Peter Wright is in action on opening night of the World Darts Championship

PDC World Championship darts: Day one predictions, odds, betting tips, accas, order of play & TV times

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Tue December 15, 2020 · 4y ago

Our guide for the opening night of the PDC's William Hill World Darts Championship includes the order of play, match-by-match previews, predictions, Sky Bet odds and a suggested acca.

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At last, the World Championship is finally upon to help get us through the end of the worst year in living memory and although it'll be lacking the usual Dartmas atmosphere, let's just be happy its being staged at all.

World champion Peter Wright is the headline act tonight and if he can avoid a shock exit, then he can head back home early for Christmas and not have to play again on the Ally Pally stage until after Boxing Day.

Without any more waffle, let's get stuck into the first of our daily previews which will be written by either myself of leading statistician Carl Fletcher. At the very bottom are graphics of season stats for all players in the tournament as well as an additional one to chart how successful they've all been in achieving the 'Match Treble' in all their PDC matches this year (winning with the most 180s and highest checkouts).

World Championship: Tuesday December 15

TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1800 BST)
First/Second Round: Best of 5 sets, no tie-breakers in any set

Tuesday darts accas

West to win 3-0, Portela (+2.5) and Barry at 3/1
Click here to build your acca

Steve West (1/14) v Amit Gilitwala (7/1) (R1)

Head-to-head: 0-0
2020 Meetings: 0-0
PDC Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
Career PDC Titles: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
PDC World Championship appearances: 4 - 0
PDC World Championship best : Last 16 (2018) - Debut

Steve West is still widely known for shocking Phil Taylor in the first round of the 2016 World Grand Prix and Michael van Gerwen to reach the 2018 European Championship quarter-finals but he's continued to be a steady operator on the PDC circuit since then without managing to pick up a title of any kind.

During his quarter-final run at this year's televised European Championship, the 45-year-old from Epping claimed he'd retire if he lifted that trophy but he was unable to follow up his heroics against Krzysztof Ratajski and Mensur Suljovic as he bowed out to Peter Wright.

West also insisted he's just as talented as some of the top guys who have titles to their name but hasn't enjoyed the same lucky breaks - and it's fair to say this draw sums up that view of his career!

While he couldn't have asked for a much kinder first-round opponent in Amit Gilitwala of India, most darts fans will be expecting him to pack his bags by the end of the night when he faces defending champion.

Not much is known of Gilitwala, who earned his spot by virtue of being the Indian Darts Federation's number one, and we last saw him on TV averaging 69 alongside Nitin Kumar - the Indian representative in the last two World Championships - at the 2014 World Cup.

The 25-year-old, who won his first national title aged 15 back in 2011, moved to Preston in 2018 and although his Q School attempts haven't been successful, he has been playing competitively in local Super League darts. This year prior to March he was averaging in the low 70s and peaking at 81 so I think he'll struggle to win a leg, let alone a set.

West has been one of the better 100+ checkout merchants on tour this season with 13.65% of his legs achieved that way - a percentage bettered by only nine fellow Tour Card holders - so lets for there being two of them in the match at 11/10. That does obviously allow Gilitwala to contribute - it'd be disrespectful to think he can't - but you can be bolder and take 2/1 on West to do two of them on his own.

Prediction: 3-0
Suggested bet: Two 100+ checkouts in the match at 11/10

Steve Beaton (2/7) v Diogo Portela (13/5) (R1)

Head-to-head: 0-0
2020 Meetings: 0-0
PDC Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
Career PDC Titles: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
PDC World Championship appearances: 19 - 3
PDC World Championship best: 4th round (2004, 2020) - 1st round

Steve Beaton makes history tonight by appearing in his 30th World Darts Championship, which eclipses the record he jointly held with Phil Taylor.

It’s the Bronzed Adonis’ 20th successive outing in the PDC version but remarkably last year was the second time he’d won two matches or more. While it was therefore some success for him to go as far as the fourth, he was bitterly disappointed to lose 4-2 against Darius Labanauskas with a 90 average having previously seen off James Wade.

Since then, his slide down the rankings has been as smooth as his throw and his fall outside the top 32 in the Order of Merit means he has to come into the tournament at the very first hurdle.

Apart from one Players Championship quarter-final run before lockdown, when he lost to Gerwyn Price, he’s struggled to regain any kind of form and only managed one victory over five days of Winter Series action.

Nevertheless, he did average comfortably over 90 in those matches and should have plenty in his locker to deal with Diogo Portela, who has never won on this stage in three previous attempts.

That said, the popular ‘Braziliant’, who didn’t enjoy much success in the Challenge Tour this season, did average over 90 in all three of his defeats.

While he lost 3-0 to Josh Payne 12 months ago, he won the first two sets against Ron Meulenkamp two years ago and even pinched one against Peter Wright the year before that.

If he can produce a burst of his best, he can get at least one against Beaton too.

Prediction: 3-1
Best bet: Match to have over 13.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 110.5 and over 4.5 total 180s at 6/5

Jeff Smith (10/11) v Keane Barry (10/11) (R1)

Head-to-head: 0-0
2020 Meetings: 0-0
PDC Titles this season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
Career PDC Titles: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
PDC World Championship appearances: 2 - 1
PDC World Championship best : 1st round - Debut

This has been widely talked up in darts circles as potentially the tie of the first-round as teenage sensation Keane Barry bids to showcase his budding talents on the world stage against another 'rising star' of the PDC ranks in Jeff Smith, who is well over twice his age.

The 18-year-old averaged just shy of 92 in a nerveless Ally Pally debut 12 months ago despite losing 3-0 to an impressive Vincent van der Voort but he put that disappointment to one side to become the BDO World Youth champion with a 3-0 thrashing of Leighton Bennett, averaging almost 91.

The Co Meath star may have agonisingly missed out on a Tour Card when losing to Scott Waites at the final hurdle on one of the Qualifying School days back in January but he has one for the next two years having finished in the top two on the Development Tour Order of Merit this season behind Ryan Meikle.

He showed us more of his promise during the recent PDC Winter Series, where he averaged 94 across 13 matches - including a 100 against Meikle - and Smith will have his work cut out to say the least.

The 45-year-old from Canada started his maiden season as a PDC Tour Card holder like a train by reaching a Players Championship final, which he lost to Gary Anderson, and then reached the last four of a Summer Series event but since then he's struggled.

He had a poor Autumn Series with five defeats out of five and only enjoyed one day of stellar performances during the Winter Series. There's no denying how good he can be on his day, but I think there's more reason to side with Barry in what should be a cracker.

Prediction: 2-3
Suggested bet: Keane Barry to win the match, score over 2.5 180s and checkout over 86.5 at 2/1

Peter Wright (1/7) v West/Gilitwala (9/2) (R2)

Head-to-head: 10-3 (if it's West)
2020 Meetings: 1-0 (if it's West)
PDC Titles this season: 6-0 (TV: 2-0)
Career PDC Titles: 34-0 (TV: 8-0)
PDC World Championship appearances: 11 - 4
PDC World Championship best: Champion (2020) - Last 16 (2018)

Let's be honest, this will probably be Peter Wright v Steve West and don't rule out a shock.

The Epping thrower gave Snakebite a run for money in the European Championship quarter-finals in October but his average of 98 - and alleged delaying tactics that irked his opponent - couldn't prevent him losing potentially the biggest match of his career 10-6.

Wright was in sizzling form all weekend, averaging well over 100 in all his games - including 104 against West - as he sauntered to his second TV title of the season.

When he's in that kind of mood then few can stop him but he hasn't looked quite that good since and doesn't exactly have a fantastic early record over the past three years, being dumped out by Jamie Lewis - who played fantastically well it has to be said with an average of 107 - and Toni Alcinas. Even last year he had to magically take out 302 with six darts to avoid an early exit to Noel Malicdem.

The world champion has thrown in a few sloppy performances on TV this year, including a low 80s average against Mervyn King in the last four of the recent Players Championship Finals, so West is capable of making this close.

West is being disrespected here at 9/2 but when more odds become available, have a look at the underdog on the handicap at +1.5 sets.

Prediction: 3-2
Best bet: West (+1.5 sets) to beat Wright (odds unavailable at the time of writing)

Season Statistics

To help you with your bets throughout the tournament, here are some excellent statistical graphs for every player in the field from Darts Tracker creator and Sporting Life contributor Carl Fletcher (@CarlyFletch & @Darts_Tracker on Twitter), while there is an additional graphic at the bottom charting each player’s frequency of bringing up the ‘Match Treble’ in PDC events this season. That is when they win, throw most 180s and hit the highest checkout. You can read more about Carl’s research on that by clicking here.

NB: Averages & 180 per leg data covers events except World Grand Prix (which is double-start and distorts figures), 100+ checkout % is all events, and doubles percentage is stage events only (majors and European Tour) because definitive double stats for Players Championship events aren't available.

Carl Fletcher's statistical seasonal data for seeds 1-16

Carl Fletcher's statistical seasonal data for seeds 17-32

Carl Fletcher's statistical seasonal data for Pro Tour players ranked 1-16

Carl Fletcher's statistical seasonal data for Pro Tour players ranked 17-32

Carl Fletcher's statistical seasonal data for the first 14 international qualifiers

Carl Fletcher's statistical seasonal data for the remaining 12 international qualifiers

The data behind which players bring up the match treble the most