Christmas is coming which means that it is time for the biggest and best darts tournament on the planet to begin as 96 hopefuls make their way down to Alexandra Palace in London for the PDC World Darts Championship, the tournament in which legends are created and crowned.
Peter Wright wrote his name into the history books in this tournament last year when he picked up the Sid Waddell Trophy for the first time and the world number two will be out to defend the crown against a top level field.
Recent Winners
2020 – Peter Wright
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
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
The Format
This is the third year of the new format. The top 32 in the world rankings all progress through to the second round with the first round of the event seeing the 32 qualifiers from the pro tour order of merit meeting one of the international qualifiers for the right to take on a seeded player in the second stage of the event.
The first and the second round are the best of five sets. The third round and the last 16 are the best of seven sets with the quarter finals up to the best of nine. The two semi-finals are the best of 11 and the champion will be crowned on New Year’s Day over the best of 13 sets. The big change this year is unlike in previous years there are no extensions to the final set. If the match is 2-2 in the final set the fifth leg will be the deciding one to avoid any sessions overrunning.
Top Quarter
He might not be the defending champion but Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed and as a result of that he is the headline act in the top quarter of the draw. There are seven other seeded players in this section all looking to deny van Gerwen a fourth world title. They are Ricky Evans, Joe Cullen, World Cup winner Jonny Clayton, Dave Chisnall, Danny Noppert, World Matchplay winner Dimitri Van den Bergh and the improving Jermaine Wattimena.
There are plenty of household names or seasoned campaigners among the qualifiers for the tournament in this quarter. Luke Humphries is a former quarter finalist here while Paul Lim has been there and done it for many years. Martijn Kleermaker is a debutant in this competition but has gone well in the BDO version before. Keegan Brown, John Henderson and Wayne Jones will all be looking for good weeks while the likes of Nick Kenny and Ciaran Teehan could be awkward customers for a seed if they can make it through the first round.
Second Quarter
Michael Smith is the top seed in the second quarter of the draw but this section is absolutely loaded with top names or players in form from a seeded standpoint. Devon Petersen is one of those and he is here while the two-time champion Gary Anderson is also in this quarter. Mensur Suljovic is another and these are all in the top half of the quarter! There are three world champions in the other four seeds too with the 2018 winner Rob Cross joined by the three-time BDO champion Glen Durrant and the back-to-back winner at Alexandra Palace in Adrian Lewis. Jamie Hughes can consider himself unlucky to have landed in this section.
You could argue two of the most dangerous qualifiers are also in this quarter as well in the form of the PDC Home Tour III champion Damon Heta as well as the World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode. The world youth champion Bradley Brooks is in this quarter as is the former women’s world champion Lisa Ashton. Other qualifiers of note are Steve Lennon, Daniel Larsson and Jason Lowe who are all capable on their day.
Third Quarter
This is where the defending champion Peter Wright is housed and he will look to be the third man in the last 10 years to make a successful defence of the title from here. He is another who has a pretty loaded section in terms of the seeds who go up against him though. They include the top class European pair of Gabriel Clemens and Krzysztof Ratajski while the form horses of Simon Whitlock and James Wade will have their say in proceedings too. The other three seeds are Stephen Bunting, Ian White and Jeffrey de Zwaan.
This is another half that has some decent names in it, not least Ryan Searle who won an event on the Players Championship scene earlier in the year. Kim Huybrechts has plenty of experience of this stage while Darius Labanauskas was a quarter finalist in this tournament last year. Ryan Joyce is another who has won on the Players Championship scene this season while Andy Hamilton is a former finalist here. Nico Kurz and Callan Rydz are youngsters to keep an eye on.
Bottom Quarter
It is all about Gerwyn Price in the bottom quarter. The semi-finalist from last season has already add the World Grand Prix and World Series Finals titles to his two Grand Slam crowns so he will head to Alexandra Palace in decent spirits but he’ll have to play well to come through this quarter of the draw though because he is joined in it by the man who replaced him as the Grand Slam champion in Jose de Sousa, Brendan Dolan, Players Championship Finals runner up Mervyn King, Premier League finalist Nathan Aspinall, Vincent van der Voort, Daryl Gurney and Chris Dobey.
Yet again there are a decent core of qualifiers in this portion of the draw with Jeff Smith and Keane Barry right among them. The former is a world finalist in the last and the latter a star in the making. Scott Waites is another former world champion in the field while Max Hopp has had some decent results in this big stage before. Jamie Lewis has been a semi-finalist here before and Luke Woodhouse, Mike De Decker and Ross Smith are all capable players.
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Betting
This is not the easiest draw to navigate or find a comfortable section in so initially I’m not going to go mad on it but the last two years have told us that this will open up quite quickly so during the Christmas break I might revisit the outright market and see where we stand. It is important to back someone who holds their nerve under pressure in this tournament because every fifth leg has serious magnification on it and generally the one who plays those legs the best wins the title.
This tournament is very much about nerve, bottle and the ability to hit a pressure double. 100+ averages are few and far between in this event as a result of those so we’re not necessarily looking for the lights out scorers. I think that all plays into the hands of James Wade who has made two major finals in the last two months and a semi-final in another and seems to be enjoying the behind closed doors stuff. Of course there could be a crowd for the second part of this event but even then it will only be a small one. Wade is a set play specialist having won the World Grand Prix twice, making the final another time and two more semi-finals and he has reached the last four of this event on three occasions, losing out to Barneveld, Lewis and van Gerwen in those matches. There aren’t many comfortable mini sections in this draw but he looks to have stumbled on a nice one and knowing that he can handle the pressure and is playing well he is worth backing at 33/1.
Tips
Back J.Wade to win PDC World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
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