WORLDS BETTING VALUE

By Jethro-Bremner Allison

OK…”I’m so dizzy, my head is spinning” as I’m backing CHIZZY to shed his nearly man tag in 2024 and WIN the Paddy Power World Championship at 50/1…and here’s why.

Quarter 1 has the current world champion and 1 seed, however you will be hard pressed to find anyone backing Bully Boy to retain his title. He will be hoping that heading into the Ally pally will bring back his best arrows. With patchy performances and working with a new dart manufacturer, I think the value lies elsewhere to progress. Rob Cross, whilst not at his brilliant best has 4 titles across the year and I believe he is in his best position to take the title since 2018. However, I’m going to go with ROSS SMITH who’s in heavy scoring form and represents great value of 9/1.

In terms of shocks, STOWE BUNTZ, fresh off his Grand Slam Quarter Final could book a R2 tie with Michael Smith (11/10). In terms of seeds toppling in R2I would give a great chance to RICHIE EDHOUSE v De Sousa and MIKE DE DECKER v Razma.

(1) Michael Smith v Kevin Doets/Stowe Buntz

(32) Madars Razma v Mike De Decker/Dragutin Horvat

(16) Ross Smith v Niels Zonneveld/Darren Webster

(17) Chris Dobey v William O’Connor/Bhav Patel

(8) Rob Cross v Mario Vandenbogaerde/Thibault Tricole

(25) Jose de Sousa v Ritchie Edhouse/Jeffrey de Graaf

(9) Jonny Clayton v Steven Lennon/Owen Bates

(24) Krzysztof Ratajski v Jamie Hughes/David Cameron

Whilst I may appear biased, I am taking Gary Anderson to take Q2 @ 7/2. He’s been in brilliant form in 2023 and had a recent major win versus Gerwyn Price who notoriously doesn’t like the Ally Pally stage. It’s a great quarter for Gary with the other major seeds being out of form- Wright and injured-van Duijvenbode. Finally Wade is another who’s not a fan of the format or venue. Seeds I expect to topple straight away would be 16 year old wonderkid LUKE LITTLER to beat Gilding and KEEGAN BROWN to see off an unfortunately broken DvD.

(4) Peter Wright v Jim Williams/Norman Madhoo

(29) Raymond van Barneveld v Radek Szaganski/Marko Kantele

(13) James Wade v Matt Campbell/Lourence Ilagan

(20) Andrew Gilding v Christian Kist/Luke Littler

(5) Gerwyn Price v Connor Scutt/Krzysztof Kciuk

(28) Brendan Dolan v Mickey Mansell/Xiaochen Zong

(12) Dirk van Duijvenbode v Keegan Brown/Boris Krcmar

(21) Gary Anderson v Simon Whitlock/Paolo Nebrida

This is the first quarter I will take the favourite. Last years runner up MvG is ready for another challenge and should comfortably negotiate his first few rounds. One year I’m sure Heta is in for a deep run at the Worlds but I’m not sure it’s this year, same with Noppert & Van Den Bergh. I would mark Bunting with a “beware” sign as he is in fine form and loves Ally pally after a few deep runs. Fresh off a win over World Champion Michael Smith in Minehead, I like RICHARD VEENSTRA to beat Robb then Huybrechts in R2 and I believe LUKE WOODHOUSE is a potentially horrible draw for now seeded Rock. He’ll have a battle with Challenge Tour champ Berry Van Peer in R1 (tie of the round?) but I think he’ll sneak through and then beat Rock too.

(2) Michael van Gerwen v Keane Barry/Reynaldo Rivera

(31) Kim Huybrechts v Richard Veenstra/Ben Robb

(15) Dimitri Van den Bergh v Dylan Slevin/Florian Hempel

(18) Stephen Bunting v Ryan Joyce/Alex Spellman

(7) Danny Noppert v Scott Williams/Haruki Muramatsu

(26) Martin Schindler v Jermaine Wattimena/Fallon Sherrock

(10) Damon Heta v Martin Lukeman/Haupai Puha

(23) Josh Rock v Luke Woodhouse/Berry van Peer

Q4 for me is an absolute horror show for those unlucky enough to be in there. Whilst 3 time major champion Humphries is expected to march through the field, he will have it far from easy. Cullen or Searle in the 4th round and potentially Chisnall in the Quarter Final. Chizzy can whitewash MvG on that stage or he can throw horribly but I’m backing him as great 8/1 value for the quarter. If Pietreczko can cope better with Suzuki than he did with Fallon Sherrock I expect him to take out seed Rydz in R2 and wonderkid GIAN VAN VEEN can see off 2023 semi finalist Clemens too.

(3) Luke Humphries v Lee Evans/Sandro Eric Sosing

(30) Callan Rydz v Ricardo Pietreczko/Mikuru Suzuki

(14) Joe Cullen v Jules van Dongen/Darren Penhall

(19) Ryan Searle v Ian White/Tomoya Goto

(6) Nathan Aspinall v Ricky Evans/Simon Adams

(27) Daryl Gurney v Steve Beaton/Wessel Nijman

(11) Dave Chisnall v Cameron Menzies/Rusty-Jake Rodriguez

(22) Gabriel Clemens v Gian van Veen/Man Lok Leung

Q1: Ross Smith 9/1

Q2: Gary Anderson 7/2

Q3: Michael Van Gerwen 5/6

Q4: Dave Chisnall 8/1

Semis: R Smith v ANDERSON and MVG v CHISNALL

Final: CHISNALL v Anderson

Based on the 4 semi finalists, I would tip Gary Anderson to see off Ross Smith, with MvG finally falling to Chisnall in the bottom half. Expect to see Gary running out of steam in the final with world number 11 CHISNALL finally breaking his major duck to take the title available at 50/1.

To back any of the other semi finalists, you could currently back MvG @ 7/2, Anderson @ 14/1 and Ross Smith @ 50/1.