The best darts players in the world have headed “down under” for the Australian legs of the 2016 PDC World Series of Darts. The 2016 Ladbrokes Sydney Darts Masters kicks off this Thursday at The Star in Sydney before the players head west to Perth the following weekend. It’s an exciting couple of weeks for darts fans in Australia and hopefully the presence of the best players in the world will help to elevate the game to new heights in this country.
Similar to other PDC World Series of Darts events, the leading professionals will take on the best local talents in a knockout tournament to crown a champion. Rhys Mathewson, David Platt, Corey Cadby and Harley Kemp won their way through to the event, joining Kiwis Cody Harris and Rob Sazabo, and high-profile pros Kyle Anderson and Simon Whitlock.
They will be drawn to take on Raymond van Barneveld, Peter Wright, James Wade, Dave Chisnall, Adrian Lewis, 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor, reigning World Champion Gary Anderson and the world number 1 Michael van Gerwen. What a line up!
To expect the inexperienced locals to compete with the professionals is a tough ask, but we should see some competitive matches. Of course, Kyle Anderson and Simon Whitlock are more than capable of winning against anyone on their day. While Whitlock’s best seems to be behind him, it should be an entertaining first round match against fan-favourite Peter Wright. Anderson is clearly playing very well, and has a win against MVG to his credit this year. He is now ranked inside the top 30 in the world and will be a tough first round match against Raymond van Barneveld who Anderson defeated 6-5 in this very event two years ago.
Phil “The Power” Taylor is undefeated in Sydney having won the last three Sydney Darts Masters events, but he is on the third line of betting at $6.00 at Ladbrokes. As usual, it’s Michael van Gerwen who is the unbackable favourite at $2.00, so we’ll have to look beyond the German superstar to find some value.
Gary Anderson has been the player to watch in the World Series of Darts events this year, and again he looks value in the tournament winner market at $5.00 at Ladbrokes. If you want even more value, then Adrian Lewis or Peter Wright at $13 at Ladbrokes look worth a nibble. If you want to support the locals then the only play worth entertaining is Kyle Anderson at big odds of $67 at Ladbrokes.
Unfortunately there are no match betting markets available at the time of writing, so keep an eye on my Twitter account @Bullseye_Bets for tips and bets for matches throughout the weekend. A solid multi would be to multi all of the overseas pros to win the first round matches, while the best value is often found betting the 180s and averages markets.
It’s going to be an exciting event and you can watch it live on Fox Sports 4 starting at 7pm AEST Thursday, or stream it live via Bet365.
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Take note: Any of the tips in this article are simply the author’s opinion, so bet at your own risk and always gamble responsibly. Also be sure to check out the Before You Bet Twitter Page for all our thoughts in the lead up to bets! Happy punting!
