Frenchman Thibualt Tricole starts as a short price favourite in the opening match of the tournament against the Australian Qualifier Joe Comito. Whilst Tricole is definitely on the up and has a respectable win percentage of 53% for the season against the top players it’s questionable whether he should be as short as he is for this match considering his order of merit position prior to this tournament is still 79th. Comito, will need to improve his level if he’s to win this match as his seasonal average on the Darts Players Australia tour is 83.81, which is around seven points lower than that of his opponent who’s averaged 90.36 throughout 2024. There was signs however that he was improving as the DPA tour wore on, reaching the final of the last four events in that region, winning three and it was that amazing end of season run which saw him qualify for this event. He won 77% of the matches he played on that circuit this year and whilst he was hammered 6-1 by Luke Humphries in the Australian Darts Masters World Series event in the summer, he’ll benefit for that experience. He’s also not playing Luke here either – well not yet anyway. Essentially he only needs to win one set for this bet to land and he could have enough in the locker to do that, it’s certainly better value than lumping on Tricole to win at ridiculously short odds.

Jermaine Wattimena is enjoying a terrific season and starts this match at particularly skinny odds to win the match outright. It’s probably warranted when you consider he recently finished runner up in the European Championships, reached the Quarter Final of the Grand Slam of Darts and the Last 16 of the Players Championship Finals, the last three televised events prior to the Worlds. Those successes have saw him surge up the rankings and he is now parked in 36th place ahead of this event. It’s likely he’ll win given his form but his opponent may be under respected in the betting market when you look at his season in closer detail, hence the over 3.5 sets selection in this one. Bellmont, the first Swiss player to qualify for this event has played in a number of the Players Championship events this season, twenty four of the thirty to be exact, even though he isn’t even a Tour Card holder. He managed to reach a couple of Quarter Finals in events eight and fifteen, which is no mean feat when you consider just how competitive those floor events are. He also finished a respectable twelfth on the Challenge Tour too, he may not be a Non-Tour card holder for too much longer. Like a lot of the International Qualifiers, he’s an experienced player. He came through the West Europe Qualifier to reach this showpiece and that included winning against three tricky opponents in the latter rounds. He can take a set off ‘Machine Gun’ to help this selection land.

Barry was once one of the hottest young prospects in darts but it’s not quite gone to the script many envisaged. He’s still young enough at 22 to take it to the next level but at this current time, he has a bit of improvement to find. It’s fair to say it’s been a struggle for him this season on the whole. We’ve seen him in two televised events recently, the World Series of Darts Finals and the Grand Slam of Darts. He exited both those events at the first stage and a third early exit in a row beckons here. His run to the Last 16 of the UK Open in March, seems a lifetime ago right now. Kim Huybrechts has been around for a number of years and is a former Quarter Finalist in this World Championships; that may have been over ten years ago now but he is still a decent enough player on his day to trouble the best of them. He showed at the Players Championship Finals that he fears no reputation as he destroyed Wessel Nijman 6-1 in the first round and he’s a player a lot of people are tipping up as a dark horse for this title over the festive period. His win percentage for the season at 48% may seem a little on the low side but he suffered a catastrophic injury earlier in the year, following some trouble at a football match. It certainly derailed his season at the time but he did well to keep playing. His performance against Nijman at Minehead in November was pleasing on the eye. He can come out on top in this one to set up a potentially fiery encounter with Gerwyn Price in Round Two.