Sporting Life
Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh will be dangerous for Belgium
Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh will be dangerous for Belgium

World Cup of Darts 2021: Free darts betting tips, preview and predictions for the Sky Sports televised major in Germany

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Mon September 13, 2021 · 3y ago

The Sky Sports-televised World Cup of Darts takes place in Germany this weekend and our tipster Chris Hammer brings you his preview and best bets.

Darts betting tips: World Cup of Darts

2pts Belgium to win the World Cup at 15/2 (Paddy Power)

1pt e.w. Northern Ireland to win World Cup at 20/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair 1/2, 1,2)

1pt e.w. Australia to win the World Cup at 20/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair 1/2, 1,2)

0.5pts Canada to win quarter one at 12/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt Poland to win quarter four at 5/1 (Sky Bet, William Hill)

1pt Republic of Ireland, Austria & Spain to win first round matches at 4.77/1 (bet365)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

The much-loved annual pairs event takes centre stage at the Sparkassen Arena in Jena, and unlike last year's edition in Austria, we will thankfully have fans back to further enhance the partisan vibe across the four days of action.

Although the amount of shocks and surprises down the years can play havoc with your predictions - particularly in the precarious first round which consists of just one doubles rubber - the cream tends to rise to the top come finals night, as demonstrated by the fact that only England (x4), Netherlands (x4), Scotland and Wales have won the title in its 10 previous stagings.

The defending champions Wales, consisting of world champion Gerwyn Price and Premier League king Jonny Clayton, were actually the most recent of Singapore's high-profile victims back in 2019 so they'll be relieved to see Paul Lim and Harith Lim, who sadly missed out last year due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, in the opposite half of the draw!

Unsurprisingly the Welsh are favourites at 9/4 and you can't really argue with that considering Price heads to Germany on the back of a stunning title success at the Hungarian Darts Trophy, while Clayton has won four events this season and could have made it five at the most recent Players Championship last month, where he was pipped 8-7 by Peter Wright in the final.

Michael van Gerwen is being partnered by the dangerous Dirk van Duijvenbode for the first time and they can be backed at 3/1, while England's brand new paring of James Wade and Dave Chisnall, who have appeared separately in three editions (2010, 2017 & 2018) without success, are next in the running at 9/2 ahead of 15/2 Belgium (Dimitri Van den Bergh & Kim Huybrechts) and a Gary Anderson-less Scotland (Peter Wright & John Henderson) at 12/1.

Realistically that's where many feel the champions will come from but here, I'll run through each quarter of the draw before predicting a final and the eventual champions.

Quarter One

  • (1) England (Wade & Chisnall) v Brazil (Portela & Valle)
  • Spain (Noguera & Justicia) v South Africa (Petersen & Gabriel)
  • (8) Germany (Clemens & Hopp) v Canada (Smith & Campbell)
  • Russia (Koltsov & Izotov) v Japan (Jun & Baba)

Odds to win quarter: England 4/5, Germany 7/2, South Africa 10/1, Canada 12/1, Spain 14/1, Russia 16/1, Japan 25/1, Brazil 40/1

Verdict: England but Canada for value

England's James Wade and Dave Chisnall are top seeds based on their cumulative ranking and are understandably favourites to win a quarter which seems very manageable up to the quarter-finals.

However, apart from winning the UK Open, Wade's form this year has been inconsistent while he's ranked way down in 27th position on the ProTour averages in 2021 with just 94.51. Chizzy isn't faring much better in 19th with 95.30 but he's only managed to reach a couple of quarter-finals in all events since that explosive victory over Michael van Gerwen at the World Championship.

Therefore I feel they could be vulnerable against either hosts Germany or Canada.

The Germans, back on home soil for the ninth time in 11 stagings, are represented by Max Hopp for the seventh year in a row and Gabriel Clemens who has soared above both Martin Schindler and his playing partner over a progressive couple of years.

Neither have had much to shout about since propelling Germany to their first World Cup semi-final last year so they will need inspiration from the crowd to gather some momentum and confidence. But if they do that, then nobody should doubt their individual talents to give the English duo a scare at the very least. Let's not forget how short the format is.

Canada are a very viable threat and represent a nightmare draw for the hosts. Jeff Smith and Matt Campbell teamed up to knock Daryl Gurney's Northern Ireland out in the opening round last year before brushing New Zealand aside and then taking Belgium right to the wire in the quarter-finals. They were my 16/1 quarter tips so it was agonising to say the least!

Smith hasn't been at his best consistently this year but Campbell has been ripping up the European Challenge Tour, winning three titles and a PDC Tour Card and World Championship qualification. Although his competition isn't of the highest quality, he's averaging in the mid to high 90s so shouldn't be underestimated. The pairs format is also more common in Canada so they'll have plenty of non World Cup experience of it.

Quarter Two

  • (4) Belgium (Van den Bergh & Huybrechts) v Greece (Michael & Symeonidis)
  • Austria (Suljovic & Rodriguez) v Philippines (Ilagan & Perez)
  • (5) Northern Ireland (Gurney & Dolan) v Hong Kong (Leung & Leung)
  • Republic of Ireland (O’Connor & Lennon) v Portugal (De Sousa & Marques)

Odds to win quarter: Belgium 6/4, Northern Ireland 2/1, Portugal 6/1, Austria 17/2, Republic of Ireland 11/1, Phillipines 22/1, Greece 50/1, Hong Kong 80/1

Verdict: Belgium but Northern Ireland are each-way value for the title at 20/1

Belgium have always been talked up as title dark horses - especially since the Huybrechts brothers reached the final in 2013 - but they have become more dangerous than ever due to Dimitri Van den Bergh realising his potential over the past two seasons.

The 2020 World Matchplay champion has found another consistent level to his game after lifting the second biggest trophy in the sport and so nearly won it again earlier this summer, only to be denied by Peter Wright's brilliance in the Blackpool final.

He'll team up with World Cup stalwart Kim Huybrechts, who always seems to raise his game when wearing national colours no matter how well he's been faring as an individual. Apart from the 2013 final, he's also reached three other semi-finals alongside his brother Ronny down the years and also got to the last four with Van den Bergh last November, so it's clear just how much playing for his country brings the best out of him. Indeed, he almost threatened to break MVG's world record TV average back in 2017 when he posted a mark of 121.97 against Paul Lim.

Huybrechts is in the world's top 50 for averages this season, whereas Van den Bergh is comfortably in the top 10, so they'll always be one of the more formidable pairings when it comes to any decisive doubles rubbers.

However, so are Northern Ireland duo Daryl Gurney and Brendan Dolan.

They have a tougher mini section and will probably need to get past Steve Lennon and Willie O'Connor of the Republic of Ireland, who are superb odds-against value to see off Portugal in the opening round. The latter do obviously have Jose de Sousa in their ranks but is the much lesser known Jose Marques going to be strong enough support? Especially if his team-mate miscounts when leaving him finishes!

Dolan is playing some of the best darts on the ProTour having won a title and also reaching another final earlier in the summer while his average of 96 is the 12th highest. On top of that he heads to Jena on the back of beating Michael van Gerwen en route to the Hungarian Darts Trophy quarters, where he lost to eventual winner Gerwyn Price, while he has fantastic World Cup pedigree having twice reached the semis, including the 2017 edition with Gurney.

His team-mate hasn't had his best season but seems to be picking up his game ahead of the crunch stage of the season, and he averaged over 100 in a narrow defeat to MVG at the weekend.

Although Belgium are my headline tip, the 20/1 price being dangled over Northern Ireland in places has to be snapped up, especially when many other firms go as short as 10/1.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR PAUL NICHOLSON'S WORLD CUP COLUMN

Quarter Three

  • (2) Wales (Price & Clayton) v Finland (Kantele & Viinikka)
  • Hungary (Végső & Kovács) v Lithuania (Labanauskas & Barauskas)
  • (7) Australia (Whitlock & Heta) v Italy (Vigato & Turetta)
  • USA (Lauby & Puleo) v Sweden (Larsson & Engström)

Odds to win quarter: Wales 4/9, Australia 11/4, USA 16/1, Lithuania 18/1, Hungary 50/1, Sweden 50/1, Finland 66/1, Italy 80/1

Verdict: Wales but Australia a value pick for the title at 20/1

Nobody needs me to tell you why Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton are favourites to retain their title - let alone win this quarter - but the threat of Australia in this otherwise weak quarter can't be overlooked.

In Simon Whitlock they have a World Cup ever-present who came agonisingly close to lifting the trophy with Paul Nicholson back in 2012 and has also reached three other semi-finals and three quarter-finals.

It's no wonder Nicholson branded him as one of the best pairs players darts has ever seen in his World Cup column for Sporting Life this week, while his classy partner Damon Heta now has experience under his belt having helped Whitlock reach the last eight on debut last November, when they lost a deciding doubles rubber 4-2.

They'll both be desperate to lift the trophy for Australia in honour of the late Kyle Anderson, who partnered Whitlock on four occasions in this event during his career, and few would disagree about that being the most fitting finale to this edition possible.

Heta did beat Whitlock at the weekend's Hungarian Darts Trophy and together they are a real danger for the Welsh. If they come through that then they'll be hard to stop, so at 20/1 in places for the title, they represent each-way value.

Quarter Four

  • (3) Netherlands (MVG & van Duijvenbode) v Denmark (Jørgensen & Heinsøe)
  • Gibraltar (Negrette & Hewitt) v Singapore (Lim & Lim)
  • (6) Scotland (Wright & Henderson) v China (Lu & Liu)
  • Czech Republic (Sedlacek & Gawlas) v Poland (Ratajski & Kciuk)

Odds to win quarter: Netherlands 10/11, Scotland 5/2, Poland 5/1, Czech Republic 14/1, Singapore 20/1, Denmark 50/1, Gibraltar 50/1, China 66/1

Verdict: Netherlands but Poland for value

As much as I'd love to see Paul Lim go on yet another magical World Cup run alongside Harith Lam following last year's absence, I can't see them adding Netherlands to their list of victims that include Scotland and Wales in recent years.

Such a meeting would happen in the second round where the singles rubbers come into force and this year Michael van Gerwen will be supported by the firepower of debutant Dirk van Duijvenbode.

They should progress to the semi-finals when you consider their biggest threats Scotland are without Gary Anderson, although Peter Wright has been playing some of the best darts in the world this summer and in John Henderson he has a very steady partner.

However, as a value bet, I'm going to side with Krzysztof Ratajski's Poland in this quarter as they look to go beyond the second round for the first time.

The Polish Eagle is obviously up there with the very best on his day and looked to have rediscovered his mojo at the World Matchplay when reaching the semi-finals. Although he's not enjoyed any title success in 2021, his average of almost 97 puts him in the top 10 on the ProTour.

Krzysztof Kciuk has made steady progress on the PDC circuit since flopping on his World Cup debut last year when averaging just 70 in his singles defeat to Damon Heta and is comfortably inside the top 50 in 2021 with a respectable mark of 92. Although he's clearly the weak link, he can supply able support to Ratajski, who will need to always win his singles rubbers.

Who will win the title?

Belgium are my number one picks to go the distance. Even if they were to face favourites Wales or Netherlands in the final, Van den Bergh won't fear any singles opposition, while you wouldn't be surprised to see Huybrechts sneak a win off Clayton or van Duijvenbode and throw in some killer high scores in the doubles.

For value reasons, I have to throw in their potential quarter-final rivals Northern Ireland at 20/1, while Australia are also available at the most eye-opening price in the bottom half of a draw dominated by the 'big two'.

First-round acca

As you'll see in the tips at the top of the page, Spain go into my 4.77/1 first-round treble because in Jesus Noguera and Jose Justicia they have two seasoned Tour Card holders in their ranks, whereas South Africa's Devon Petersen could well get dragged down by his partner Carl Gabriel like they did in 2020 when they lost 5-0 to Poland with an 83 average.

I've already explained in the second quarter why Republic of Ireland should be favoured to see off Portugal, while I'm also throwing Austria into the mix. There aren't too many tasty priced favourites but the Austrians are long enough to include at 4/11.

Shoulder issues have hampered Mensur Suljovic's season but he looked pretty solid on his long-awaited return in Hungary at the weekend - wearing glasses and using new darts - albeit losing 6-5 to William Borland with an average of 96. His partner Rowby-John Rodriguez has reached the quarters of the World Cup three times with Suljovic - including last year - so I'd expect them to see off the Philippines, who don't have Noel Malicdem to back up Laurence Illagan this year.

World Cup of Darts: Daily Schedule, Line-Ups, Format, Prize Money, Past Finals

Thursday September 9
Evening Session
(7pm local time, 6pm BST)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
First Round (Best of nine legs - doubles)

  • Hungary v Lithuania
  • Czech Republic v Poland
  • Gibraltar v Singapore
  • USA v Sweden
  • Scotland v China
  • Netherlands v Denmark
  • Wales v Finland
  • Australia v Italy

Friday September 10
Evening Session (7pm local time, 6pm BST)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
First Round (Best of nine legs - doubles)

  • Russia v Japan
  • Spain v South Africa
  • Republic of Ireland v Portugal
  • Austria v Philippines
  • Northern Ireland v Hong Kong
  • Germany v Canada
  • England v Brazil
  • Belgium v Greece

Saturday September 10
Afternoon Session (2pm local time, 1pm BST)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Second Round (Best of 3 points)
(Two best-of-7-leg singles matches & one best of 7 doubles decider if required)

  • Four matches

Evening Session (7pm local time, 6pm BST)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Second Round (Best of 3 points)
(2x best-of-7-leg singles matches & one best-of-7-leg doubles decider if required)

  • Four matches

Sunday September 11
Afternoon Session (1pm local time, 12pm BST)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Quarter-Finals (Best of 3 points)
(2x best-of-7-leg singles matches & one best-of-7-leg doubles decider if required)

  • Four matches

Evening Session (7pm local time, 6pm BST)
Semi-Finals (Best of 3 points)
(2x best-of-7-leg singles matches & one best-of-7-leg doubles decider if required)

  • Two matches

Final (Best of 5 points)
(2x best-of-7-leg singles matches, one best-of-7-leg doubles, then reverse singles)

  • Winner SF 1 v Winner SF 2

World Cup of Darts: Team line-ups

With nations represented by two-player teams, competitors are initially selected based on the PDC Order of Merit, where two or more players are ranked. If players do not wish to enter, then their fellow countrymen next on the Order of Merit will get called up.

With seedings based on the cumulative PDC ranking of the two players, England are the top seeds going into this year's event.

Seeded Teams (provisional):

  • (1) England - James Wade & Dave Chisnall
  • (2) Wales - Gerwyn Price & Jonny Clayton
  • (3) Netherlands - Michael van Gerwen & Dirk van Duijvenbode
  • (4) Belgium - Dimitri Van den Bergh & Kim Huybrechts
  • (5) Northern Ireland - Daryl Gurney & Brendan Dolan
  • (6) Scotland - Peter Wright & John Henderson
  • (7) Australia - Simon Whitlock & Damon Heta
  • (8) Germany - Gabriel Clemens & Max Hopp

Unseeded:

  • Austria - Mensur Suljovic & Rowby-John Rodriguez
  • Brazil - Diogo Portela & Artur Valle
  • Canada - Jeff Smith & Matt Campbell
  • China - Jianfeng Lu & Wenqing Liu
  • Czech Republic - Karel Sedlacek & Adam Gawlas
  • Denmark - Andreas Toft Jørgensen & Niels Heinsøe
  • Finland - Marko Kantele & Veijo Viinikka
  • Gibraltar - Sean Negrette & Justin Hewitt
  • Greece - John Michael & Veniamin Symeonidis
  • Hong Kong - Kai Fan Leung & Man Lok Leung
  • Hungary - János Végső & Patrik Kovács
  • Italy - Danilo Vigato & Michele Turetta
  • Japan - Matsuda Jun & Yoshihisa Baba
  • Lithuania - Darius Labanauskas & Mindaugas Barauskas
  • Philippines - Lourence Ilagan & Christian Perez
  • Poland - Krzysztof Ratajski & Krzysztof Kciuk
  • Portugal - Jose de Sousa & Jose Marques
  • Republic of Ireland - William O’Connor & Steve Lennon
  • Russia - Boris Koltsov & Evgenii Izotov
  • Singapore - Paul Lim & Harith Lim
  • South Africa - Devon Petersen & Carl Gabriel
  • Spain - Jesus Noguera & Jose Justicia
  • Sweden - Daniel Larsson & Johan Engström
  • USA - Danny Lauby & Chuck Puleo

World Cup of Darts Format

  • First Round

Best of nine legs - doubles. All players take part in every leg of the match, in an alternative visit format.

  • Second Round, Quarter-Finals & Semi-Finals

These matches will be played as two best of seven leg 501 singles matches, with both nations nominating the order in which their players play.

In the event of both nations winning one singles match apiece, a best of seven leg 501 doubles match will be played to decide the tie.

  • Final

This will be two best-of-seven-legs 501 singles matches, with both nations nominating the order in which their players play the first two matches, followed by a best of seven leg 501 doubles match and then reverse Singles matches. The first team to win three games is declared the winner.

Where can I watch the World Cup of Darts on TV?

The World Cup of Darts will be televised on Sky Sports, through the PDC's international broadcast partners including RTL7 and DAZN, on PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers and on matchroom.live.

Are tickets available for the World Cup of Darts?

Tickets had initially been limited to 500 per session, however PDC Europe have been able to increase this to allow more fans the chance to see the unique pairs event live next month.

For further ticket information or to purchase tickets, please visit the PDC Europe website.

World Cup of Darts: Sky Bet Odds

Wales are the 9/4 favourites to defend their title while the Netherlands are available at 3/1 closely followed by England at 9/2 and Belgium at 15/2.

Click here for Sky Bet's darts page

Prize Fund (Per two-player team)

  • Winners - £70,000
  • Runners-Up - £40,000
  • Semi-Finalists - £24,000
  • Quarter-Finalists - £16,000
  • Second Round Losers - £8,000
  • First Round Losers - £4,000
    Total - £350,000

World Cup of Darts: Past Finals

Related Darts Content