You may well recall that we previewed the start of the PDC World Darts Championship 2023 back at the start of December, giving you a look at how the first and second round of the tournament would shape up.
Well, now we know the results of those games and also how the Round 3 of the tournament looks as we move from the best of five, to the longer format best of seven legs.
Unusually for the tournament, it has been one that has largely been devoid of shocks as 29 of the 32 seeds have made it through into the third round.
However, that doesn’t mean that it has been a tournament devoid of drama.
Of course, you can still find plenty of great betting available on the tournament at bet365 Sport which offers extensive pre-match and In Play betting on all games, as well as an extensive selection of outright bets too.
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Let’s first take a look at how the games went in both the First and Second Round of action at the tournament, before we move on to the third round and give you our top tips for the sixteen matches set to take place from Tuesday 27th to Thursday 29th December.
The first round matches went pretty much with the form book with just a small number of surprising wins at this early stage of the tournament.
Former PDC Champion Adrian Lewis progressed, as did former BDO World Champions Simon Whitlock and Steve Beaton, but another, Ritchie Burnett, was eliminated at this stage.
So too were the three female darts players that qualified with Beau Greaves, Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton all defeated by their opponents.
The talented Josh Rock made it through comfortably from his opening game in the tournament.
As was the case with the first round of matches, the second round of games also saw most matches go the way of the favourite and the seeded player.
In fact, there were only three seeds knocked out at this phase of the tournament. Alan Soutar got the better of Daryl Gurney (24), Josh Rock continued his great form with a win over Callan Rydz (23) but the biggest shock saw Wales’ Jim Williams earn a 3-2 victory over a former finalist here in James Wade (8).
Michael van Gerwen posted the highest three dart average of the tournament so far, hitting 101.84 in his victory over Lewy Williams. Only one other player, Ross Smith, recorded an average of over 100 in their second round game.
The first day of action sees a number of cracking games with Price v van Barneveld really catching the eye. The World Number 1 will have the Ally Pally magic working against him when he takes on the popular Dutchman in what should be a fantastic match.
Aspinall v Rock should also be a brilliant game between two of the younger players on the scene and Rock is actually the favourite to win this one given his outstanding form of late.
I’ve backed van den Bergh, Rock, Clayton, Williams, Price and Wright to win the six games today, which offers odds of 9.32/1 with bet365 Sport at the time of writing.
The second day of action sees a real range of matches, some should be very close with little between the two players, while others see one of the lower seeds heavily favoured.
I think the first four games of the night are the most likely to be closest and I do feel we will see at least one upset in these games, I think Alan Soutar is in great form, while Gary Anderson’s hit and miss form will see Chris Dobey fancy his chances, as will Damon Heta against Joe Cullen.
For my acca for Thursday I have gone for de Sousa, Soutar, Anderson, Cullen, van Gerwen and Smith to win their games which offers odds of 26.64/1 with bet365 at the time of writing.
Thursday’s acca tip isn’t the longest odds bet as these are four games where I think the favourites to win, should win their match.
I think Ross Smith will push van Duijvenbode hard and that may well be the game with the biggest potential of an upset, but I think Cross, Chisnall and Humphries look very good bets to win their games.
Backing van Duijvenbode with Cross, Chisnall and Humphries offers odds of just 2.88/1, so you aren’t going to get rich from this acca, but it is one that I think stands an excellent chance of coming in as a winner.
We’ll check back on the action from the Alexandra Palace later on this week ahead of the New Year when the tournament starts to get down to the nitty gritty, so keep your eyes peeled for that article coming in a few days’ time!
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