BDO Lakeside World Professional Championships

BDO Lakeside World Professional Championships

Over at the Lakeside Country Club, and very much in the shadow of the PDC, there is the annual and completely separate World Professional Championships, hosted by the BDO (British Darts Organisation). It may not be the glitzy, glamour show of the PDC and the Ally Pally, but for many Lakeside’s biggest event represents the true spirit of darts with top talents to match.

On that note, it would, of course, be remiss of a Darts betting site to ignore this darting spectacular, so let’s take a look at the runners and riders of next year’s ‘other’ World Darts Championships.

40th World Professional Championships

Those looking to watch the event will find the tournament live on Channel 4, who took over coverage from the BBC last year. This year’s WPC will be held between the 6th of January 6 to the 14th. In that time, the BDO’s top 54 professionals will be challenging for the much-coveted trophy.

This is the 40th run of the championships, having first been staged in 1978. The BDO teamed up with the Lakeside Country Club in 1986 and have hosted the event thereafter while taking over as the main title sponsor in 2004.

Durrant defends his title

Tournament favourite and last year’s champ, Glen ‘Duzza’ Durrant is 5/4 with Betway to win the tournament outright. This in a year where he has also banked the World Darts Trophy in Utrecht, Holland, plus narrowly losing to the PDC’s Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright in the Quarter Finals of the recent Grand Slam, a tourney that incorporates players from both codes.

Long rumoured noises of a switch to the PDC have not yet materialised despite the PDC recently abandoning entry fees for Players Championship events, UK Open Qualifiers and European Tour events. Durrant himself has admitted that any likely deflection depends “on how it goes this year at Lakeside”.

Favourite though he rightly is, he isn’t number 1 on the block right now, that honour falls to Mark McGeeney which makes Betway’s 20/1 an intriguing proposition.

A look at other top favorites

The second favorite is another on the PDC radar, Danny Noppert, who is available at 8/1 and I think might prove to be a wise punt. Given Michael van Gerwen’s likely dominance over at the Ally Pally, a Dutch double is definitely worth a shot.

As an aside, the odds of a Dutch double recently took a boost with the sorry news that Peter Wright was rushed to hospital with suspected gallstones last Thursday and is now a doubt for the World Championship. According to a Tweet from the player’s wife, Jo, Betway’s 10/1 third favourite is now back at home but won’t be taking part in any competitions until he is well enough. We wish him all the best of course.

Back at the BDO, Scott Mitchell is at 10’s, while Cameron Menzies and Jamie Hughes are each 14/1. For 22/1, Scott Waites can be picked up, a few points lighter than the 25/1 offered on Dean Reynolds, followed by the old favourite Martin Adams and a 33/1 price tag.

As for the format, at less than a week long, the event is considerably shorter than the PDC’s winter offering and doesn’t start until after the PDC Championships have finished on New Year’s Day.

BDO Players World Championships draw

Last Wednesday, the draw for the BDO Players World Championship Draw was announced. As expected, there are some very interesting matches for bettors. Number one seed and reigning champion Glen Durrant will begin his campaign with a match against the winner of a preliminary round game between Gary Robson and Pengiran Mohamed, who is the first player ever from Brunei to compete here.

Jersey Open champion, Scott Waites, also a two-time Lakeside champ, has been intriguingly paired with fifth seed Ross Montgomery, the British Open and Wolverhampton Open title holder. The other ex-champion, Scott Mitchell meets Lithuanian chucker Darius Labanauskas.

Another exciting encounter should be the match-up between second seed Mark McGeeney and BDO legend and three-time Lakeside title winner Martin Adams. In this match, McGeeney is the inform player, but Adams — who is a seasoned pro — would be a popular winner in the likely case of a victory.

Preliminary Round

Pengiran Mohamed v Gary Robson
Umit Uygunsozlu v Chris Harris
Justin Thompson v Chris Gilliland
Dennis Nilsson v Jeffrey Sparidaans
Joe Chaney v Danny Noppert
Chris Landman v Derk Telnekes
Craig Caldwell v Daniel Day
David Cameron v Michael Unterbuchner

First Round

Darryl Fitton (16) v Thompson/Gilliland
Glen Durrant (1) v Mohamed/Robson
Jim Williams (9) v Nilsson/Sparidaans
Cameron Menzies (8) v Conan Whitehead
Dean Reynolds (12) v Uygunsozlu/Harris
Ross Montgomery (5) v Scott Waites
Andy Baetens (13) v Scott Baker
Scott Mitchell (4) v Darius Labanauskas
James Hurrell (15) v Chaney/Noppert
Mark McGeeney (2) v Martin Adams
Willem Mandigers (10) v Nick Kenny
Wesley Harms (7) v Wayne Warren
Richard Veenstra (11) v Kyle McKinstry
Geert de Vos (6) v Landman/Telnekes
Martin Phillips (14) v Caldwell/Day
Jamie Hughes (3) v Cameron/Unterbuchner