We have previewed the outright market for the PDC World Darts Championship which gets underway inside Alexandra Palace in London on Friday and before the first players toe the oche there is just enough time to look through the individual quarters for bets.
We’ll begin with the first quarter which gets up and running on the opening night of the tournament and is one where the defending champion Michael Smith will headline proceedings in what looks a fairly open part of the draw.
Draw
(1) Michael Smith v Kevin Doets/Stowe Buntz
(32) Madars Razma v Mike De Decker/Dragutin Horvat
(16) Ross Smith v Niels Zonneveld/Darren Webster
(17) Chris Dobey v William O’Connor/Bhav Patel
(8) Rob Cross v Mario Vandenbogaerde/Thibault Tricole
(25) Jose de Sousa v Ritchie Edhouse v Jeffrey de Graaf
(9) Jonny Clayton v Steve Lennon/Owen Bates
(24) Krzysztof Ratajski v Jamie Hughes/David Cameron
Preview
As with previous years I have split the quarter up into red and green sections just to make it easier to work out. The winner of the red part of the draw will meet the winner of the green side in the quarter final. In the red section it could be all about the two Smiths who are expected to face off in the fourth round as Michael Smith and Ross Smith are the higher seeds. Chris Dobey has won a TV event in 2023 though so he’ll be out to stop that while the American player Stowe Buntz showed his ability at the Grand Slam recently.
The green section is drawn to produce a tasty fourth round clash between the former winner of this event in Rob Cross and our outright bet from this half of the draw in Jonny Clayton. That would be a cracking contest if it happens but Krzysztof Ratajski and Jose de Sousa merit a big of respect, especially if either can get their best form to come to London with them. There isn’t a huge amount in the qualifiers to work about although Mario Vandenbogaerde can certainly play on his day and if Owen Bates’ darts live up to the noise of his nickname he could be a threat.
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Betting
I already have a skin in this particular game with my outright bet on Jonny Clayton and given that I’m on to four places in that at 40/1 I’m already effectively on at slightly better odds than you can get for him to win this quarter in this market so I’m not going in again, but I certainly wouldn’t put anyone off of doing so should they not be on outright or could only get two places on ‘The Ferret’. There is a bet I like in the quarter though but it concerns Ross Smith in the red half.
Smith has ended 2023 in excellent nick. In the last six Players Championship events over the last couple of months he played 24 matches and averaged over 100 in 15 of them. That is on the floor so we do have to appreciate that but in his last stage match, against Michael van Gerwen at the Players Championship Finals, he lost with a 104.54 average so it isn’t just on the floor he has been playing well. Smith has already won a TV title so we don’t need to worry about his ability to perform on the stage and if Michael Smith hasn’t found any rhythm and confidence with his relatively new bats then I think Ross Smith could well reach the quarter final in the red section at 5/1. Over the longer best of nine set distance which he hasn’t gone through before he might get found out but he is the form player in the red zone of this quarter and I think the 5/1 on him just to make the last eight looks very big with Michael Smith looking bang out of touch since changing his darts. Chris Dobey merits a mention but his form looks to have dropped off as well whereas Ross Smith appears to be getting stronger. I’ll play the 5/1 that he lines up on January 1.
Tips
Back R.Smith to reach quarter final from Section 1 for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Betfair
