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It was busy one yesterday, as we had WWE Battleground, which had a bit of a surprise in the main event, with The Undertaker coming back to foil Brock Lesnar’s attempt to win back the title from Seth Rollins. It was a solid enough PPV, although it was a bit disappointing not seeing Kevin Owens going over John Cena, too. We all felt the time was right, Owens was established as a big player and considering we had a wager on it, too, Cena winning kinda sucked. Still, we’re excited to see where they take him, and we’re going to ride the Owens train when it comes to our betting, simply because he should be pushed to the moon over the next 12 months.
The Open golf has just started, with the leaders due out around now. Our pick, Dustin Johnson, is still in amongst it, but the Claret Jug really could go anywhere. The fact that there are several continents in contention, not just players and countries, shows how wide-open this thing is. Seriously, it could go to Europe, Africa, North America or Australia – that’s just crazy. It Johnson can’t do it, it would be great to see Paul Dunne get the W, although you’d have to feel for him not being able to pick up the winner’s prize money.
Last night, Zack Greinke continued to impress, and he’s now pitching with a 1.3 ERA, and has gone just short of 44 scoreless innings. His dominance on the mound is scary. We also saw the Davis Cup semi-finals set, with Australia facing Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Australia vs Kazakhstan match was a weird one, with Kyrgios and Kokkinakis playing the first two singles rubbers, and losing. They were replaced by Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt, and Australia went on to win 3-2. Argentina play Belgium in the other semi-final, after both countries had one-sided quarter-finals. Argentina smashed a Djokovic-less Serbia 4-1, while Belgium eased past Canada 5-0. So September is going to be an exciting month in tennis.
Today, we’re going to have a look at something we only rarely touch on at Sports Betting Tips – darts. With the lull in the big sports, we’ve roped in our darts betting expert to have a look at the World Matchplay, which is underway in Blackpool. The first round started on Saturday, and we’ve got one four matches tonight to complete the first round.
So let’s get onto the free sports betting tips for 20th July, 2015.
World Matchplay Darts Betting Tips:
The first match of the night is Robert Thornton taking on Keegan Brown. It’s experience against youth, and both have strong claims here, given that Brown is finally finding some form in the PDC, picking up his first Players Championship event in Coventry in May, while Thornton is doing well, picking up the European Open last week. This is Brown’s first foray into the World Matchplay, but he’s played on the big stage in the past, so it won’t faze him. However, Thornton’s in slightly better form, giving him the edge with me, and with the bookies. However, there should be a lot of legs and a lot of maximums in this match, as both men love to hammer the treble 20. Take over 8.5 180s in this match.
Dave Chisnall faces Jamie Caven next, and it’s a weird match. Chisnall’s obviously the class act, but he’s been treading water a bit since his Players Championship win in Barnsley two months ago. He’s not been playing poorly, just not up to his high standard. However, aside from a semi-final in the Dutch Masters, Jamie Caven’s year so far hasn’t been great. Caven is a player that goes through bursts, but right now he’s slumping, and slumping hard Chisnall’s improved his finishing, and as long as he scores to his usual standard, he should get past Caven with relative ease. Dave Chisnall -3.5 legs is the play in this one.
Phil Taylor vs John Henderson looks a bit one-sided here. Yes, Henderson is playing reasonably well, actually, with some consistent performance, but Taylor is a 15-time winner of the World Matchplay, and just won the Japan Masters at the end of last month, to go along with his World Cup win just before. Taylor is still a class above here, I know it, you know it and the bookies know it. It’s hard to find any real value, but John Henderson to score most 180s is worth half a unit, simply because he’s not one to switch to treble 19 too often, whereas Taylor is happy to score 177s and 174s if his first dart doesn’t land where he likes it. A bit of value there, but not one to go overboard with.
The final match of the night, and the final match of round one of the World Matchplay, is two PDC big guns trying to reclaim a bit of former glory. The fall of Andy Hamilton is probably worse than the fall of Raymond van Barneveld, to be fair. While Barney has been focusing on the bigger invitational tournaments and going well in them for a nice payday, Hamilton hasn’t made it past the last 16 of ANY tournament (and there’s been a lot) since February, and that was a quarter-final. It’s been a hellish year for The Hammer, as his ranking continues to drop, and it doesn’t look like getting better tonight. Barney is a ridiculously short 1/5 to win, but the handicap line is quite low, so take Raymond van Barneveld -3.5 legs, as Hamilton just can’t seem to get any kind of form going.
Bet: Bet on the World Matchplay darts at Bet365.
