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Fallon Sherrock (Picture: Kieran Cleeves/PDC)

Today's PDC World Darts Championship predictions: Betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time for Tuesday December 17

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Tue December 17, 2024 · 2h ago

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

Darts betting tips: World Championship day three

1.25pts Ryan Joyce to win and hit most 180s v Darius Labanauskas at 10/11 (Paddy Power)

1pt Luke Woodhouse (+1.5 sets) to beat Mike de Decker at 11/10 (Paddy Power, Betfair, bet365)

1pt Wesley Plaisier to beat Peter Wright at 6/5 (General)

1pt Luke Littler to win Sports Personality of the Year at 3/1 (General)

SL Acca: 1pt Joyce, Woodhouse (+2.5) and Plaisier all to win plus de Graaf to win 3-0 at 4/1 with Paddy Power

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Afternoon Session (1200 GMT)

TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Format: best of five sets (R1/R2)

James Hurrell (8/13) v Jim Long (8/5) (R1)

Three-dart average (2024): 91.20 - 86.46
180s per leg (2024): 0.22 - 0.20
Checkout % (2024): 38.54% - 36.28%

James Hurrell enjoyed a promising enough debut season in the PDC ranks to earn himself a maiden crack at the Ally Pally and finds himself firm favourite against Canada's Jim Long.

Hurrell may not have challenged for any Players Championship titles during 2024 but there were smatterings of decent runs, including a pair of quarter-final runs and a victory over Luke Littler back in September.

His lack of stage exposure this year - having suffered early exits at the UK Open and Players Championship Finals - is a concern and he didn't really have any lengthy runs in the BDO/WDF majors prior to coming through Q School back in January.

If he suffers debut nerves then he could find himself in trouble against Long, whose averages on the CDC Pro Tour and the World Seniors Tour show he can reach the mid 90s on his better days.

The 56-year-old doesn't have much big-stage experience but he revelled in the Ally Pally atmosphere back in 2019 with one win and a narrow defeat while he also beat Michael Smith in the 2023 US Darts Masters with a 93 average.

I can see at least four sets in this one.

Scoreline verdict: 3-2

CLICK HERE to bet on Hurrell v Long with Sky Bet

Kevin Doets (1/4) v Noa-Lynn van Leuven (4/1) (R1)

Three-dart average (2024): 90.28 - 82.42
180s per leg (2024): 0.27 - 0.21
Checkout % (2024): 36.56% - 32.07%

Kevin Doets almost hit the headlines this time last year when giving the then defending champion Michael Smith a scare on opening night, and he'll get another chance against Bully Boy if he can overcome Noa-Lynn van Leuven.

The Dutch youngster was fancied in some quarters to have a breakthrough year and it may have started to materialise had he not been pipped in a deciding leg by Stephen Bunting in the fifth round of the UK Open back in March.

Since then there's not really been much for him to write home about but he should have plenty in the tank to deal with Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who lost all three matches at the Grand Slam.

That said, van Leuven won the 180s battles in two of those encounters - including a 3-1 margin against Gary Anderson - so I wouldn't necessarily expect one-way traffic on every level.

Scoreline verdict: 3-1

CLICK HERE to bet on Doets v Van Leuven with Sky Bet

Ryan Joyce (4/11) v Darius Labanauskas (5/2) (R1)

Three-dart average (2024): 93.74 - 87.33
180s per leg (2024): 0.22 - 0.09
Checkout % (2024): 43.92% - 37.33%

Darius Labanauskas is back on the Ally Pally stage where he famously hit one of the three nine-darters during the 2022 World Championship.

That came two years after his highly unexpected run to the quarter-finals where he eventually fell to Michael van Gerwen but I doubt we can expect similar heroics this time around.

ALSO WATCH: ALL THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TIES PREDICTED!

Predicting EVERY game in the PDC World Darts Championship in less than 4 minutes!

While Labanauskas has been battling away on the Challenge Tour and Nordic Baltic Tour - on which he earned his sixth World Championship appearance - Ryan Joyce has enjoyed another progressive campaign in which he's managed to qualify for five ranked majors.

Joyce reached the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix and the quarter-finals of the Players Championship Finals, so with all this confidence and experience, I'd expect a fairly routine triumph.

Joyce isn't the most prolific 180 hitters but he should dominate the maximum battle as well when you consider that Labanauskas has an extremely lowly 180s per leg rate of 0.09.

Scoreline verdict: 3-0

CLICK HERE to bet on Joyce v Labanauskas with Sky Bet

CLICK HERE to back Joyce to win and hit most 180s with Sky Bet

Mike De Decker (4/11) v Luke Woodhouse (5/2) (R2)

Three-dart average (2024): 95.09 - 93.27
180s per leg (2024): 0.36 - 0.27
Checkout % (2024): 38.63% - 40.91%

Mike De Decker's stock has soared so much over the past few months that he's even being talked about as a potential world title contender.

To do that on January 3 he'll probably have to go through Luke Humphries and Luke Littler just to get to the final but when you think he possessed the character and quality to dethrone Cool Hand in the World Grand Prix final back in October and then give the Nuke a real scare during the Grand Slam last month, then it doesn't seem that far fetched at all.

However, with all this talk about what De Decker could do to the world's leading duo, I feel we've forgotten about the very real threat posed to him by another Luke.

The Englishman reached the semi-finals of the European Championship where he lost the 'House' derby to eventual surprise champion Ritchie Edhouse, while he's regularly averaged in the mid 90s and above for the past few months.

Woodhouse didn't have to break sweat to see off a poor Lourence Ilagan for the loss of just two legs with a 94 average yesterday and while he can expect a much sterner test from De Decker, don't be surprised to see this go the distance - or even an upset.

Scoreline verdict: 2-3

CLICK HERE to bet on De Decker v Woodhouse with Sky Bet

CLICK HERE to back Woodhouse (+1.5 sets) to win with Sky Bet

Evening Session (1900 GMT)

TV Coverage: Sky Sports
Format: best of five sets

Jeffrey de Graaf (1/20) v Rashad Sweeting (12/1) (R1)

Three-dart average (2024): 89.37 - 75.12
180s per leg (2024): 0.24 - 0.10
Checkout % (2024): 39.89% - 28.37%

It's not often you see a world number 74 priced up as such a hot favourite to win a match in a major tournament of any sport, let alone darts.

But that's the position Jeffrey de Graaf finds himself in having been handed the easiest possible first-round draw against Rashad Sweeting, who is the first player from Bahamas ever to qualify for the World Championship.

Sweeting, who booked his spot via the Championship Darts Latin America and Caribbean Tour, usually averages in the 70s and it'll be a real struggle for him to win a leg.

Hopefully the crowd will make it a memorable night for him whatever happens.

Scoreline verdict: 3-0

CLICK HERE to bet on de Graaf v Sweeting with Sky Bet

Ricardo Pietreczko (1/8) v Xiaochen Zong (6/1) (R1)

Three-dart average (2024): 90.27 - 85.63
180s per leg (2024): 0.14 - 0.18
Checkout % (2024): 37.72% - 37.48%

The draw wasn't quite as kind to Ricardo Pietreczko as it was for Jeffrey de Graaf but even so, you'd still expect this to be another one-sided affair.

Xiaochen Zong lost all three of his previous matches on the Ally Pally stage back in the 2018, 2020 and 2024 editions but he's back to try and break his duck after winning the inaugural PDC China Championship.

His seasonal average is someway short of Pietreczko's 90.27 but more importantly the German has built up plenty more winning experience in stage environments in recent times.

He'll have plenty of support from the travelling German supporters and should enjoy a relatively comfortable night's work.

Scoreline verdict: 3-1

CLICK HERE to bet on Pietreczko v Zong with Sky Bet

ALSO WATCH: WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW SHOW

PREDICTING THE PDC WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP 2025!

Ryan Meikle (3/10) v Fallon Sherrock (10/3) (R1)

Three-dart average (2024): 90.88 - 83.04
180s per leg (2024): 0.23 - 0.21
Checkout % (2024): 39.61% - 34.38%

Fallon Sherrock could make the internet break once again if she beats Ryan Meikle and sets up a clash with Luke Littler.

And no disrespect to Meikle whatsoever, but that's what pretty much everybody wants.

The media hype for the two players whose fairytale runs transcended darts more than anything else down the years would be absolutely massive and viewing figures would smash through the Ally Pally roof.

However, while Sherrock has proved plenty of times in years gone by that her A-game is good enough to beat her male counterparts - and also have the character to produce it on the big stage - recent form is somewhat of a worry.

She's only averaged over 90 once in her last 21 matches going back to September and there's plenty of 70s efforts in their as well. She also missed out on playing in the Grand Slam of Darts which would usually be such crucial preparation.

The crowd will obviously be on her side but it's fair to say that Meikle - or anyone else she could come up against - will not feel the same kind of 'fear factor' that Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic had to experience back in the 2019 edition.

Sherrock and Beau Greaves normalised women beating men so much that it's not a big deal in the darting world at all. Evetts was a rabbit caught in a lorry's headlights but it's just not like that now.

Also, I wonder how the Queen of the Palace will be affected by how her boyfriend Cameron Menzies exited the competition last night. In an ideal world he'd have sailed through and mood in their camp would have been happy and inspiring. I wouldn't want to read too much into it, but it's certainly not a positive.

Although Meikle's average of 91 for the season won't intimidate Sherrock whatsoever, he did beat Gary Anderson in the first round of the Players Championship Finals recently and posted a few 100+ averages in the last batch of Pro Tour action at the end of October.

My head says Meikle in four sets, but my heart is hoping for a five set thriller that Sherrock might just pinch.

Scoreline verdict: 3-1

CLICK HERE to bet on Meikle v Sherrock with Sky Bet

Peter Wright (4/5) v Wesley Plaisier (6/5) (R2)

Three-dart average (2024): 92.11 - 90.91
180s per leg (2024): 0.22 - 0.18
Checkout % (2024): 37.20% - 41.07%

Any time I saw one of those 'who is the seeded player in most danger of an early exit?' style questions on social media, the most common answer was Peter Wright.

James Wade was also another popular answer and he fell by the wayside at the hands of Jermaine Wattimena, so is Snakebite about to suffer the same fate?

Wesley Plaisier enjoyed a highly impressive campaign in which he won the WDF's World Masters and finished runner-up to Connor Scutt on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit to earn himself a PDC Tour Card for next year.

And we already know he'll be a dangerous operator in 2025 because he even managed to win one of the Players Championship events that he was able to take part in back in October, beating Josh Rock in the final.

In fact he took all of his opportunities so well that he qualified for the World Championship in 11th place on the Pro Tour Order of Merit list.

All that said, if you watched his match against Ryusei Azemoto yesterday without knowing anything about him, you'd think Wright got gifted a very easy draw.

Plaisier averaged just 82 and nearly lost to a player averaging 79, while he also missed 27 of his 38 attempts at doubles.

Now that he's got the nerves of his Ally Pally debut out of the way, I'd expect a more assured display against Wright, who has endured all kinds of problems with his game in 2024.

He's lost all of his last six televised matches with averages in the 80s - including three group defeats in the Grand Slam of Darts and a 6-0 whitewash at the European Championship when he managed just 74 - while Plaisier also beat him in the final Players Championship event of the campaign.

Neither are big 180 hitters so I'll keep this simple and go for the Plaisier victory.

Scoreline verdict: 1-3

CLICK HERE to bet on Wright v Plaisier with Sky Bet

CLICK HERE to back Plaisier to win with Sky Bet

Bonus tip: Sports Personality of the Year

If you're reading this, you'll be well aware that Luke Littler is among the contenders to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award tonight.

Victory would see the 17-year-old become the first ever darts player to lift the famous trophy and further underline his status as the biggest star this sport has ever produced - but to do that he'll have to poll more votes than Olympic hero Keely Hodgkinson.

As much as we hear how many viewing figures darts gets on Sky Sports and ITV4 these days due to the Littler effect, we obviously can't forget how much the Olympics always dominates the sporting summer and that Hodgkinson was at the forefront of it.

Her 800m gold medal so iconic that it shot her to wider stardom beyond athletics, and nobody can quibble about her being favourite for SPOTY. And it would be richly deserved.

However, the Littler story has been talked about all year, with new chapters being added pretty much every month.

Luke Littler is second fav to become the first darts player ever to win Sports Personality of the Year but Luke Humphries isn't regarded a contender despite all his achievements.

Humphries says he's been invited to SPOTY but feels he should be in the running too.... pic.twitter.com/8V36SoFfy7
— Chris Hammer (@ChrisHammer180) November 27, 2024

There's no recency bias. It's just been continuous moments of magic that's kept him in firmly in the flare of the sports media spotlight.

That's why he was recently revealed as the UK's most searched athlete on Google for 2024 - a list that saw him finish above Lamine Yamal, Simone Biles and Jude Bellingham.

Since becoming a star beyond the world of darts thanks to his run to the Ally Pally final 12 months ago, he won 10 titles, including the Premier League and Grand Slam, as well as hitting four nine-darters to capture the imagination of millions of sports fans.

He's built up a huge fanbase on all platforms of social media and if enough darts fans care passionately about getting their sport more headlines, then he could be a shock winner at 3/1.