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August25August 30, 2021

Top 5 Most Prestigious Darts Tournaments

In a normal year, darts tournaments are running most weeks meaning there is pretty much always something going on and darts bets to make.

But the game has been running on a bit of a broken and beaten schedule for the past few seasons and it’s easy to lose track of which tourneys are the biggest and most prestigious in the game.

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So, for those new to the sport or for experienced bettors simply looking to refresh here is a quick run-through of the best tournaments that darts has to offer.

With an uncomplicated scoring system and a simple list of rules, darts must be one of the easiest sports to start following. After all, “It’s just fat blokes throwing arrows at a board.”

There really is no need for you to be an expert on all things tungsten to get involved with darts betting as you can pick things up pretty quickly.

Here then are the top 5 most prestigious darts tournaments.

PDC Grand Slam of Darts

The darting highlight of November and the last big tourney before the almighty World Championships are held in December, the PDC Grand Slam of Darts was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation that originally encouraged entries from the British Darts Organisation (BDO). This agreement folded when the BDO collapsed into liquidation in 2020.

Since 2015, the PDC have given this event ranking status. The event is held each year in Wolverhampton, for the most part at Wolverhampton Civic Hall and later, temporarily, at Aldersley Leisure Village. Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is the event’s most successful ever player with six wins.

It was actually Stoke-born Taylor that won the first three Grand Slam titles, beating Andy Hamilton, Terry Jenkins, and Scott Waites in the first three ever finals. Michael van Gerwen won this event three times in a row from 2015 through 2017 after which Gerwyn Price won back-to-back titles, the only two so far to be held at Aldersley Leisure Village.

Grand Slam participation is made up of finalists from the PDC’s televised events over a 12 month period. Ten of these places have already been taken and there are only four tournaments – The World Cup of Darts, World Grand Prix, European Championship and World Series of Darts – remaining.

If all 16 places have not been filled from those televised events then winners from the PDC’s European Tour and Players Championship events can receive entry into the Grand Slam. There will also be eight players selected from the PDC Tour Card Holder Qualifiers, plus UK and European Challenge and Development Tour Orders of Merit, as well as two Women’s Series qualifiers.

Venue: Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton

Format: Best of 9 legs, 19 legs and 31 legs

Current champion: Jose De Sousa (Portugal)

Most successful darter: Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor (6 wins)

Prize money: £550,000

PDC World Grand Prix

The World Grand Prix is a PDC darts tournament that takes place each October in Dublin, Ireland. The event has been held in Ireland since 2000 when it was originally held at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. A year later, the tournament was moved to the Citywest in Dublin.

When the World Grand Prix was launched in 1998, it was designed to replace the World Pairs tournament, which only lasted for three seasons. The most successful player in this event is, unsurprisingly, Phil Taylor, who claimed this crown a record 11 times. That said, The Power was actually knocked out in round one five times during his career.

Venue: Citywest, Dublin

Format: Best of 3 sets, 5 sets, 11 sets, 13 sets and 15 sets

Current champion: Gerwyn Price (Wales)

Most successful darter: Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor (11 wins)

Prize money: £450,000

PDC Premier League of Darts

The third part of the darts triple crown, the Darts Premier League traditionally gets going in February to help kick the darts season, which begins with the Darts Masters at the end of January. The action takes place weekly until May when the play offs are held at the O2 in London.

When the tournament was launched in 2005, the event was contested by seven players in a series of fortnightly fixtures. Today, there are ten players involved each year, drawn from the top four players in the PDC Order of Merit plus six wildcard selections.

For the first round, event nights are staged in various venues across the UK and Ireland, plus now there are some European nights too. The players all take on each other over these fixtures with earned points being added to the ten-man table. On Judgment Night (around night nine), the two bottom-based players will be eliminated from the tournament while the remaining eight players attempt to qualify for the London play offs, which take place over the May bank holiday.

There have been six overall winners of the Premier League so far in its history. Phil Taylor has dominated the Premier League, winning six out of the thirteen tournaments he starred in and actually went unbeaten in his first three seasons. Taylor eventually lost to James Wade after 44 matches.

Michael van Gerwen has also won the event multiple times with five wins to his name. James Wade, Gary Anderson, Raymond van Barneveld, Glen Durrant and Jonny Clayton are the other players to lift the Premier League of Darts trophy.

Venue: Numerous host cities, London play offs

Format: Best of 12, 19 and 21 legs

Current champion: Jonny Clayton (Wales)

Most successful darter: Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor (6 wins)

Prize money: £825,000

PDC World Matchplay

Dart’s second-largest event and part of the Darts Triple Crown, the prestigious PDC World Matchplay is held in Blackpool each year in July. This is another event that is famed for the fans who really make it what it is inside the Winter Gardens, its home since its inaugural event in 1994. The tournament itself is built around a legs format and is the third of seven ranking events of the year.

The field is made up of 32 darters, 16 of which are the highest-ranked in the game. These are then joined by 16 unseeded ProTour Order of Merit qualifiers. When the event was first held, it was won by an American darter called Larry ‘The Bald Eagle’ Butler, who won against Dennis Priestley 16–12 in the first-ever final back in 1994.

In 1997, Phil Taylor won the Matchplay for the first time and would go on to collect a trophy haul of 16 Matchplay titles over his career, some 14 more than Rod Harrington and Michael van Gerwen, who have two wins each. Following The Power’s retirement in 2017, the PDC renamed the Matchplay trophy the Phil Taylor Trophy in honour of the completion’s record-breaking champion.

Venue: Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Format: First to 10 legs, 11 legs, 16 legs, 17 legs and 18 legs

Current champion: Peter Wright (Scotland)

Most successful darter: Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor (16 wins)

Prize money: £700,000

PDC World Championship

The biggest, loudest, messiest and most lucrative darts tournament on earth and one that has established itself as essential British Christmas viewing, the PDC World Championship takes place each year in mid-December and finishes sometime around the new year lasting for around three weeks.

The action comes from North London’s Alexandra Palace, known lovingly by darts fans as the Ally Pally, which has been home to the tournament since 2008, and basically acts as an inebriated celebration of all things darts at that special time of year. The atmosphere in the crowd is strictly party time but on the oche, fierce rivalries emerge as the world’s best darters slug it out for the biggest prize in the sport.

Around 96 players enter the event in the hope for winning the Sid Waddell Trophy, which is named in honour of the legendary darts commentator Sid Waddell who passed away in 2012.

The tournament is the final leg of the Darts Triple Crown and dates back to 1994 as a result of the split in darts, which saw the eventual emergence of the PDC. The PDC was born out of the World Darts Council following their break from the now defunct BDO.

Over the years, there have been ten different winners of the World Championships including one-time winners Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price, who won in 2021. There are also two times winners John Part, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson, plus three times winner Michael van Gerwen.

No one has won this tournament more than the now retired Phil Taylor who, in 25 appearances, took the crown a stunning 14 times, to go with his two alternative world titles.

Venue: Alexandra Palace, London

Format: Best of 5 sets, 7 sets, 9 sets, 11 sets and 13 sets

Current champion: Gerwyn Price (Wales)

Most successful darter: Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor (14 wins)

Prize money: £2.5 million

July29July 29, 2021

Peter Wright Wins World Matchplay At Winter Gardens

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Sites

The reintroduction of darts fans to events has had the desired effect on Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright.

After nearly 18 months without fans, we enjoyed a full house this past week at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

Not so coincidentally, Wright’s last televised tournament win was back in February 2020 when he took down the Darts Masters immediately off the back of winning his first PDC World Championship.

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Now though, in front of a typically boisterous audience, Snakebite has landed another biggie after he became the World Matchplay champion on Sunday night.

Playing well and averaging high

He did so in magnificent form, playing remarkably and averaging high scores all week before beating Dimitri Van Den Bergh in the final.

He is now just the fifth player in history along with Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Rob Cross to have won both the World Championship and World Matchplay in their career.

But it nearly wasn’t to be.

Famously turning his back on the game for 12 years when he lost at Lakeside to Richie Burnett in 1995, Wright was talked back into the game by his wife Jo – who does his hair before each match – and it was her that he dedicated his win.

She was watching on from the crowd following recent back surgery breaking down in tears after the match.

Last year’s winner, Van Den Bergh lived with the Wrights throughout the first lockdown and the respect was there for all to see.

The Belgian, who was hoping to become only the fourth player to retain the Matchplay title, is now ranked fourth in the world. Hee credits his former landlord with the progress he has made this past 18 months.

PDC World Championship winners?

Back in June, Wright predicted that he would take down the World Matchplay and the World Championship this season and now he is halfway there.

If he continues to play like this, then no one will be able to get close to the Scotsman and stop him from winning the set, except perhaps Dimitri Van Den Bergh, who is clearly destined for even better things.

bet365 have priced up Snakebite at 5/1 to win the PDC Worlds at the Ally Pally at the beginning of next year and are giving odds of 9/1 on Van Den Bergh lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy instead.

Both of these prices will only thin if these two keep up their good form. Wright could well start that tournament as favourite.

Best two darters in the tourney

The 2020 world champ only dropped 33 legs across all of his matches last week when he beat Danny Noppert 10-3, Joe Cullen 11-5, Michael Smith 17-10 before meeting Michael van Gerwen (4/1 favourite for the World Championships) 17-10.

Then, in the final, he beat the Dream Maker 18-9 in a match where he averaged 105.9 and posted a tournament average of 104.91.

Perhaps Wright’s best performance came in the semi-final against Mighty Mike where he averaged 110.37.

While Wright was a good value for the win, Dimitri Van Den Bergh will reflect on his doubles fails throughout the week that ultimately proved costly.

The Belgian was throwing trebles with ease, having numerous chances to land a nine-darter, but on far too many occasions, he couldn’t close out a leg and repeatedly let Snakebite off the hook.

Van Den Bergh, 27, posted a pretty dismal checkout percentage of 27.27% – Wright’s checkout percentage was 57.06% for contrast – which let down his tourney average of 100.16.

The new Matchplay champion, on the other hand, landed 18 of his 31 doubles and shot ten 180s.

This Matchplay defeat was the first of the Belgian’s career, having won the event last year on his debut in the competition.

Along the way to his second successive final, he beat Devon Petersen, Dave Chisnall, world number one Gerwyn Price and Krztsztof Ratajski.

He also posted 49 maximums, which is the third highest ever behind Adrian Lewis, who pinned 56 in 2013, and Gary Anderson, who scored 52 in 2018. As things stand, Gerwyn Price still hasn’t made it past the quarter final stage at the World Matchplay but has won the PDC World Championships. bet365 has the Welshman priced up at 9/2 to repeat his Ally Pally win in the World Championships which begin in December.

July15July 15, 2021

2021 Darts World Matchplay Betting Tips

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

Following a six week break from live televised action, the darts makes a welcome return this weekend when the biggest event of the year so far, the World Matchplay, gets underway. Not in Milton Keynes as it did 12 months ago, but at its traditional home at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

What’s more, fans should be in attendance. The PDC are hopeful that they will be able to host a reduced capacity for the first two days followed by a full house from Monday July 19 onward and, as we know, this is one of those noisy events that the crowd really help to make.

A field of 32 are ready to fight it out for the Phil Power trophy in this year’s Matchplay which gets underway on the 17^th of July and runs all the way through to the 25^th of July.

Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gary Anderson and defending champion Dimitri Van den Bergh are all in town to contest or defend the PDC’s second longest running major which was first staged in 1994 and, along with the Darts Premier League and Darts World Championships makes up darts’ triple crown.

The top 16 players from the PDC Order of Merit, who are all seeded for the event, must each play one of the 16 qualifiers from the ProTour Order of Merit.

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12/1 shot Van den Bergh, known as the Dream Maker, was a shock winner last year and now represents part of a new continental European threat that has emerged over the past year and has resulted in us seeing more winners hailing from places other than the UK or the Netherlands.

The same would also apply to Jose De Sousa of Portugal, the surprise winner of the 2020 Grand Slam and Premier League of Darts finalist.

It’s great to see darts popularity grow overseas and De Sousa has actually been priced up as the third favourite at 7/1 with bet365 (accurate as of July 15th at 4pm). The Special One opens up his campaign against Germany’s Gabriel Clemens on Sunday and it really wouldn’t be a surprise if he puts together a deep run at this year’s event.

Ahead of him in the betting are, of course, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price.

Despite not winning a title all season, Michael van Gerwen is the favourite to win what would be his third World Matchplay.

Mighty Mike is struggling for form at present and is in the middle of a dry spell. Even so, the form that he has been famed for could return at any point and its never truly safe to bet against the Dutchman.

He has set such high standards over the past half a decade but hasn’t looked himself for the past two seasons and it’s possible the return of fans will help with that. bet365 have MVG priced at around 9/2 (accurate as of July 15th at 4pm) which in truth feels a little short, even for a performer of his quality.

Reigning world champion and world number one, Gerwyn Price will be chomping at the bit to get out there and make up for lost time after he was forced to miss out on the Darts Premier League at the last minute.

Price fully accepts that his World Matchplay record is not as good as it should be for a man of his qualities but is reckoning on that changing in this year’s renewal in Blackpool. So far, the Iceman has never made it past the quarter finals and that came in his debut back in the summer of 2015.

The ex-Rugby pro made it to round two a year later but has been dumped out in round one ever since. His form in this tourney doesn’t match his talent and after not getting a shot at this year’s Premier League, he will be desperate to make his considerable mark on this year’s Matchplay.

Because of his enforced absence from the oche, we haven’t seen too much of Price recently so it’s hard to call what kind of form he is in meaning the 5/1 on his head may generous but also might be best avoided.

In theory, despite what his record suggests, this event should be perfect for his larger than life personality and fighting qualities, especially the proximity to the fans with whom he shares a love loathe relationship which usually fuels him.

In Price’s absence, his compatriot and World Cup winning partner Jonny Clayton has really come to prominence. Back in January the Ferret won his first televised PDC title when he took down the Darts Masters.

That result meant that he qualified for the Premier League of Darts, an event he would also go on to win. For Clayton to pick up his third solo PDC title and fourth overall, bet365 are offering 14/1 which looks very tempting (accurate as of July 15th at 4pm).

Both the Ferret and the Iceman will star on opening night, taking on Matchplay debutant Dirk van Duijvenbode and Jermaine Wattimena, respectively. Wattimena replaces Mensur Suljovic who has withdrawn from the event due to medical reasons.

Peter Wright will need to wait until Sunday’s evening session to begin his campaign when he takes on Danny Noppert. Snakebite is another who seems to have gone off the boil in the absence of fans.

Early 2020, when he was world champion, he was playing his best darts in years and followed up his Ally Pally win with immediate success in that year’s Darts Masters. Then with the fans locked out, the wins went away. Hopefully his larger than character will thrive once again now he has his audience back. bet365 customers can get 7/1 on a Snakebite victory (accurate as of July 15th at 4pm).

Saturday’s first match gets underway at 19:00 UK time when Dave ‘Chizzy’ Chisnall faces Vincent van der Voort at the oche, prior to Go Go Jonny Clayton facing Dirk van Duijvenbode before Price steps out against Wattimena.

Opening night then concludes with defending champion Dimitri van den Bergh going up against South Africa’s Devon Petersen. Round one continues on Sunday when Rob Cross, James Wade, Michael Smith and Peter Wright all step out, while Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson all feature in Monday night’s fixtures.

World Matchplay Darts Daily Schedule

Saturday July 17

First Round (best of 19 legs)

Dave Chisnall v Vincent van der Voort
Jonny Clayton v Dirk van Duijvenbode
Gerwyn Price v Jermaine Wattimena
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Devon Petersen

Sunday July 18

First Round (best of 19 legs)

Krzysztof Ratajski v Brendan Dolan
Glen Durrant v Callan Rydz
Rob Cross v Ross Smith
James Wade v Luke Humphries
Joe Cullen v Chris Dobey
Michael Smith v Ryan Searle
Peter Wright v Danny Noppert
Jose de Sousa v Gabriel Clemens

Monday July 19 (1900 BST)

First Round (best of 19 legs)

Daryl Gurney v Ian White
Nathan Aspinall v Mervyn King
Michael van Gerwen v Damon Heta
Gary Anderson v Stephen Bunting

Tuesday July 20 (1900 BST)

Second Round (best of 21 legs)

Cross/R Smith v Durrant/Rydz
Wade/Humphries v Ratajski/Dolan
Price/Wattimena v Clayton/Van Duijvenbode
Van den Bergh/Petersen v Chisnall/Van der Voort

Wednesday July 21 (1900 BST)

Second Round (best of 21 legs)

M Smith/Searle v De Sousa/Clemens
Anderson/Bunting v Aspinall/King
Van Gerwen/Heta v Gurney/White
Wright/Noppert v Cullen/Dobey

Thursday July 22 (1900 BST)

Quarter-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

2 x Quarter Finals

Friday July 23 (1900 BST)

Quarter-Finals (Best of 31 legs)

2 x Quarter Finals

Saturday July 24 (1900 BST)

Semi-finals (Best of 33 legs)

2 x Semi Finals

Sunday July 25 (2030 BST)

Final (Best of 35 legs)

Winner Semi-Final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2

QUICK GLANCE AT THE DARTS WORLD MATCHPLAY

Venue: Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Dates: July 17 – July 25

Format: Best of 19, 21, 31,33 and 35 legs

Current Champion: Dimitri Van Den Bergh

Where To Watch: Sky Sports

When To Watch: (13:00 and 1900 UK)

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