Money, Money, Money, Oh, It Must Be The Darts!

Posted: 17.12.15 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

The PDC William Hill World Championships start today!Here is our preview.

The PDC World Championships starts on Thursday 17 December kick starting a darts fiesta stretching through to Sunday 10 January when it will be the Lakeside final. 3 1/2 weeks of darts, virtually non-stop.

Barry Hearn has been dropping a few “news grenades” in the build up to the Ally Pally carnival. As is the norm it is focused on money and in particular prize money. The prize pot has been added to again so MVG, sorry I mean the 2016 World Champion will have an uplift of £50,000 from last year and will take home a whopping £300,000. The runner up will receive an extra £30,000 so will take home £150,000.

Further down the pecking order there is a similar % increase on prize money, so that is positive, Prelim losers get an extra £750, so they will have £4250 to try and cover their flights and hotels and other expenses. First round losers get £10,000 and uplift of £2000 on last year.

Uncle Barry has promised that the prize fund is only heading one way. He has promised by 2020 the winner will get a whopping half a million pounds! Wow! It seems to me though the PDC is getting more and more top heavy. There is a small group of PDC players making a fortune from darts. Then there are the lot making a good living, then a living, then a part time job and the rest a loss when you factor in expenses. Just take a look at the Order Of Merit.

If you want to have a bash at joining the PDC you will be charged £250.00 to attend Q School. Then all the expenses on top. Then you may end up on my list as earning the same as having a part time job or worse. I understand that MVG now and Taylor then generate a lot of money for the PDC. It is of course only right that the players benefit from the upsurge in interest and income that darts is currently enjoying. But my point is, is it a fair split? Are we losing potential darts stars because they can’t afford to get a step on the ladder?

I would prefer to see the money filter down the darts pyramid to make becoming a full time PDC dart player viable for hundreds of players, not just the small band that can currently say that is what they are.

Anyway, we are all in for a darting treat over the next few weeks. We will be following all the action here, our 6^th year of PDC World Championship blogs! The odds are as follows.

Outright Winner

MVG’s domination in recent times shines through in the odds for the 2016 Champion. He is a best price 5/4. Taylor is next at 5/1, Anderson is 7/1. You can get 20/1 on Lewis and 25/1 on Wade if you shop around. Wright is also a 28/1 shot and Chizzy 33/1. The most mind boggling price is Whitlock at 150/1. I guess his form justifies high odds but he is using his nice new darts! Talking of “stars on the decline” Andy Hamilton, Wes and Kevin Painter can all be backed at 1000/1.

Taking into consideration which half of the draw your fancy is in is also worth considering: MVG is in quarter 1 with Michael Smith, Barney, Ian White and Bunty. In Quarter 2 Lewis, Wright, Chizzy and Huybrechts are potential semi-final opponents for the winner of MVG’s quarter.

In the bottom half of the draw Taylor has Anderson, Wade, and Vinny as potential semi- final opponents if he can emerge from his quarter victorious by overcoming The Thorn, Jenkins, Klassen and a potential dark horse Alan Norris.

Can anyone stop MVG? If like me you don’t think so an Anderson v MVG final is 9/2 and MVG v Wade is a best price 12/1. More appealing than the 3/1 on a Taylor/MVG showdown.

Matches

The PDC World Championship kicks off tonight at 7pm. There are some intriguing contests to get things going. The matches and odds are:

Preliminary Round  Best of three sets. No tie-break.

Andy Boulton (4/7)  v Per Laursen (13/8)

1^st Round Best of 5 sets

Jamie Lewis  v Daryl Gurney

Peter Wright v Keegan Brown

Gary Anderson v Boulton/Laursen

Tips

I am going for a Boulton/Over 8.5 180's in the Lewis/Gurney game double tonight.

Please join us each day of the Championship for our insight and performance analysis of the matches and the players.

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