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January12January 12, 2019

2019 BDO World Championships Semi-Final Betting

Scott Waites will face Germany’s Michael Unterbuchner in the first of Saturday’s BDO Men’s World Darts Championship semi-finals at the Lakeside Club after the two-time champion overcame Conan ‘The Barbarian’ Whitehead in Friday’s Quarter Finals. Only one round earlier, Whitehead had eliminated Mark McGeeney but couldn’t rediscover his form once reaching the final eight.

Scotty-2-Hotty, seeking his third Lakeside title, managed to bank an average of over a ton for a 12-dart opening leg. Whitehead then took the second set before moving ahead thanks to a third set victory in which he scored an exceptional 154 checkout. Waites came back, taking out the next three sets as he seized the initiative, with averages of 101, 81 and 68 with momentum swinging his way.

Before long, Waits had moved within one leg of the semi-finals, inspiring Whitehead to give it everything he had and dig out a bullseye followed by double 16 for a 102 finish. This fightback wasn’t to last long, however, as he subsequently missed crucial shots which allowed Waites to collect double 20 and end ‘The Barbarian’s’ comeback setting up a meeting with Michael Unterbuchner in Saturday’s semi-final in the process.

A look ahead to the Semi-Finals

For the second year in a row, Unterbuchner, who Betway have priced at 11/2 for the outright win, reached the Lakeside semi-finals after fighting back to defeat the 13th seeded Dutchman Willem Mandigers 5-4. In truth, Unterbuchner looked like he would be heading out after he found himself trailing 3-1 early on. Instead, he showed great character as he took out a vital 104 finish to get back into the match and ensure this exhilarating quarter-final went the distance. Mandigers, who was playing in his first Lakeside quarter-final following his surprise victory over Wesley Harms, hit the highest checkout of the match with 158. It was not quite enough as his opponent averaged 88.35 overall compared to his 86.66 to make the last four.

Friday’s late session saw victories for Glen Durrant and Jim Williams who won 5-2 and 3-5, respectively. The pair will now meet later today with Durrant seeking a record-equalling third successive Lakeside title after seeing off Kyle McKinstry to book his semi-final spot.

4/6 favourite ‘Duzza’ is bidding to become the first man since Eric Bristow in 1984-86 to lift the trophy three years in a row but fell behind early on as McKinstry took the first set. Duzza soon found a way to flip the score in his favour however to move 2-1 ahead. Things remained close until the seventh set, which Durrant claimed with a checkout of 85 to finish the match.

Duzza will now meet 11/2 shot Jim Williams in a repeat of last year’s quarter-final after the Welshman saw off Scott Mitchell in Friday’s other quarter-final. Williams has won five titles on the BDO circuit since his defeat here last year and is a decent 11/2 at Betway to take the trophy home on Sunday. The final takes place on Sunday at 19.00 (GMT) with live coverage available on both BT Sport and Channel 4.

January7January 7, 2019

Michael van Gerwen Wins Third PDC World Darts Championship

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

Michael van Gerwen won his third PDC World Darts Championship after defeating Darts Premier League and World Series of Darts Finals runner-up Michael ‘Bully Boy’ Smith 7-3 in the final on New Year’s Day.

Despite winning 18 individual titles in 2018, there were a few doubts lingering around the Dutchman’s form heading into this year’s tournament at the Alexandra Palace, but having successfully navigated his way past his first four opponents, he simply blew away world number two Gary Anderson 6-1 in the semi-final to banish any remaining negativity.

The path to the final

On his way to the final, Bully Boy produced a brilliant set of performances not least in his close fought semi-final win over Nathan Aspinall. In the Quarter Final stage, he dismissed Luke Humphries 5-1, which followed his 4-1 defeat of Ryan Searle in the fourth round, John Henderson 4-2 in round three and a 3-1 victory over Ron Meulenkamp in his opening match.

MVG’s route was harder than he made it look, comfortably seeing off Ryan Joyce 5-1 in the QF’s, making light work of twice world champion Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis in a 4-1 win in the fourth. This was a repeat of the scoreline that eliminated Max Hopp in the third round, which followed his opening day 3-1 win over Alan Tabern.

The world number one, who only dropped five sets on his way to the final, carried his form into the final where he stormed into a 4-0 set lead over Smith. The match was a repeat of MVG’s victorious 2018 Premier League final and produced the same outcome. Van Gerwen looked to have blown the fourth set with three missed doubles but instead survived after Smith spurned four of his own to find himself 4-0 down. Bully Boy did fight back to half the deficit before missing more than enough crucial chances to make the game more competitive.

Banking a 124 checkout in the deciding leg of the fifth set, Smith took out 124 and 127 at the start of the next set before finishing a 70 to claim the sixth leg and raise the crowd’s hopes of a comeback. Instead, Mighty Mike won three of the next four to complete an emphatic triumph and get his hands on the Sid Waddell Trophy for a third time.

At 29, MVG has now won 117 titles and becomes only the second player after Phil Taylor to be PDC world champion more than twice.

Darts Premier League line up announced and latest betting odds

On February 7 in Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, ten of the world’s best darts players will once again begin another Premier League campaign. This year, the event stretches out over 17 weeks, and as always, will conclude at London’s O2 arena in May. As well as the thrilling conclusion to the Darts World Championship, Sunday also saw the confirmed line-up for this year’s tournament, which means we can also look to the Ante Post betting prices.

Four-time champion Michael van Gerwen leads the line-up — and the betting — while last year’s runner-up Michael Smith is also in competition. Two-time champion Gary Anderson, Rob Cross and 2017 finalist Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright will all also be in action.

2009 champion James Wade returns to the 10-man field after missing the 2018 tourney. It will be interesting to see who get more boos on the road between himself and fellow Premier League competitor Gerwyn Price. Raymond van Barneveld is back for a final season ahead of his retirement, while Players Championship Finals winner Daryl Gurney and German Darts Masters winner Mensur Suljovic both compete for a second year in a row, having made their Premier League debuts in 2018.

Betting Prices supplied by Betway

Michael van Gerwen (4/5)
Gary Anderson (5/1)
Michael Smith (9/1)
Rob Cross (10/1)
Peter Wright (12/1)
Mensur Suljovic (25/1)
Daryl Gurney (33/1)
James Wade (40/1)
Gerwyn Price (50/1)
Raymond van Barneveld (50/1)

2019 PDC Tournament Calendar

FEBRUARY

1 – 3 (Milton Keynes) The Masters
7 (Newcastle) Premier League Darts Matchday 1
14 (Glasgow) Premier League Darts Matchday 2
21 (Dublin) Premier League Darts Matchday 3
28 (Exeter) Premier League Darts Matchday 4

MARCH

1 – 3 (Minehead) UK Open
7 (Leeds) Premier League Darts Matchday 5
14 (Nottingham) Premier League Darts Matchday 6
21 (Berlin, Germany) Premier League Darts Matchday 7
22 – 24 (Leverkusen, Germany) European Tour 1
27 (Rotterdam, Netherlands) Premier League Darts Matchday 8
28 (Rotterdam, Netherlands) Premier League Darts Matchday 9
29 – 31 (Hildesheim, Germany) European Tour 2

APRIL

4 (Belfast) Premier League Darts Matchday 10
11 (Liverpool) Premier League Darts Matchday 11
18 (Cardiff) Premier League Darts Matchday 12
20 – 22 (Munich, Germany) European Tour 3
25 (Birmingham) Premier League Darts Matchday 13
26 – 28 (Saarbrücken, Germany) European Tour 4

MAY

2 (Manchester) Premier League Darts Matchday 14
3 – 5 (Graz, Austria) European Tour 5
9 (Sheffield) Premier League Darts Matchday 15
10 – 12 (Sindelfingen, Germany) European Tour 6
16 (Aberdeen) Premier League Darts Matchday 16
23 (London) Premier League Darts Play-Offs
24 – 26 (TBC, Netherlands) European Tour 7

JUNE

6 – 9 (Hamburg, Germany) World Cup
14 – 16 (Copenhagen, Denmark) European Tour 8
28 – 30 (Prague, Czech Republic) European Tour 9

JULY

20 – 28 (Blackpool) World Matchplay

AUGUST

3 (Hildesheim, Germany ) Players Championship 21
4 (Hildesheim, Germany) Players Championship 22
30 – Sep 1 (Vienna, Austria) European Tour 10

SEPTEMBER

6 – 8 (Mannheim, Germany) European Tour 11
13 – 15 (Riesa, Germany) European Tour 12
27 – 29 (Gibraltar) European Tour 13

OCTOBER

6 – 12 (Dublin) World Grand Prix
19 – 20 (VENUE TBC) Champions League
24 – 27 (Göttingen, Germany) European Championship

NOVEMBER

1 – 3 (Amsterdam, Netherlands) World Series Finals
49 – 17 (Wolverhampton) Grand Slam of Darts
22 – 24 (Minehead) Players Championship Finals

DECEMBER

TBC (London) World Championship

December28December 28, 2018

1000/1 Shot Ryan Joyce Through To Quarter Finals

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

In a tournament that has already produced a number of shocks, Friday afternoon’s session threw up yet another as 1000/1 shot Ryan Joyce stunned James Wade to reach the World Darts Championship quarter-finals. This result, which came about after the longshot had survived five match darts from Wade, is the latest unexpected result at this year’s dramatic tournament at the Alexandra Palace.

33-year-old Joyce is making his Ally Pally debut having only joined the PDC Tour at the start of the season and missed two match darts at the double eight before Wade blew three shots at the same target to give the rookie a second chance, which this time he took. The Newcastle native has now overcome Anastasia Dobromyslova, Simon Whitlock and Alan Norris, which has seen his outright price cut dramatically to 66/1 with Betway.

Elsewhere, Nathan Aspinall produced a 13-dart leg against the throw to bank his place in the quarter-finals following a 4-3 victory over Devon Petersen. Aspinall, who is currently 33/1 in from 300/1 prior to the tournament, will now fancy his chances in the quarter-finals against 40/1 shot Brendan Dolan, who made certain of finishing in the final eight after beating Benito Van de Pas 4-1 a round earlier.

Friday night’s final match saw the end of Rob Cross’ defence of the title he picked up this time last year. Voltage threw away a two-set lead over Luke Humphries, who rallied magnificently to draw level before taking the lead and finishing a 4-2 winner. Humphries, who started the day at 40/1, has now seen his price chipped in with Betway to 20/1.

One player who survived a scare is second favourite Gary Anderson, who fought back from 2-0 and 3-2 down to defeat Chris Dobey. The Flying Scotsman had survived a match dart in his previous game against Jermaine Wattimena and needed to cling on once again. In the end, he took three successive legs to claim his first set. After surviving Dobey’s bullseye dart for a fifth leg checkout, Anderson took charge of the game to make the last eight, where he will meet Dave Chisnall after Chizzy beat Jamie Lewis in straight sets on Friday night.

Finally, Michael van Gerwen averaged 108 for a 4-1 victory over two times World Champion Adrian Lewis in a match that, despite the one-sided scoreline, would have given Jackpot some hope for the future. Although bettered by the world’s best player, Lewis averaged over 100 and hit 10x 180s in an impressive display in which he also managed to win 10 of the 24 legs played.

PDC World Championship Quarter Final betting lines

Michael van Gerwen is the short-priced favourite at 4/5, while second in the betting Gary Anderson is available at 10/3 with Betway. The same online and mobile bookmaker are also offering 5’s on Michael Smith, 7’s on Rob Cross and 25/1 for Dave Chisnall.

A schedule for the remaining eight is as follows:

Saturday December 29

Nathan Aspinall v Brendan Dolan
Dave Chisnall v Gary Anderson
Luke Humphries v Michael Smith
Michael van Gerwen v Ryan Joyce

Sunday December 30

Semi-Finals (Best of 11 sets)

Tuesday January 1

Final (Best of 13 sets)