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Luke Littler
Luke Littler

Today's PDC World Darts Championship predictions: Betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time for Monday December 30

By Chris Hammer
Darts
Mon December 30, 2024 · 2d ago

The 2025 Paddy Power World Darts Championship continues on Monday so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and an acca.

World Championship: Day 13 preview

Scroll down for match-by-match tips, stats and scoreline predictions

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports
  • Format: Round four, best of seven sets

Stephen Bunting (4/11) v Luke Woodhouse (2/1)

  • Three-dart average (2024): 96.81 - 93.24
  • 180s per leg (2024): 0.32 - 0.27
  • Checkout % (2024): 41.25% - 41.07%

Stephen Bunting's ever growing legion of fans are no doubt dreaming about the prospect of a career-defining run to the World Championship final - but they'd be foolish to underestimate the challenge of Luke Woodhouse before all that potential mayhem.

His opponent may well be a pretty big outsider to win their fourth-round encounter but he's already taken out a pair of tournament dark horses to get here in Mike de Decker and Damon Heta, while the Sporting Gods might also be looking favourable on him following his reaction to the Aussie's nine-darter.

However, I backed Bunting to reach the quarter-finals before the tournament began based on his performance levels and results all season, which helped him win a Masters title at the start of it before going on to reach six Pro Tour finals.

The Bullet recorded an impressive 100 average last time out against Madars Razma and if he produces a similar display then I'd expect him to have just a bit too much firepower for Woodhouse.

The pair have pretty prolific 180 per leg stats this year and if there's around six sets in this one then they can certainly reach the high teens.

Predicted Scoreline: 4-2

Michael van Gerwen (1/7) v Jeffrey de Graaf (4/1)

  • Three-dart average (2024): 97.19 - 89.34
  • 180s per leg (2024): 0.28 - 0.24
  • Checkout % (2024): 41.01% - 39.79%

Before a dart was thrown at this World Championship, Michael van Gerwen would have expected to be playing Gary Anderson in the fourth round and so did pretty much everyone else.

As it turned out, an injury sustained while chopping down trees hampered the Flying Scotsman's preparations and Jeffrey de Graaf took full advantage with a shock 3-0 victory that further blew the bottom section of the draw wide open.

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The Dutch-born Swede, whose average of 95.56 wouldn't have been enough to cause a free-flowing Anderson as much damage as the tree cutting session did, then ground out a rather laborious 4-1 triumph over Paolo Nebrida with a sub 90 average.

De Graaf's style will probably suit MVG a lot more than Brendan Dolan's slow, methodical approach and I'd expect a fairly one sided contest in five sets or even less.

Van Gerwen still managed an impressive average of 97.01 during a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the awkward Northern Irishman and despite his struggles to win major titles in recent times, there's still a big gulf in class between him and de Graaf - especially over this kind of format.

Predicted Scoreline: 4-1

Luke Littler (1/8) v Ryan Joyce (9/2)

  • Three-dart average (2024): 99.28 - 93.73
  • 180s per leg (2024): 0.40 - 0.21
  • Checkout % (2024): 41.40% - 43.71%

Luke Littler must have been asked about the prospect of facing Luke Humphries in the World Championship semi-finals about a thousand times since the draw was made at the end of November - and now all those answers were for nothing.

Cool Hand's shock exit at the hands of Peter Wright last night has seen Littler's odds of becoming world champion for the first time at the age of 17 are now just 10/11.

The highest ranked player he could possibly meet now en route to the final is world number eight Stephen Bunting but for now he's got to ensure his firepower is at its blistering best to prevent Ryan Joyce from getting too many opportunities at the outer ring.

Joyce is widely regarded as one of the most lethal finishers on the planet and his checkout percentage of 51.39% across his three games so far is testament to that.

The affable Geordie was at his relentless best on the doubles in a magnificent 4-3 victory over Ryan Searle last time out as he pinned 18 out of his 29 attempts, while he finished up with an average of 97.

That could well be enough to put Littler in real danger if the Nuke makes another slow start on this stage and struggles to produce the kind of fireworks we've all seen many, many times these last 12 months.

His 140.91 set average against Ryan Meikle was almost as spectacular as you can possibly get and certainly made a mockery of his 'struggles' - relatively speaking of course - in the previous three sets.

However, against Ian White, his ridiculous run of 14 100+ averages in a row - dating back to the start of the Grand Slam of Darts - as he managed 'just' 97.84 in a battling 4-2 victory.

Although that's clearly a very high standard for anyone else, Littler will want to be playing like Callan Rydz has done so far in this tournament and a performance like that could be just around the corner when he comes up against someone so potentially deadly.

I always want to cover the nine-darter in Littler matches purely because of the number of times he's kicking off legs with 180s, and the fact he's missed double 12 at least four times in recent months to achieve a record-breaking fifth perfect leg of the season.

Despite his problems against White, he still hit 12 180s in just 21 legs so there's definitely nothing wrong with the firepower.

Predicted Scoreline: 4-1

SELECTION: 0.5pts on a nine-dart finish in Littler v Joyce at 16/1 (Boylesports)

Afternoon Session (1200 GMT)

SL Acca: 1pt Rydz, Pietreczko (+1.5), Bunting, MVG (-1.5) & Littler (-1.5) at all to win at 4/1 with Paddy Power

  • TV Coverage: Sky Sports
  • Format: Round four, best of seven sets

Kevin Doets (9/4) v Chris Dobey (1/3)

  • Three-dart average (2024): 90.24 - 97.41
  • 180s per leg (2024): 0.29 - 0.34
  • Checkout % (2024): 36.26% - 38.46%

Kevin Doets has come through two titanic battles to venture further than ever on the major stage and no matter what happens against Chris Dobey, he can come away from the Alexandra Palace with high hopes about his future prospects.

Having taken out the 2023 world champion in dramatic fashion in the second round, the Dutchman came 2-0 down and survived four match darts before overcoming Krzysztof Ratajski 4-3 with almost all the Ally Pally on his side.

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His average of 89 might not be anything to write home about but that was in part down to making a ridiculously slow start and losing the opening six legs of the match.

He will need to blast out of the blocks against a player of Chris Dobey's calibre otherwise he might end up relying on Hollywood imploding like he did against Rob Cross 12 months ago.

The Bedlington ace was highly impressive in all areas of his game during a high class 4-2 triumph over Josh Rock in which he averaged 97.29, hit nine 180s and converted 45% of his doubles, and his belief will be growing about his chances of going all the way in the bottom half of the draw.

While I expect Dobey to prevail, if we see at least six sets then this could really be a maximum fest to get the Ally Pally crowd warmed up for the rest of what promises to be a thrilling day.

Predicted Scoreline: 2-4

SELECTION: 1pt over 15.5 180s in Doets v Dobey at 6/5 (General)

Robert Owen (9/4) v Callan Rydz (1/3)

  • Three-dart average (2024): 90.50 - 92.68
  • 180s per leg (2024): 0.21 - 0.28
  • Checkout % (2024): 36.21% - 37.47%

You can make a strong case for Callan Rydz being the 'player of the tournament' so far based purely on averages and even came close to making World Championship history last time out.

Rydz was averaging around 110 when just two legs away from a 4-0 triumph over Dimitri Van den Bergh and if he'd wrapped it up as effortlessly as the previous 10 legs that he won then he'll have joined Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen in an exclusive club of three to have exceeded 110 on the Ally Pally stage.

As it turned out, four visits to take out 108 cost him a place in folklore and that just shows how ridiculously tough it is to achieve such ridiculous averages in these long format matches. One dodgy leg and it's pretty much curtains.

Nevertheless, he still won those two legs to complete a comprehensive victory with a 105 average and that wasn't even his highest of the tournament having managed 107 in the first round!

He admitted to the media afterwards that Van den Bergh was probably right to call him 'unstable' when it comes to his consistency and conceded that he had been 'shocking' in stage events over the past 18 months or so.

But while the erratic nature of his game means we wouldn't be shocked to see his average slump to very beatable levels against Robert Owen, he is a confidence player and right now he has plenty of it as he targets a place in the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2022 edition.

Owen thought he'd saved his PDC Tour Card thanks to a second-round victory before Christmas but results since then meant he fell out of the top 64 and had to pull off another fine win over Ricky Evans yesterday to save it again.

The Welshman, who only scraped into the field at the 11th hour due to Dom Taylor's failed drugs test, has more than made the most of his opportunity and this match must feel like a free shot with hardly any pressure on his shoulders.

On one hand I can see a blazing Rydz victory in five sets or fewer, but on the other hand I can see Owen pinching a seven-setter. I'll go for the former option but with little conviction!

Predicted Scoreline: 1-4

Ricardo Pietreczko (11/10) v Nathan Aspinall (4/6)

  • Three-dart average (2024): 90.22 - 94.41
  • 180s per leg (2024): 0.15 - 0.26
  • Checkout % (2024): 37.52% - 36.51%

"Ricardo is a great darts player but he’s an odd character. That’s all I can say. I don’t care what he’s like as a person. I’m going up there to smash him on the dartboard. If I produce what I can do, he doesn’t stand a chance."

Nathan Aspinall's clash with Ricardo Pietreczko could turn out to be a feisty affair, particularly if Pikachu makes a fast start and fires up the large German contingent of supporters inside a raucous Ally Pally.

If that happens, then the Asp can't afford to get distracted by jug chugging hot dogs again, like he was when 3-0 up in sets against Andrew Gilding.

Aspinall has obviously demonstrated a much higher performance level on the biggest stage than the 30-year-old German ever has but we don't see that quite so often in more recent times, especially since trying to overcome the horrible effects of dartitis.

All darts fans would love the Asp to get right back to his major contending form and rubber stamp his place in the Premier League line-up, but this is a really tricky match for him.

The 4-0 scoreline last time out looks one-sided on paper but two of those sets went to deciding legs and he 'only' averaged 92. Pikachu, meanwhile, managed 97 in a superb 4-1 victory over Scott Williams and a similar performance will trouble Aspinall, who may need help from his army of fans to put the German off his stride.

Regardless of the match result, the Stockport ace should boss the 180s count considering his maximum per leg ratio this season is much higher while he managed six in 18 legs against Gilding as Pietreczko compiled just three in 21.

Predicted Scoreline: 4-3

SELECTIONS: 1pt Pietreczko to beat Aspinall at 6/5 (General)

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