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July22July 25, 2016

Taylor’s Made For Blackpool: The Power Is A Must Bet

Phil "The Power" Taylor - darts' greatest ever

Tonight, at 19:15 UK time, the last remaining quarter-finals of the World Darts Matchplay take place as Mervyn King and Phil Taylor meet, with the latter 1/10 to make Saturday’s semi-finals. This will be immediately followed by World Champion Gary Anderson facing off against a rejuvenated Steve Beaton.

Last night, our outside betting tip for the week Phil Chisnall was eliminated courtesy of Michael Van Gerwen. Mighty Mike raced ahead but Chizzy threw admirably and more than once showed MVG that the game was far from over.

However, anytime the Dutchman felt threatened, he simply switched up a gear and furthered his lead. Ending up the 16-9 winner, he takes another step towards winning a second title at the Blackpool event.

Moments earlier, Adrian Lewis had seen off Peter Wright against a hostile, but jovial, crowd. Despite the boos raining down from the masses, the Stoke-born thrower won out 16-14 in a close match against Snakebite.

So the big three remain and could, by tomorrow, make up the last three quarters of the final four. Along with Lewis, these are the top four PDC ranked players in the world right now.

World Matchplay Darts 2016 betting tips: Phil Taylor to clinch 16th Blackpool title

Lewis’s and Van Gerwen’s semi-final on Saturday is a rematch of their now classic 2013 Matchplay semi-final shoot out which Lewis took before losing the final to Taylor. Before last night, Van Gerwen had dropped just five legs all week and with form like that, he is the clear favourite with the bookies at 4/7 across our betting room partners.

Only Adrian Lewis stands in his way as the pair meet in the first of tomorrow’s two semi-final matches. Jackpot is 10/1 at betway, but cannot afford to waste a dart if he is to make Sunday’s final.

In tonight’s last two remaining fixtures, old timer Steve Beaton (150/1 at bet365) has to overcome World Champion Gary “The Flying Scotsman” Anderson. As much as the crowd would love to see the “Bronzed Adonis” rewind the clock back even further, it is hard to look beyond Anderson who is a best price of 7/2 across the board for outright event winner.

Likewise, tonight’s other game pairs Mervyn King with Blackpool legend Phil “The Power” Taylor. King is also 150/1 at bet365 to take the crown but it is fifteen-time champion Taylor that looks too good to turn down, especially when such a talent is available at 5/1 at betway.

Since the tournament’s inception in 1994, Taylor has won 15 World Matchplay titles. This includes a run of seven in a row that began in 2008 and he is on track to add to his tally. It would be unwise to bet against him in what is sure to be an extremely tight climax to another great World Matchplay tournament.

This Weekend’s Matches

Friday July 22

Quarter-Finals

Mervyn King v Taylor
Gary Anderson v Steve Beaton

Saturday July 23

Semi-Finals

Adrian Lewis V Michael Van Gerwen
King/Taylor v Anderson/Beaton

Sunday July 24

Final

July16July 16, 2016

Bank On A Chisnall Checkout in Blackpool

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) Darts World Matchplay returns to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens this Saturday.

The nine-day, £450,000 tournament runs from July 16th through July 24th and sees 32 players in competition at the seaside resort. It will be televised live on Sky Sports.

The top sixteen players in the rankings all automatically qualify, while the other sixteen take their places through qualifiers.

Last year’s champion, Michael van Gerwen, beat James Wade in the 2015 final and will take centre stage on Saturday’s opening night as he faces off against qualifier Jamie Caven.

Blackpool Darts Betting Tips

No sooner had the draw been made than organisers, commentators and tipsters began speculating on what will surely be a wide open battle.

Reigning champion Michael van Gerwen is, as ever, the obvious pick – but where’s the fun in that? St Helens’ own Dave Chisnall lies at a whopping 28/1 at Skybet. He’s the closest thing to a local lad in these parts and if he can get the crowd onside he will be a match for anyone, particularly each way.

Fifteen-time World Matchplay Champion, Phil Taylor, can be backed at 6/1 at Betway where the other second-favourite, Gary Anderson, fresh from his Tokyo win, is ranked a best price 5/1.

Taylor’s round one opponent will be Wallasey’s own Robbie Green, another qualifier, who is ranked number 56 in the world and whose career highlight so far was a second place finish in the British Darts Organisation’s world championship in 2014.

Adrian Lewis, himself a former Blackpool finalist, is 14/1 across the board to claim his first World Matchplay title, while last year’s losing semi-finalist Peter Wright is 16/1 to finally win a major. With both players and Van Gerwen all in the same half of the draw, all three will need to be throwing their best darts if they are to progress.

James Wade, the only other former event champion on the ticket, is a decent price of 22/1 and meets former semi-finalist Mervyn King first up, with the winner seeded to likely meet Raymond van Barneveld who is 28/1 at bet365.

At 100/1, Simon Whitlock is a massive each way pick, and first up meets the unfancied Michael Smith. It will take a massive upturn in fortune for Whitlock but he’s been great in the past, can still beat anyone on a good day and always represents good value.

The first three in the betting are all obvious: Michael van Gerwen 6/5 (Skybet), Gary Anderson 5/1 (Betway), and Phil Taylor. However, on a good day (or if you’re feeling brave and want to look for the long odds), Dave Chisnall can go deep here.

If you want to pick the nationality of the winner you can go with the Netherlands at 21/20 at bet365, England at 2/1 with Skybet and Scotland 100/30 with Betway.

Each nine-dart finish achieved during the World Matchplay will see the event sponsors make a £5,000 donation to Parkinson’s UK, the official charity partner of the Professional Darts Corporation. This has happened six times in tournament history and three times this year alone.

Tourney Structure

Regarded as the second biggest PDC tournament, the World Matchplay began in 1994 and is played in a legs format. The first round concludes on Monday evening, before the second round sees the players in the top half of the draw play on Tuesday and the bottom halfers on Wednesday. This precedes the quarter-finals, which are split across Thursday and Friday before the tournament reaches its climax next weekend.

Saturday July 16

Vincent van der Voort v Kyle Anderson
Robert Thornton v Josh Payne
Michael van Gerwen v Jamie Caven
Dave Chisnall v Benito van de Pas

Sunday July 17

Afternoon

Stephen Bunting v Mensur Suljovic
Kim Huybrechts v Gerwyn Price
Terry Jenkins v Justin Pipe
Ian White v Daryl Gurney

Evening

James Wade v Mervyn King
Adrian Lewis v Mark Webster
Gary Anderson v Alan Norris
Peter Wright v Joe Cullen

Monday July 18

Jelle Klaasen v Steve Beaton
Raymond van Barneveld v Brendan Dolan
Phil Taylor v Robbie Green
Michael Smith v Simon Whitlock

Second round

Tuesday July 19

Thornton/Payne v Chisnall/van de Pas
Wright/Cullen v White/Gurney
van Gerwen/Caven v van der Voort/K Anderson
Lewis/Webster v Huybrechts/Price

Wednesday July 20

Wade/King v van Barneveld/Dolan
Smith/Whitlock v Klaasen/Beaton
Taylor/Green v Bunting/Suljovic
G Anderson/Norris v Jenkins/Pipe

Quarter-Finals

Thursday July 21

Wright/Cullen/White/Gurney v Lewis/Webster/Huybrechts/Price
van Gerwen/Caven/van der Voort/K Anderson v Thornton/Payne/Chisnall/van de Pas

Friday July 22

Wade/King/van Barneveld/Dolan v Taylor/Green/Bunting/Suljovic
G Anderson/Norris/Jenkins/Pipe v Smith/Whitlock/Klaasen/Beaton

Semi-Finals

Saturday July 23

Final

Sunday July 24

Tokyo Masters

In last weekend’s Tokyo Masters, Gary Anderson claimed a World Series title for the third time this year. The Scot beat Michael van Gerwen 8-6 in the final on Thursday and adds his latest win to his triumphs in both Dubai and Auckland.

Wednesday’s opening round match against Japanese qualifier Seigo Asada proved, unsurprisingly, to be no trouble at all for Anderson, who then saw off Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis to seal his spot in the final. Van Gerwen, though, struggled against Dave Chisnall in the quarter-finals, before a comfortable 8-3 win over James Wade on his way to meet Anderson.

Van Gerwen began the stronger of two and immediately landed a 180 and a 100 checkout, gifting him the first leg. Anderson though took two out the next three sets to bring the game even. The next two legs also went Anderson’s way, before Van Gerwen fought back and claimed a third after which Anderson cruised home to victory.

July7March 3, 2022

Tokyo Darts Masters Kicks Off

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

After a week away, it’s nice to be back amongst some top-level darts once again. Returning to the World Series, we have moved on to the fourth leg in Tokyo, Japan.

The Japanese leg of the Masters, a returning fixture on the series, will this time play out at the Yoyogi Olympic Hall in Tokyo, which replaces last year’s host city of Yokohama. The event concludes on Thursday, with round one matches having been contested over the best of 11 legs; quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final will all be best of 15.

As well as looking to find some form before the World Matchplay later this month, the players will once again battle it out for World Series ranking points which count towards November’s finals in Glasgow. At the same time, event sponsors Zipang Casino have put forward a £50K bonus for a nine-dart finish and have also pledged £1,000,000 for two 9-darters in the same match by the same player.

The Usual Suspects Win Round One

As with previous events in the series, competitors have been drafted in from the top ranked eight players, plus eight local qualifiers. Last year saw Phil “The Power” Taylor beat Peter Wright in the final to take home the trophy and this year’s draw saw Taylor paired with PDC Tour Card holder Haruki Muramatsu to begin the defence of his title.

Despite being Japan’s most experienced player, Muramatsu didn’t provide his rival with any real competition and the Englishman, with an average of 97.35, duly won out 6-2. The first round also saw Dave Chisnall face off against Shintaro Inoue and, averaging 96.64, he emerged as the 6-1 winner.

Elsewhere, Raymond van Barneveld overcame Keita Ono by the same score, while an impressive Peter Wright took on Chikara Fujimori and hit 100% of his double attempts on the road to a whitewash victory. Adrian Lewis and James Wade both won 6-1 against event debutants Tsuneki Zaha and Masahiro Hiraga respectively.

Following on from victory at the Shanghai Masters, Michael van Gerwen met Masumi Chino and the Dutchman made surprisingly hard work of things; he was broken twice but still managed to win by six sets to three. Scotsman Gary Anderson, winner in both Dubai and Auckland, took on Seigo Asada, who took part in both the Lakeside Championship and BDO World Trophy earlier this year, and also beat his Japanese competitor 6-1.

Looking Ahead To The Quarter-Finals

This all leaves the next round of matches looking very tight indeed. Gary Anderson and Raymond van Barneveld go heads up in the Thursday opener before Adrian Lewis and Peter Wright step up to the oche. Next up is event favourite Michael van Gerwen, who must see off Dave Chisnall, after which James Wade will take on Phil Taylor.

Anderson went into the event leading the World Series Rankings four points ahead of Van Gerwen before suffering defeat to James Wade in the Shanghai quarter-final. From a darts betting perspective, we are always looking for the best value and with eight players remaining it becomes easier to look at the draw.

Finding The Best Value For The Tokyo Darts Masters

For an outright win, there is even money to be made on the bookmakers’ clear favourite Michael Van Gerwen but after that, prices (even on the big names) begin to drift. To that end, why not take a look at Skybet’s offer of 5/1 on Taylor, who took the crown in Japan last time around. James Wade stands in Taylor’s way at the quarter-final stage and can be backed for 5/2 for that match at Bet365 against the much shorter-priced Taylor at 3/10.

That said, Van Gerwen’s compatriot Raymond Van Barneveld is an outright winner best price of 20/1, also at Skybet. This looks a peach of price given the form he is capable of, especially when each way pays 1/3 of the odds for a top two finish.

The very same bookmakers are also offering the same price on both Dave Chisnall and James Wade, which is well worth some thought. Peter Wright, who is hoping to end a run of three consecutive quarter-final defeats, is a best price of evens at bet365 to buck the trend at the fourth attempt and overcome Adrian Lewis.

In the UK, coverage of the event will be shown on ITV4 at 8pm BST on Thursday July 7.

As we stand, the current World Series of Darts Rankings are as follows:

Gary Anderson (27pts)
Michael van Gerwen (23pts)
James Wade (16pts)
Adrian Lewis (14pts)
Phil Taylor (13pts)
Dave Chisnall (13pts)
Raymond van Barneveld (11pts)
Peter Wright (9pts)