Darts Betting Tips: Michael Van Gerwen To Win Third Darts Masters?

Normal business resumes this Friday as the fifth PDC Darts Masters event takes place at Arena MK in Milton Keynes. Running for three days, the tournament draws in all the usual big names to usher in a new season.

The two-time defending champion here, (yes, who else but Michael van Gerwen?) will begin as the obvious favourite, looking to lift the trophy for the third straight year. The world number one signed off 2016 with 25 tournament victories before finishing the season in due style by winning the 2017 World Championship. After a three-week break, he is ready to roll again.

Darts Masters Betting Tips
   
At 8/13 at Bet365, MVG is without doubt the hot favourite to land this (and every other major televised darts title in the foreseeable future). In his way stands the usual roll call of those hoping to scupper his bid for glory: the likes of Gary Anderson, Phil Taylor and Peter Wright.

Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is expected to take ‘the Barney route’ and enjoy a reduced schedule this year. The Power is waning and (as welcome as any success he enjoys would be) his declining force has rewarded us with the longest price I have seen on an outright Taylor win for as long as I can remember: 14/1 with both Betway and Bet365, so take your pick.

As proven earlier in the month at the Ally Pally, the closest threat to Mighty Mike will continue to come from Gary ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson, two-time world champion and current world number two.

In the week of Burns’ Night, what price for a Scottish victory? That’ll be 5/1 according to both Betway and SkyBet, the latter offering an interesting 2/1 on an Anderson v MVG final. A look through the schedule below and this appears to be entirely likely, given the potential semi-final meet up between Anderson and Peter Wright.

Of course, the other challenger also counts as a Scot, despite a lacklustre 2016. As we enter the official 2017 schedule, nothing has changed for Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright. A major final or even title will surely happen for the guy this year, but will it come this early on or will he make us wait? I’m guessing the latter. Nevertheless, he is at 10/1 across the board and double figures on the world number three always looks inviting.

Adrian Lewis at 28/1, Raymond Van Barneveld at 28/1, Dave Chisnall at 33/1 and James Wade at 33/1 are the other standout names in the 16-player event, but I’ll go ahead and mark them down as “also rans” before a dart has been chucked.

The Masters has a top prize of £60,000 and will be broadcast live on ITV4.

The Masters Schedule

First round (best of 19)

Friday January 27 (19:00 GMT)

  • Dave Chisnall v Raymond van Barneveld
  • Phil Taylor v Michael Smith
  • Gary Anderson v Benito van de Pas
  • Peter Wright v Ian White

Saturday January 28 (19:00 GMT)

  • Mensur Suljovic v Jelle Klaasen
  • James Wade v Robert Thornton
  • Michael van Gerwen v Simon Whitlock
  • Adrian Lewis v Kim Huybrechts

Quarter-finals (best of 19)

Sunday January 29, Afternoon Session (12:45 GMT)

  • Taylor/Smith v Wright/White
  • Anderson/Van de Pas v Chisnall/Van Barneveld
  • Wade/Thornton v Lewis/Huybrechts
  • Van Gerwen/Whitlock v Suljovic/Klaasen

Semi-finals (best of 21)

Sunday January 29, Evening Session (19:00 GMT)

  • Winner QF 1 v Winner QF 2
  • Winner QF 3 v Winner QF 4

Final (best of 21)

  • Winner SF 1 v Winner SF 2
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A Double Dutch World Championship Is Our Top Darts Betting Tip

BDO World Championship

 

Need your darts betting fix? Don’t we all; we established last week it’s a jam-packed 2017, though, so we shouldn’t have to wait too long!

As we wait for the PDC Darts Masters at the end of next week, there is the small matter of the BDO World Championships to finish off. The second round drew to close at Lakeside on Thursday and is, at last, a tournament that Michael Van Gerwen cannot win.

BDO World Championship of Darts betting tips

Scott ‘Scotty Too Hotty’ Waites launched his BDO world title defence on Tuesday and duly oversaw Dennis Harbour without any problems at all, running out the 3-1 winner. Waites, the reigning and two-time Lakeside king, remains 10/1 at with Betway to reclaim his crown.

Up until this point, he has had a disappointing season winning only the European Classic since his championship twelve months ago, but he and his following know that Lakeside traditionally brings out the best in him.

The top seed by some distance, however, is Glen Durrant; you’ll find him evens at both Bet365 and Betway after his second-round win against Paul Hogan. A defiant Durrant rallied hard to claim his place in the quarter-finals after coming back from three sets down to defeat Hogan 4-3.

Second-favourite and third seed, Dutchman Danny ‘Noppie’ Noppert, can make it a World Championship double for the Netherlands by following Michael Van Gerwen and lifting the best trophy in his code. At 4/1 across the board, it is worth a punt and is the best darts betting tip on offer this week.

Noppert, winner of five titles this year including the Scottish and German Opens, made his hotly-anticipated Lakeside debut where he hogged all the glory against David Cameron (no, not that one) in the opening tie of Tuesday’s afternoon session. It is surely only a matter of time before he steps up to the PDC Tour.

Great darts betting odds at Bet365

For those a little further down the field, Jamie Hughes, who played in Wednesday’s evening session, represents the best of the betting with the 9/1 on offer at Bet365, the best price available on the Englishman.

The Netherlands’ Geert de Vos saw off the challenge of Scott Mitchell with a 4-2 win, and the other Dutchman in the betting now finds himself at 10/1, again at Bet365.

Elsewhere, crowd favourite and three-time champion Martin Adams is 13/1 at Bet365 to emerge victorious in Sunday’s final. ‘Wolfie’ took a step closer to that final Wednesday afternoon when he played against Jeff Smith and saw off the challenge with relative ease, finishing at 4-1 to move into Friday’s Quarter Finals.

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Michael Van Gerwen Wins World Championship To Kick Off 2017

Michael Van Gerwen
 

Could he do it? Of course he could.

As if it had never been in doubt, Michael Van Gerwen tightened his stranglehold on top-flight darts as he claimed his second ever PDC World Championship last Monday. And my, wasn’t it impressive?

His dismissal of reigning champion Gary Anderson 7-3 (winner here in 2015 and 2016 don’t forget) took no more than 90 minutes to complete and was a match that set a new record with 42 separate 180s thrown.

Anderson can be pleased with his performance, as can Dutchman Raymond Van Barneveld who, in an all-Dutch semi, threw a personal record 109.34. That wasn’t good enough against a stunning MVG who, on his way to a 6-2 victory, posted a World Championship record average of 114.05, beating the previous record of Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor’s 111.21 back in 2002.

The other semi, an all-Scots affair, saw Peter Wright’s bid for a first televised tourney triumph extinguished by Anderson who, despite hitting 22 180s and averaging 104.93 on the night, simply could not match Mighty Mike’s incredible average of 107.79 in the final.

The best darts betting events for 2017

As another calendar year gets underway, we will, as ever, look to find the best darts betting tips available online.

So what are the major events to look forward to in the coming year? First up at the end of January is The Masters in Milton Keynes featuring the world’s top 16 players.

Then, on February 2, The Premier League of Darts gets running at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, taking place in different venues on Thursday nights for three months until we reach the playoffs at London’s O2 Arena. In March, The European Tour begins its supersized eleven-event run, which starts in Hildesheim, Germany.

The summer will see numerous global trips to far flung corners of the world, including The U.S. Darts Masters in Las Vegas, as well as other runs for the World Series of Darts, events for which will be announced further down the line.

The Betway World Cup of Darts will be held in June, while The World Matchplay runs at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens in July. In September, The Champions League of Darts gets its second running and October sees The World Grand Prix plus the conclusion of The European Championship.

November features The World Series of Darts Finals, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals before, in December, the 2017/18 World Darts Championship gets underway again concluding the year’s action at the Ally Pally one year from now.

Enjoy!

January

  • January 27-29: Darts Masters

February

  • February 2: Premier League Darts (Match day 1, Newcastle)
  • February 9: Premier League Darts (Match day 2, Nottingham)
  • February 16: Premier League Darts (Match day 3, Leeds)
  • February23: Premier League Darts (Match day 4, Brighton)

March

  • March 2: Premier League Darts (Match day 5, Exeter)
  • March 9: Premier League Darts (Match day 6, Glasgow)
  • March 16: Premier League Darts (Match day 7, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
  • March 23: Premier League Darts (Match day 8, Manchester)
  • March 24-26: European Tour 1 (Hildesheim, Germany)
  • March 30: Premier League Darts (Match day 9, Cardiff)

April

  • April 6: Premier League Darts (Match day 10, Dublin, Ireland)
  • April 13: Premier League Darts (Match day 11, Liverpool)
  • April 15-17: European Tour 2 (Jena, Germany)
  • April 20: Premier League Darts (Match day 12, Belfast)
  • April 21-23: European Tour 3 (Saarbruecken, Germany)
  • April 27: Premier League Darts (Match day 13, Birmingham)

May

  • May 4: Premier League Darts (Match day 14, Sheffield)
  • May 5 – 7: European Tour 4 (Sindelfingen, Germany)
  • May 11: Premier League Darts (Match day 15, Aberdeen)
  • May 12-14: European Tour 5 (Gibraltar)
  • May 18: Premier League Darts Play-Offs (London)

June

  • June 1-4: World Cup (Frankfurt, Germany)
  • June 9-11: European Tour 6 (Hamburg, Germany)
  • June 22-23: European Tour 7 (Vienna, Austria)
  • June 30-July 2: European Tour 8 (Leverkusen, Germany)

July

  • July 22-30: World Matchplay (Blackpool)

August

September

  • September 1-3: European Tour 9 (Maastricht, Netherlands)
  • September 8-10: European Tour 10 (Mannheim, Germany)
  • September 22-24: European Tour 11 (Riesa, Germany)
  • September TBC: Champions League of Darts

October

  • October 1-7: World Grand Prix (Dublin, Ireland)
  • October 13-15: European Tour 12 (Goettingen, Germany)
  • October 27-29: European Championship

November

  • November 4-5: World Series Finals (Barnsley)
  • November 11-19: Grand Slam (Wolverhampton)
  • November 24-26: Players Championship Finals (Minehead)

December

  • December TBC: World Darts Championship (London)
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