Christmas is fast approaching which means it is time for the PDC World Darts Championship, the annual party extravaganza which gets underway on Thursday night when 96 leading dartists head to London looking to win the big one and walk off with a cool £500,000.
Peter Wright did exactly that a year ago and he will return to bid to be the first man to make a successful defence of the Sid Waddell Trophy since Gary Anderson in 2016. Whoever wins this will have played fantastic darts and it feels more open than ever this year.
Recent Winners
2022 – Peter Wright
2021 – Gerwyn Price
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
The Format
This is the fifth year of the current 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 January 3 over the best of 13 sets. From the second round onwards there is a final set tiebreaker which means that a deciding set needs to be won by two clear legs unless it gets to 5-5 in which leg 11 is a sudden death as was always the case prior to the 2021 competition.
Top Quarter
This is not a tournament where the defending champion is the number one seed. Instead the seeds are done on the world rankings and as such it is Gerwyn Price, the world number one, who is the top seed and therefore the headline act in the top quarter. Eight seeds are in each quarter this year and the next highest to Price is the eighth seed James Wade. They are scheduled to meet in the quarter final but six other seeds will be looking to stop that from happening. They include the former champion Raymond van Barneveld, Ryan Searle, Jose de Sousa, Gabriel Clemens, UK Open champion Danny Noppert and Daryl Gurney.
There are 16 unseeded players in each quarter of this draw and in this top quarter there is going to be a lot of attention on the teenage star Beau Greaves who has taken the Women’s Series by storm in recent times and who could pick up the baton from Fallon Sherrock for the women in the game. Lisa Ashton is also in this quarter and will be out to show she shouldn’t be forgotten. In terms of big names, former finalist Simon Whitlock is in this quarter as are the Welsh pair of Jim Williams and Richie Burnett, both of whom have competed in a world final in the past. Alan Soutar made the last eight here last year.
Second Quarter
Michael Smith was beaten by Peter Wright in the final here at the beginning of 2022 and since then he has finally broken his TV duck when he took down the Grand Slam last month. He is the highest seed in this quarter, slightly ahead of Luke Humphries, the man he beat to win that Grand Slam title. They could meet in the quarter final but not if the likes of Martin Schindler, Joe Cullen, Damon Heta, Vincent van der Voort, Dave Chisnall or Stephen Bunting have their say. This is a very competitive quarter.
The other woman in the tournament, Fallon Sherrock, is in this quarter of the draw. Technically she could meet her partner Cameron Menzies in the quarter final, although a lot would have to go right for that to happen. The high profile unseeded player is the former champion Adrian Lewis while the likes of Andrew Gilding, Martin Lukeman and Jermaine Wattimena have all shown good form recently and will be looking to show that on this big stage.
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Third Quarter
This is the quarter from which Peter Wright will look to make a successful defence of the title from. The world number two is the top seed in this third section and will be expected to make sufficient progress despite missing the recent Players Championship Finals. Jonny Clayton is the man who is scheduled to meet the champion in the quarter final but there are a number of players who could stop that from happening. They include Kim Huybrechts, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Krzysztof Ratajski, Brendan Dolan, Nathan Aspinall and Callan Rydz.
Ahead of the draw being made all the seeds would have wanted Josh Rock nowhere near their section such is the progress he has made this year. The World Youth champion is in this section of the draw though. Former world champion Steve Beaton is also here while Keane Barry and Rowby-John Rodriguez are both exceptionally talented youngsters who could make an impression. Jamie Hughes and Danny van Trijp will be out to show they are not just making up the numbers.
Bottom Quarter
The tournament favourite heading into the event is Michael van Gerwen and he will be the top dog in the bottom half of the draw. Van Gerwen has won four TV events in 2022 but he hasn’t had his hands on the big one since 2019 and he’ll be out to reclaim the trophy here. Rob Cross is his scheduled quarter final opponent. Dirk van Duijvenbode is a dangerous floater among the seeds in this quarter with Mensur Suljovic, European champion Ross Smith, Mervyn King, former winner Gary Anderson and Chris Dobey completing the seeds.
There are a few unseeded players in this quarter who have the potential to be dangerous this year. Raymond Smith had an excellent run in the event 12 months ago and he will be hoping to go well here, as will his namesake Jeff Smith. Scott Williams and Ryan Joyce are two players who are dangerous unseeded players and they meet in one of the pick of the matches in the opening round. Matt Campbell, Madars Razma and Martijn Kleermaker are all competent players too.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets for this tournament, especially given that two firms are paying four places. That means we only need to get a player into the semi-final for an each way return so in the top half I’m happy to go with Danny Noppert, a player who has won the UK Open this season and reached the last four of the World Matchplay before he ran into an unplayable Gerwyn Price. I’ve always thought that Noppert is much better in the longer formats where he can establish a rhythm and a relentless scoring nature and he’ll certainly be able to do that here. He might have to go up against Price again in the quarter final but there are one or two awkward obstacles for Price to have to negotiate before that happens. At 33/1 Noppert is capable of giving us a huge run for our money.
In the bottom half, I really want to take Peter Wright on because by his standards he has had a terrible year and with all the off the oche issues there have been his focus might be elsewhere. The man I want to take him on with is Nathan Aspinall. Aspinall has made two major finals this season and been in excellent form throughout 2022. He has twice made the semi-final of this tournament and if he does that again here then we will get an each way pay out long before he runs into Michael van Gerwen, if indeed that is his semi-final opponent. Aspinall is capable of surges in matches which is ideal for set play and he feels a big price at 33/1 as well.
Tips
Back D.Noppert to win PDC World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Sky Bet (1/4 1-4)
Back N.Aspinall to win PDC World Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betfred (1/4 1-4)
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