The start of the PDC World Darts Championship is fast approaching and having previewed the tournament in full in my outright preview now is the time to look at the side markets which have been priced up for the biggest event in the sport.
The first set of markets to look at are the quarter markets and I’ll begin right at the top with the first quarter where Michael van Gerwen is a very warm favourite.
Clearly this section of the draw centres around the world number one and it would come as a surprise if he doesn’t win this quarter but he doesn’t have it easy it has to be said. Just to make the quarter final he’s likely to have to come through either Raymond Barneveld or Stephen Bunting and that isn’t guaranteed.
Whenever there is a short priced favourite in a quarter to take him on it is better to look in the other half of the section whereby you would avoid the favourite until the quarter final which would be a one match shootout and that is what I’ll do here.
Michael Smith would be the obvious person to take him on with but I’m going to go with the slightly less obvious but potentially more consistent Ian White instead. White is a former quarter-finalist in this tournament and is improving year on year on the big stage. He is a very underrated player particularly when it comes to scoring but when the pressure is on he can deliver so at 14/1 he represents the better value here.
Given that I’m firmly in Adrian Lewis’ camp outright I’m not taking him on with anyone in the second quarter so I will bypass that and move to the third quarter where the defending champion Gary Anderson is housed.
Anderson will be looking to defend the title and to do that he’ll have to come through this quarter quite convincingly but he’s been out of sorts ever since he won the Premier League in May and that would be a concern. His path to the semi-final may involve clashing with James Wade or Simon Whitlock and that is if he makes it as far as the quarter final.
I explained the difficulties the defending champion has when trying to defend this title in my outright preview so with that in mind I’ll take the champ on. James Wade is the obvious target but his record in this tournament is underwhelming which is less than ideal.
Instead I’ll plump for Simon Whitlock who has a really good record in this tournament. I’ve backed him outright but at the price he is for the quarter he is well worth backing too. He is 14/1 for the quarter and given that he avoids Anderson until the last eight he’s most definitely the value in this part of the draw.
I’ve also taken Mark Webster outright and I’m going to side with him in his quarter at a double figure price. Phil Taylor is the favourite in the quarter but he isn’t the certainty to come through that he used to be so it makes sense to take him on.
Robert Thornton is in this area of the draw too but he hasn’t really delivered on this stage before whereas Webster has. He’s been third here in the past and I fancy he’s coming good at the right time so I’ll try and get a payout out of him before he goes for the really big bunce deep in the New Year.
Away from the draw itself there are a couple of other markets I like and the first of those comes in the form of the total tournament 180s. The line for the tournament is 635.5 which might look a little on the high side given that last year’s 625 was the most amount of 180s hit in this tournament but the standard is so good now that I fully expect 650 to go here.
Not only is the standard so good but the preliminary matches have been extended and could well contain a few more and the amount of heavy scorers in the game now is bordering on the ridiculous.
There are 63 matches in the main draw plus the eight preliminary matches so even excluding any 180s that come in the prelim matches we need to average 10.5 180s a match to see this line covered.
Later in the tournament we will have four best of nine set quarter finals, two best of 11 semi-finals and a best of 13 set final which will have way more than 10 180s in each whoever is involved and with the scorers who have qualified early on I’m expecting some big first and second round totals too. That line should be covered and covered comfortably.
2015 hasn’t been a big year for televised nine dart finishes but maybe they have been saved for the grandest stage of them all. Last year was the first time since 2013 that we’ve not had at least two nine darters in this tournament. Only Adrian Lewis managed one but in 2013 Dean Winstanley and Michael van Gerwen achieved the ultimate leg.
The following year both Terry Jenkins and Kyle Anderson were covered in nine dart glory. Since then the standard has gone up another level so I’m expecting literally dozens of goes at the nine dart in this tournament and at 11/4 I’ll take the chance that two or more are converted.
Back I.White to win 1st Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with BetVictor
Back S.Whitlock to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with BetVictor
Back M.Webster to win 4th Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with BetVictor
Back Over 635.5 Tournament 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Skybet
Back 2 or more 9 darters for a 3/10 stake at 3.75 with Skybet
Blog darts YTD: +3.14pts
