The PDC Darts World Championship will begin on Thursday, 11 December, in what is the biggest edition of the tournament to date in terms of the number of players participating and the prize money on offer.
A total of 128 players will take part in the tournament, all of whom will be chasing the £1,000,000 prize for winning it in January.
As ever, all the attention over the next three weeks will be on Luke Littler, who is the firm favourite to defend his crown this year. However, there are several other players who will believe they have a chance of taking home the Sid Waddell Trophy, including Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price.
Ahead of play getting underway at the Alexandra Palace on Thursday, check out our World Darts Championship betting tips below.
World Darts Championship betting tips: Our picks
I'm going to avoid the outright market, purely because I can't see anyone other than Littler taking home the trophy once again. However, at odds of 10/11, the value isn't great, particularly with Humphries, Van Veen and Price all in good form.
Luke Littler to hit a nine-dart finish at the tournament – 9/2
To say Luke Littler is merely ‘capable' of hitting a nine-darter would be doing the teenager a disservice, but he is perhaps the only player who openly says that he goes out looking for one.
During the course of the year, Littler has hit three nine-dart legs so far, and while that doesn't come close to averaging one for every tournament he's played in, he is the type of player to produce his best darts on the biggest stage, and this is exactly that.
If you look at the list of players whom Littler has hit a nine-dart leg against, it's a perfect demonstration of how he can step up a gear when needed. The list includes names such as Michael van Gerwen, Josh Rock, Rob Cross, Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price.
Therefore, don't expect him to waste a perfect leg in the early rounds. Instead, you could wait until the quarter-finals and beyond, when these odds will lengthen.
Gian van Veen to make the final – 6/1
Gian van Veen has been blessed with being placed in the opposite half of the draw to Littler, and although both sides are still littered with exceptional players, the ability to make it through the entire tournament without facing the best player in the world until the final is a bonus.
Another advantage for Van Geen is that his draw up until the quarter-finals is quietly rather easy. The best player he can face across the opening three rounds is an out-of-sorts Dimitri van den Bergh, who is averaging just 92.39 for the year.
A friendly start for Van Veen should allow him to relax into the tournament so that by the time he faces Luke Humphries in a projected quarter-final showdown, he will be nicely in rhythm, which will be a problem for Humphries.
Beyond all that, though, is the fact that Van Veen is in red-hot form coming into the tournament. This year, he is averaging 96 and has won two of the last three tournaments he has entered.
Stephen Bunting to be knocked out in the second round – 10/3
I could be left with egg on my face with this one, but if everything goes as it should in round one with Stephen Bunting taking down Sebastian Bialecki and Richard Veenstra beating Nitan Kumar, then Bunting has real banana skin on his hands in round two.
The former BDO World Champion has been in miserable form leading up to the tournament, and lost to Veenstra in their most recent match at the Player's Championship at the of October. That win meant that the Dutchman has now beaten Bunting in two of their last three encounters.
Bunting's form is a concern beyond that. The world number four has lost six of his last seven matches and nine of his last eleven. It's difficult to keep calling it just a blip.
Andy is tipster who has been calling Golf tournaments for several years across many different platforms. He has covered all tournaments from the Asian Tour to the Masters. He's also a keen football fan and is an expert on European football.
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