MVG Clear Favourite For World Darts Championship Glory

Darts

With the World Darts Championship now only a few weeks away, the excitement is beginning to build for one of the best sporting occasions of the year. As this will be a tournament that gains a lot of attention and interest, it is likely that bookmakers will decide to list special offers and promotions throughout, which is great news from a matched betting perspective. Of course, if there are any great offers listed, you will be able to find guides and advice on how you could potentially make a profit with a subscription to a top matched betting site such as OddsMonkey or Matched Bets.

The biggest tournament in world darts will get underway on the 14th December at London’s famous Alexandra Palace, commonly known in darting circles as ‘Ally Pally’. The current champion is Michael van Gerwen, having defeated two-times defending champion Gary Anderson 7-3 in last year’s final. The Dutchman has recently been nominated for BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, which shows how far he has come. Darts players are very rarely considered for such accolades. MVG will go into the 2018 World Darts Championship as the clear favourite with the bookmakers too. Let’s take a look at the outright winner odds for the big guns.

World Darts Championship Betting Odds

Michael van Gerwen

Best Odds – 4/5

The ‘Green Machine’ will be incredibly tough to beat, that much is obvious. The Dutchman is in some of the best form of his career at the moment, which is a scary prospect for the other 63 players in the tournament. At the weekend he claimed the Players Championship, adding that to his recent tournament wins at the Grand Slam of Darts, World Series of Darts and the European Championship.

van Gerwen has won the World title twice and the draw has thrown up an interesting clash. He will face fellow Dutchman Christian Kist in round one, who won the BDO version of the World Darts Championship back in 2012. He has been very unlucky recently though, as he has been battling arthritis, which makes playing darts at the highest level almost impossible. MVG is expected to come through comfortably, and will be the favourite to win every match he plays throughout the tournament.

Gary Anderson

Best Odds – 7/1

The ‘Flying Scotsman’ won the world title in back to back years, 2015 and 2016. When he is on form, there are very few players in the world that can match him for quality. It has to be said though that he has not really been at his best in recent weeks and he went out of the Players Championship in round one when it looked like he may have a slight injury. His first round clash at the World Championships against either Jeff Smith or Luke Humphries looks simple enough and hopefully the Scotsman will be on form.

Anderson will have been desperately disappointed to lose in the final last year and will be looking for revenge this time out.

Peter Wright

Best Odds – 12/1

Having won the UK Open earlier this year, 2017 has been quite kind to ‘Snakebite’. His excellent form has seen him overtake fellow Scotsman Gary Anderson in the world rankings, taking the position of world number 2. Wright faces an interesting test in round one, coming up against the first Brazilian player ever to play at the World Championships, Diogo Portela. If he reaches the final, while he has struggled in major TV matches against MVG, what better place to put that hoodoo to bed than the Worlds?

Phil Taylor

Best Odds – 14/1

‘The Power’ winning his 17th world title in his final ever appearance as a professional darts player would be the stuff of fairytales. The 57 year old is retiring after the World Championships and the greatest of all time will be looking to go out with a bang. It would be typical of Taylor too, who is still playing at an extraordinary level considering how long he has been playing the game. The draw has made sure that he will really have to earn it too. A first round match against talented youngster Chris Dobey could be followed up with clashes against Gary Anderson, Peter Wright and Michael van Gerwen later in the tournament.

Other Options

Rob Cross has had an unbelievable year. Bare in mind that this is his debut year with the PDC, he has risen to 20th in the Order of Merit which is an astonishing achievement. He can be backed at 14/1 to cap off the year with a huge world title win.

Daryl Gurney claimed his first ever TV major at the World Grand Prix and is now number 4 in the world. He starts his quest to become World Champion against Belgian Ronny Huybrechts and is 40/1 to go all the way.

Former World Champions Adrian Lewis (50/1) and Raymond van Barneveld (80/1) will be looking to recapture that bit of magic that has seen them lift the trophy before.

Benefiting From Matched Betting

As mentioned earlier, there are likely to be some excellent offers listed by bookmakers throughout the World Darts Championship. It is likely that many of these could be used to make an expected cash profit thanks to matched betting techniques.

We have seen in previous tournaments that bookmakers do like to list offers for darts, probably due to the fact that it is a very popular sport with online punters due to its fast nature. Some examples of previous darts offers that may make a return for the World Championships include;

  • Ladbrokes – Money back if a loser: The bookmaker were offering money back as a free bet up to the value of £10 if your first bet on the Correct Score market did not win. This was a great offer for us matched bettors, as it could be turned into an expected profit of around £5 each time. We could see a scenario where the bookie decides to list this offer every day, which would be excellent.
  • Sun Bets – Free Bet for every 180: This is an offer that was listed for a few recent tournaments, including the Players Championship this past weekend. All you had to do was place a £20 bet on any market and you were given a £1 free bet for every 180 scored in the match. If listed for the World Championship, this offer would be fantastic with a match that includes big scorers such as Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson or Dave Chisnall.
  • Betfred – Bet and Get: For the recent Champions League of Darts tournament, Betfred decided to offer the chance to earn a £10 free bet when you placed three £10 in-play bets on the darts. This offer had an expected profit value of £5 when matched betting and could be a nice little earner if offered again for the World Championships. With so many matches each day at the start of the tournament, an offer such as this would be perfect.
  • BetMclean – Refund Offer: Listed for some recent tournaments, this offer meant you could receive a free bet refund up to £25 if your bet lost and the final checkout was 100 or more. Through the matched betting back and lay strategy you could potentially play through this offer for nothing and hope the scenario needed to force the refund happened.

We will have to wait and see whether any of these offers are listed when the World Championships get underway at Ally Pally on 14th December. If they are, we always advise taking up a premium membership from a top matched betting site such as Matched Bets or OddsMonkey in order to maximise your potential profits.