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The PDC 2012 World Championship started in blistering fashion last night, with the defending World Champion, Adrian Lewis, struggling over the finish line against Nigel Heydon, Mark Webster losing in a classic encounter with Richie Burnett, and Roland Scholten turning back the clock to demolish Jamie Caven with a scintillating performance.
For us, we went 1-3 last night, putting us at -4.55 units for the first day of the tournament. If you’re keeping score at home, our Richie Burnett/Mark Webster tip was for 1.5 units.
Now let’s get back into the groove and get tonight’s fantastic action tipped up.
Betfair have a lot of great markets and a lot of great valueevery year during the PDC World Championships. Head on over, get yourself a free bet and get stuck into the in-running betting. You’ll struggle to find a better place to bet during the PDC World Championships than Betfair.
Justin Pipe (26) versus Sean Reed.
Justin Pipe best price: 1/5 @ Betfair.
Sean Reed best price: 9/2 @ Betfair.
The most improved played in the PDC, Justin Pipe takes on Australia’s Sean Reed in the first match of the evening.
Pipe has had a great year, taking down two floor tournaments in October and November, after going deep in a lot more during the year. While he’s yet to show that form in he televised tournaments, the signs are there that he’s improving all the time and the cameras and the crowd are becoming less intrusive to his game. The fact he was the No.1 seed for the Players Championship finals last week sums up his fantastic run of form.
Sean Reed is Australia’s representative at this year’s World Championships and he’s not in the same league as the other Aussie, Simon Whitlock. Reed has went deep in the bigger circuit tournaments in Australia, but aside from that, we don’t know too much about him. He’s a bit of a wildcard here, and has nothing to lose, everything to gain.
Right away, you can tell the price on Pipe is just nowhere near worth backing. Sure, he looks handy on paper, but Reed is unknown here and Pipe, while solid, hasn’t been consistently fantastic in the televised tournaments. However, I think he’s going to win and do it comfortably, just because he’s consistent and just grinds his opponents down. Add in the fact Reed doesn’t appear to be in the same league as the PDC’s top players, Pipe is a good thing.
After last night’s results, I was a bit hesitant to really recommend Pipe, but having looked through the stats and looked at what I could find about Reed, I can’t see any other result than a comfortable win for Pipe, and 3-0 to the No.28 seed does stand out as having a bit of value here. Not knowing how well Reed doubles or scores puts a spanner in the works in terms of highest checkout bets, or number of maximums, so we’ll get stuck into the correct score market.
Justin Pipe to beat Sean Reed 3-0: 6/4 @ Betfair.
Recommend: 2 units.
Haruki Muramatsu versus Dennis Nilsson.
Prelim match:
Haruki Muramatsu best price: 10/11 @ Betfair.
Dennis Nilsson best price: Evens @
Quite an interesting match here, with Haruki Muramatsu having already played in one PDC World Championship back in December 2009, where he beat Krzystof Kcuik, before losing 3-0 to Ronnie Baxter in the first round. Aside from that, we don’t know too much about the Japanese representative.
Dennis Nilsson came through Sweden’s qualifying event and he seems a bit of a journeyman of Scandianvian darts looking through his results. There’s nothing truly of note in his record, but Sweden has produced some handy players, but no-one of a truly magnificent standard.
To be honest, I don’t know enough about either man to truly dish out some great advice here with confidence, so I have to abstain here. The bookies have this as a coin-flip, as do I, especially in a format that’s a race to 4. Just enjoy watching two men we know little about playing some darts, as we could unearth some talent here. Or maybe not.
Recommend: No bet.
Co Stompe (23) versus Michael Smith.
Co Stompe best price: 4/11 @
Michael Smith best price: 5/2 @ Betfair.
As I always say, Co Stompe is the man Darts Betting Tips loves. He’s found his calling in the PDC after spending so long in the BDO. He’s got the crowd behind him now, he’s got a bit of form back and there’s no stopping him at times. Stompe was comprehensively beaten by Dave Chisnall at the Players Championship finals, but he was impressive in his first round win over Vincent van der Voort. Stompe also didn’t disappoint at the Grand Slam of Darts, even though he didn’t make it out of his group. He still played some great darts and he was just unfortunate to lose to Martin Phillips and meet Adrian Lewis in irresistible form. But he’s getting some form back now after a couple of injuries. He loves the Ally Pally and will be looking to go well here.
Michael Smith has been plying his trade around the PDC Youth Tour as well as trying to earn a bit of cash on the Pro Tour. After a great start to 2011 winning a UK Open qualifier, he’s made a few finals here and there, but has come up quite a bit short in most of the floor tournaments he’s competed in. In November, he didn’t get past the last 64 of the PDC Youth World Championships, so he’ll be looking to go a bit better here.
In all honesty, I can’t see past a Stompe win here. Smith has tried to step up against the big guns on the Pro tour, but he just hasn’t been able to find his feet. The price here are what I expected, but what does stand out is the total 180s market. Stompe didn’t hit that many in the Grand Slam of Darts (4 in 21 legs), and Smith may not be hitting the lipstick as often as his opponent. If this match goes 3-0 or 3-1, there won’t be much time for the 180s to get racked up and 5.5 is an interesting line.
Total 180s in Stompe versus Smith match undder 5.5: 5/6 @ @
Recommend: 1.5 units.
Wes Newton (7) versus Kurt van der Rijk.
Wes Newton best price: 1/9 @ 888.com.
Kurt van der Rijk best price: 8/1 @ Betfair.
Players Championship Finals semi-finalist Wes Newton takes on the Belgian Kurt van der Rijk in what looks like a bit of a one-sided encounter. Newton is in the solid form we expect of him, while Van der Rijk is one of the many players that do their thing throughout Europe, making a bit of money from the game. He’s not had many sparkling performances on the PDC Tour, but he’s done well to get to where he is and into the PDC World Championship.
Newton’s performance at the Players Championship Finals shows he’s one of the men to beat, and his defeat to Mark Webster in the semi-finals was cruel, as both men played some fantastic darts.
Newton is a good thing here, it just depends on how well he needs to play to get that win under his belt and set off on another big campaign at the World Championship. What I like about Newton’s game is his checkouts – he can hit the big checkouts when required and he’ll have a few legs to get one in here tonight. The line is reasonably low and you never know, the Belgian might surprise is and hit the big checkouts he’ll need to take out to stand a chance against Newton.
Highest checkout in Wes Newton versus Kurt van der Rijk match over 117.5: 5/6 @ 888.com.
Recommend: 2.5 units.
Phil Taylor (1) versus Muramatsu/Nilsson.
Well, no price for this, but do you really need them? Taylor will be something like 1/66 against either man, even if one does take all 4 legs in their prelim in spectacular fashion. This should be a nice start to the World Championships for Taylor, but as we don’t have any prices, I can’t recommend anything here.
Just sit back and watch the maestro take to the oche and hopefully put in a 105+ average!
And that’s the free tips for Day Two of the PDC 2012 World Championship. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the action as much as everyone enjoyed last night’s action. We’ve got some big names on show and if Taylor does put in a fantastic performance, it will hopefully be capping off a huge night for us.
so, we’ll be back tomorrow, but until then, remember our good friends that are offering £50 of free bets to their new customers. Don’t forget to head over to 888.com .