The festive season is upon us which means it’s PDC World Darts Championship time and punters might want to swerve the big guns if they want to ring in the New Year with a bumper payday.
Ninety-six go to post for the PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace, a fortnight of top-class tungsten action which concludes on January 3.
Price Defends Ally Pally Crown
The winner will pocket a £500,000 cheque and proudly hold aloft the Sid Waddell Trophy – and this time it will be in front of a full house at the London venue, in stark contrast to 12 months ago when Gerwyn Price looked out at a sea of empty seats on his greatest night.
The Ice Man and Michael van Gerwen head the betting at 7/2 and 9/2 respectively followed closely by Jonny Clayton, the player of 2021, and Peter Wright, who toes the oche having won last time out at the Players Championship Finals.
They are the men with the pedigree but also the targets on their backs and in a field which is arguably the deepest and classiest ever assembled for the biggest event in the sport, there are plenty of other contenders at far bigger odds to mull over.
The Eagle Has Landed – And Can Clip a Few Wings
If there’s a softish quarter – and that’s debatable – then the second quarter where James Wade is the top seed, probably gets the nod.
The seedings reckon Wade and Dimitri van den Bergh will contest the quarter-final and the betting echoes that.
But you can throw a blanket over half a dozen in the second quarter where Krzysztof Ratajski definitely looks to be one to follow. He’s 11/2 to win the quarter and probably also worth a nibble at 50/1 outright.
The Polish Eagle demonstrated a love affair for the Ally Pally stage last year when he reached the quarter-finals – the first Pole to ever get that far – and he has trained on in 2021 with a string of good performances, including a Pro Tour win and a Matchplay semi-final appearance.
Hot Cross Has Claims To Be Quarter Master
Rob Cross, as one of seven former champions in the field, clearly has the pedigree and after going through a seriously lean spell, he’s also got the game.
Voltage has returned to form in style this year, capping a great season with victory at the European Championship, his first major title in a couple of years.
Cross is all about confidence so he’ll fancy battling his way through the tricky fourth quarter, where his first match could well be a showdown with Raymond van Barneveld, in what would be a seriously mouthwatering tussle.
Cross is 28/1 to win the competition and if he goes deep he then also becomes a massive runner in the tournament 180s market where he gets a 25/1 quote.
The year Cross won it he powered in 66 maximums, that’s 16 more than the next best and he has never lost that big-scoring power.
*All odds correct at time of writing.
