The biggest darting party of the year gets underway on 15th December as the PDC World Championships returns to Alexandra Palace for the 29th staging of this illustrious event. It will be the first time since the 2015 edition that Michael Van Gerwen won’t start as the number one seed and this potentially is one of the most wide open World Championships in memory.

The bookmakers suggest we’ve got four clear favourites, which fit in with our PDC world championship predictions with not much to separate them but there’s also much more to look forward to. Raymond Van Barneveld returns after a mini retirement and the hottest property in darts at the moment Fallon Sherrock returns with the tag as ‘Queen of the Palace’, promising to smash the glass ceiling even further on this occasion.

The Favourite

The betting however is headed by defending champion and current World Number One Gerwyn Price and despite a field filled with an abundance of supremely talented arrow-smiths, he remains the one to beat. At times during last year’s title success he was brilliant, particularly for a large portion of the final against Gary Anderson where he just blew his opponent away. It wasn’t all plain sailing however as he had to survive two last leg deciders against Northern Irishmen Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney en route to claiming the world title. In fact it was his finishing that was the difference for much of the event particularly on his go to double, Double 20 with a 55.7% success rate. He was notably outstanding on his 100+ checkouts too, notching 23 along the way. If this facet of his game is replicated again this year he’ll hold every chance.   

He’s currently averaging 99.23 for the season, only bettered by the Michael Van Gerwen (99.34) but he’s been in the winner’s enclosure with much more frequency than his adversary during 2021. Twice a winner on the floor, he’s backed this up with further success on the stage by claiming the trophy in the only two European Tour Events held this year. More importantly however he won the Grand Slam of Darts in November for third time in four years beating two of his main rivals for this event Jonny Clayton and Peter Wright along the way.

He’s drawn in Quarter One and opens up against the winner of Ritchie Edhouse versus Lihao Wen a game you would expect him to come through but from then on he’s likely to face a very high calibre of opponent.

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One to Watch

His biggest opponent of all could be his Welsh compatriot Jonny Clayton who he’s potentially scheduled to meet in the Quarter-Finals. Clayton also known as ‘The Ferret’ is no doubt for me the player of the season. Averaging 98.49 for the year he got his campaign off to a flyer winning the opening televised event, The Masters which secured him a place in the Premier League, another event he went on to win. He’s also won two floor events this year and he demonstrated his well-being recently too when experiencing a fine October, winning two further televised events, the World Grand Prix and World Series of Darts Finals. Whilst he didn’t fare quite as well in November he did reach the Quarter-Final (twice) and a Semi-Final of the three most recent events, on each occasion suffering defeat at the hands of the eventual tournament winner.

I recently stumbled across a social media post that suggested the only person who seemingly has the beating of Jonny Clayton at present is Gerwyn Price and the only person who seemingly has the beating of Gerwyn Price is Jonny Clayton. Whilst that’s strictly not correct, the sentiments of the post were spot on. These two good friends off the oche are becoming bitter rivals on stage, collecting a haul of trophies between them.

A Quarter-Final clash between these two would be a mouthwatering prospect and would set up a fifth televised encounter between the pair in 2021, the head to head in these matches sitting at two wins each currently. If they both do end up reaching that stage, the winner of that game would certainly become a strong favourite for the event afterwards.

For all that build up he faces a tough run to even get to that stage. His opening match could be against the very promising youngster Keane Barry; he could then face Gabriel Clemens who defeated the 2020 defending champion Peter Wright in this event last year before a potential clash against a resurgent ‘Bully Boy’ Michael Smith, who has the natural game to defeat anyone as he showed recently when convincingly taking care of Michael Van Gerwen in the Grand Slam of Darts. It won’t be easy but he’d start favourite in each of those games.

In Form

Both the aforementioned players have been dominant at times throughout the current campaign but no player has won more titles this year than Peter Wright. He’s won seven individuals titles and also claimed the World Cup of Darts for Scotland alongside John Henderson.

His seasonal average is just shy of the previous selections at 97.59 and at times he’s been well below his brilliant best as his Premier League campaign best demonstrates, with a very mixed bag of performances. This seemed to be resurfacing late October and into early November when he actually lost seven of eleven matches, something you won’t see very often with ‘Snakebite’.

He reversed this trend emphatically however in the last two events. Firstly he reached the final of the Grand Slam of Darts, losing to Gerwyn Price in the final. The format of that event took its toll on him on finals day and he hadn’t got much left in the tank come the evening session. During that afternoon session however he produced one of the best display of darts you’ll ever see in his Semi-Final victory over Michael Smith. Having trailed 12-8 in a race to sixteen he reeled off eight consecutive legs in a fashion no player would have been able to live with.

He then backed this up by winning the Players Championship Finals a week later, defeating Michael Van Gerwen in the Quarter-Final, Jonny Clayton in the Semi-Final and Ryan Searle in the final, a player he could meet in the fourth round here. He didn’t have to be at the top of his game to win this title, in fact he didn’t average 100+ once and his tournament average of 92.58 is the lowest ever produced by the event winner. You can only beat who’s in front of you however!

Wright won the second biggest event of the year, the World Matchplay back in July and if his Players Championship Finals success wasn’t spectacular this title was. He averaged a huge 104.91 for the event and hit 48% of his doubles. No one troubled him at all throughout and was a fully deserved winner. If that version of Peter Wright turns up he could be lifting the Sid Waddell trophy for the second time come 3rd January to reclaim his World Championship crown.

Value Pick

Looking at the field, in my darts betting tips I won’t be tipping Michael Van Gerwen for the title this year despite him averaging the highest of all tour card holders in 2021. For me he just isn’t quite as consistent as the three already mentioned and his trophy haul of just two successes backs up that claim. It’s also the first time in a decade he hasn’t won a major in a calendar year.

For that reason I’m going to look for a bit of value and Rob Cross could be the way to go. He’s drawn in the same quarter as MVG and looks a live contender. The winner of this event in 2018 where he beat a peak MVG in a Semi-Final thriller before dismantling the legendary Phil Taylor in the final. A World Matchplay winner too in 2019 he lost his way a little in 2020 slipping down the rankings but the number eleven seed has very much had a resurgent second half of 2021 securing two titles since mid-October.

The first of those successes was in the European Championships when he defeated MVG in the final to win that title for the second time in three years and the following week he then won a floor title, his first success in a Players Championship floor event since June 2018.

His seasonal average is 96.52 but he’s raised his game since the European Championships. Including this event onwards he’s averaged 97.52 whereas prior to this he was averaging 95.95, a 1.57 increase in his performance level, it’s no surprise he’s won thirty seven of his last forty six matches in this period. The manner of these defeats also suggest he’s tough to beat, on only one of these occasions did his opponent average less than 95.

He looks back to his former self with a smoother, silkier throw and excudes confidence in interviews, you can just tell that self-belief is back. At bigger odds he could well give you an excellent run for your money.

18+ please gamble responsibly. All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.

Top 25 World Rankings going into the PDC World Championships