international qualifiers for the right to take on a seed in the second round.
Both the first and second rounds are the best of five sets, with no tiebreak in the first round. The third round and the last 16 are the best of seven sets with the quarter finals going up to the best of nine sets. Both semi-finals are the best of 11 and the champion will be determined on New Year’s Day over the best of 13 sets. Each deciding set from the second round onwards must be won by two clear legs. If it gets to 5-5 in legs the eleventh leg will be sudden death.
Top Quarter
Michael van Gerwen goes into the tournament as the number one seed and eager to regain his world title. The Green Machine has shown levels of vulnerability over the course of 2018 but he remains the favourite for the title. There are some big seeds in his quarter though not least Raymond Barneveld who could be a last 16 opponent. Former champion Adrian Lewis and beaten finalist Simon Whitlock are housed here as well with James Wade also in this section. The other seeds are Max Hopp, Alan Norris and Jelle Klaasen.
There are some high profile qualifiers in this quarter as well but the attention may well all be on Anastasia Dobromyslova who is one of two women who have been allowed to qualify for he tournament. She will play Ryan Joyce for a crack at Simon Whitlock. Among the other qualifiers capable of doing some damage are Danny Noppert, Steve Lennon, Kryzsztof Ratajski and Keegan Brown so this is a really tough section.
Second Quarter
All eyes will be on former champion Gary Anderson who, like MVG, will be eager to get the title back to add to the World Matchplay crown he won earlier in the campaign. Players Championship winner Daryl Gurney will have a thing or two to say about that but he isn’t the only seed who will be out to stop the Flying Scotsman. Darren Webster is a nuggety character while Dave Chisnall is always dangerous. Jamie Lewis made it to the semi-finals here last year and Kim Huybrechts has enjoyed some good wins here in the past. Steve Beaton knows how to win a world title even if it wasn’t this one. Jermaine Wattimena is the other seed.
Robert Thornton is one of the qualifiers in this section while Josh Payne and Jeff Smith are capable of upsetting the applecart. Martin Schindler, Chris Dobey and Vincent van der Voort will all be out to progress as far as they can while the ever popular Paul Lim will no doubt have the Ally Pally crowds in the palm of his hands.
Third Quarter
This is the section of the draw where Rob Cross will attempt to defend his title from. He’s in a very competitive little portion of the draw where Michael Smith and Mensur Suljovic will be dangers if he is to progress out of the quarter. John Henderson will be out to prove he has what it takes to come through while James Wilson, Stephen Bunting, Jonny Clayton and Cristo Reyes all have big wins in them on this stage.
Before Cross needs to worry about playing a seeded player he might have to deal with the World Matchplay semi-finalist Jeffrey de Zwaan in the second round as he is a qualifier scheduled to clash with the defending champion. If that isn’t enough Dimitri Van den Bergh is in the quarter too and those two have history here. Ricky Evans, Ryan Searle and Gabriel Clemens have enjoyed big seasons on the tour.
Bottom Quarter
Peter Wright has never won the world title before but he will be looking to put that right from the bottom quarter of the draw. He could clash with Gerwyn Price in the quarter final if this draw goes to the seedings but Ian White and Joe Cullen are likely to have something to say about that. Kyle Anderson is dangerous as a seed here with Mervyn King, Benito van de Pas and Steve West making up the rest of the seeds in this quarter.
All eyes will be on Lisa Ashton in this section as she is the other woman who has made it through to the tournament. She will meet Jan Dekker with the winner getting a crack at Mervyn King in the second round. Brendan Dolan and Devon Petersen will hope to be dangers in the draw while Richard North is another who should be capable of a win or two.
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Betting
They say in big horse races that the path to success is to back the best drawn horse rather than the best horse in the race and I think that could be a profitable method here too. Obviously in an event of this kind you need to attach an element of value to proceedings too. There is no doubt in my mind that the best drawn players are in the fourth quarter and with Peter Wright’s record here being indifferent it could pay to side with Gerwyn Price. Price isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and he certainly isn’t mine but I’m asking him to win the World Championship not pop round for Christmas dinner. He is definitely capable of that, as he showed in the Grand Slam of Darts last month.Price doesn’t have a great record here but he laid it down to MVG in defeat last year and is clearly playing his best darts ever coming into the tournament.Wright aside, he has a kind draw and at 35/1 I expect a really big run from him.
The other quarter which could very easily open right up is the third one where Rob Cross is vulnerable both as defending champion and with his indifferent form coming into the tournament. Michael Smith and Mensur Suljovic are well fancied but I’d be sick watching Smith aiming at pressure fifth leg doubles with my hard earned heavily invested in him and Suljovic lacks the scoring power I would want. We often get surprise quarter finalists or semi-finalists in this tournament and Jonny Clayton could add to that. He arrives in good form having made the quarter finals of both the Grand Slam and the Players Championship, losing to the best two players in the world in those matches in MVG and Anderson. He wouldn’t face either of those until the final here so while his quarter is competitive, there is no reason he can’t come through it and give us a right run at 150/1.
Tips
Back G.Price to win PDC World Championship (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 36.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Clayton to win PDC World Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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