Last year, Peter Wright secured his second PDC World Darts Championship with a solid victory over Michael Smith in the final.
However, the year has flown by and believe it or not, tomorrow will see the start of the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship and what a tournament we have in store!
All of the worldβs top darts superstars will be in attendance to see who can usurp Wright as the new World Champion with the tournament running right the way through until Tuesday January 2nd this year.
In this article, we will bring you all the latest tournament news, seedings, draws and of course, all the latest betting odds for the event brought to you by bet365 Sport. Remember, all odds, while correct at the time of writing, may have changed in the meantime.
Letβs begin with a quick recap of the history of the tournament before we look at the 2023 competition in a lot more detail.
The PDC World Darts Championship β History
Prior to the formation of the PDC, it was the BDO which organised the World Professional Darts Championship, but in the late 1980s, a dwindling audience for darts saw the number of televised competitions plummet, prize money tanked and by the early 1990s, the best Darts players in the BDO were considering their future.
A group of top players from the BDO broke away from the organisation acrimoniously, setting up what was initially called the World Darts Council (subsequently changed after a long and expensive court battle to the Professional Darts Council or PDC).
The BDO responded by banning these 16 βrebelβ players from all of its professional events, as well as county events, blacklisting them permanently.
Those players were: Bob Anderson, Eric Bristow, Keith Deller, Peter Evison, Ritchie Gardner, Mike Gregory, Rod Harrington, Jamie Harvey, Chris Johns, Cliff Lazarenko, John Lowe, Dennis Priestley, Kevin Spiolek, Phil Taylor, Alan Warriner and Jocky Wilson.
However, the then WDC had already agreed a TV deal with the new Sky Sports broadcasting channel and in 1994, its first World Darts Championship took place under the new PDC banner.
A bitter divide in darts saw the BDO run its own World Championship for many years, until the organisation folded back in 2019. By which point, the PDC had become the dominant force in World Darts and attracted the best players, most prize money for tournaments and far greater TV coverage.
Currently, the PDC is recognised as the highest level of darts and the organisation is led by chairman Eddie Hearn and it has a long and prestigious number of tournaments taking place throughout the world over the year, with rewards for darts players now the highest they have ever been.
Darts World Champions β BDO then PDC Eras
The first World Darts Championship was held in 1978 by the BDO and the tournament continued until 2020.
The full list of BDO Champions is as follows:
- Eric Bristow β 5 Wins (1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986)
- Raymond van Barneveld β 4 Wins (1998, 1999, 2003, 2005)
- John Lowe β 3 Wins (1979, 1987, 1993)
- Martin Adams β 3 Wins (2007, 2010, 2011)
- Glen Durrant β 3 Wins (2017, 2018, 2019)
- Jocky Wilson β 2 Wins (1982, 1989)
- Phil Taylor β 2 Wins (1990, 1992)
- Ted Hankey β 2 Wins (2000, 2009)
- Scott Waites β 2 Wins (2013, 2016)
- A number of players have landed 1 Win at the BDO tournament: Leighton Rees (1978), Keith Deller (1983), Bob Anderson (1988), Dennis Priestley (1991), John Part (1994), Ritchie Burnett (1995), Steve Beaton (1996), Les Wallace (1997), John Walton (2001), Tony David (2002), Andy Fordham (2004), Jelle Klassen (2006), Mark Webster (2008), Stephen Bunting (2014), Scott Mitchell (2015), Wayne Warren (2020)
The first PDC World Championship was contested in 1994 and over the years there have been a smaller number of winners, in part due to Phil Taylorβs dominance of the tournament.
- 14 β Phil Taylor (Eng) β 1995 to 2002, 2004 to 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2013.
- 3 β Michael van Gerwen (Neth) β 2014, 2017, 2019
- 2 β John Part (Can) β 2003, 2008
- 2 β Adrian Lewis (Eng) β 2011, 2012
- 2 β Gary Anderson (Sco) β 2015, 2016
- 2 β Peter Wright (Sco) β 2020, 2022
- 1 β Dennis Priestley (Eng) β 1994
- 1 β Raymond van Barneveld (Neth) β 2007
- 1 β Rob Cross (Eng) β 2018
- 1 β Gerwyn Price (Wal) – 2021
Most Darts fans use the BDO World Champion up to the 1993 tournament and then use the PDC World Champion as the βrealβ World Champion of darts moving forward.
In that case, this would give us the following list of BDO/PDC World Champions:
- 16 β Phil Taylor
- 5 β Eric Bristow
- 3 β Michael van Gerwen, John Part, John Lowe
- 2 β Jocky Wilson, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright, Dennis Priestley
- 1 β Leighton Rees, Keith Deller, Bob Anderson, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Raymond van Barneveld
PDC World Darts Championship 2023
- Venue β Alexandra Palace in London
- Dates β Thursday 15th December to Tuesday 3rd January
- Prize Money β Β£2,500,000
- Winnerβs Prize β Β£500,000
- Defending Champion β Peter Wright (Scotland)
As is customary, the First and Second Round games will initially be played concurrently from the start of the tournament on Thursday 15th December.
The First and Second Round will be completed by Friday 23rd December, after which there is a break until Tuesday 27th December when the Third Round starts.
The tournament completes on Tuesday 3rd January with the final.
Key Dates
- 1st Round β from Thursday 15th December to Wednesday 21st December
- 2nd Round β from Thursday 15th December to Friday 23rd December
- 3rd Round β from Tuesday 27th to Thursday 29th December
- 4th Round β from Thursday 29th to Friday 30th December
- Quarter Finals β Sunday 1st January
- Semi Finals β Monday 2nd January
- Final β Tuesday 3rd January
Seedings & First And Second Round Draws
The top 32 seeds in the PDC Rankings are seeded into the second round of the tournament and they will play a winner of one of the 32 First Round games. The 32 seeds are listed below:
- Gerwyn Price (Wales)
- Peter Wright (Scotland)
- Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands)
- Michael Smith (England)
- Luke Humphries (England)
- Rob Cross (England)
- Jonny Clayton (Wales)
- James Wade (England)
- Danny Noppert (Netherlands)
- Nathan Aspinall (England)
- Gary Anderson (Scotland)
- Dave Chisnall (England)
- Joe Cullen (England)
- Dirk van Duijvenbode (Netherlands)
- Dmitri Van den Bergh (Belgium)
- Ryan Searle (England)
- Jose de Sousa (Portugal)
- Krzysztof Ratajski (Poland)
- Ross Smith (England)
- Damon Heta (Australia)
- Stephen Bunting (England)
- Chris Dobey (England)
- Callan Rydz (England)
- Daryl Gurney (Northern Ireland)
- Gabriel Clemens (Germany)
- Brendan Dolan (Northern Ireland)
- Mervyn King (England)
- Vincent van der Voort (Netherlands)
- Martin Schindler (Germany)
- Mensur Suljovic (Austria)
- Kim Huybrechts (Belgium)
- Raymond van Barneveld (Netherlands)
First Round Matches
64 players qualified for the First Round of the tournament and they have been drawn into the following matches.
The winner of these games were then drawn to face one of the 32 seeds in the Second Round of the tournament, the draw of which is outlined underneath the first round draw.
- Mickey Mansell v Ben Robb
- Keane Barry v Grant Simpson
- Jermaine Wattimena v Nathan Rafferty
- Alan Soutar v Mal Cuming
- Boris Krcmar v Toru Suzuki
- Adrian Lewis v Daniel Larsson
- Rowby-John Rodriguez v Lourence Ilagan
- William OβConnor v Beau Greaves
- Keegan Brown v Florian Hempel
- Martin Lukeman v Nobuhiro Yamamoto
- Simon Whitlock v Christian Perez
- Adam Gawlas v Richie Burnett
- Ryan Meikle v Lisa Ashton
- Cameron Menzies v Diogo Portela
- Josh Rock v Jose Justicia
- Madars Razma v Prakash Jiwa
- Karel Sedlacek v Raymond Smith
- Luke Woodhouse v Vyadyslav Omelchenko
- Mike De Decker v Jeff Smith
- Scott Williams v Ryan Joyce
- Matt Campbell v Danny Baggish
- Andrew Gilding v Robert Owen
- Danny Jansen v Paolo Nebrida
- Niels Zonneveld v Lewy Williams
- Geert Nentjes v Leonard Gates
- Ritchie Edhouse v David Cameron
- Steve Beaton v. Danny van Trijp
- Jim Williams v Sebasiian Bialecki
- Jamie Hughes v Jimmy Hendriks
- Ricky Evans v Fallon Sherrock
- John OβShea v Darius Labanauskas
- Martijn Kleermaker v Xicheng Han
Second Round Matches
- Peter Wright v Mansell/Robb
- Kim Huybrechts v Barry/Simpson
- Michael Smith v Wattimena/Rafferty
- Daryl Gurney v Soutar/Cuming
- Dmitri Van den Bergh v Rodriguez/Ilagan
- Damon Heta v Lewis/Larsson
- Nathan Aspinall v Krcmar Suzuki
- Jose de Sousa v Whitlock/Perez
- Gerwyn Price v Woodhouse/Omelchenko
- Raymond van Barneveld v Meikle/Ashton
- Callan Rydz v Rock/Justicia
- Dave Chisnall v Gilding/Owen
- Mervyn King v Campbell/Baggish
- Gabriel Clemens v OβConnor/Greaves
- Michael van Gerwen v Zonneveld/Williams
- Stephen Bunting v Nentjes/Gates
- Krzysztof Ratajski v Jansen/Nebrida
- Ryan Searle v Gawlas/Burnett
- Mensur Suljovic v De Decker/Smith
- Dirk van Duijvenbode v Sedlacek/Smith
- Gary Anderson v Razma/Jiwa
- James Wade v Williams/Bialecki
- Luke Humphries v Brown/Hempel
- Vincent van der Voort v Menzies/Portela
- Brendan Dolan v Hughes/Hendriks
- Chris Dobey v Kleermaker/Han
- Ross Smith v OβShea/Labanauskas
- Rob Cross v Williams/Joyce
- Martin Schindler v Lukeman/Yamamoto
- Danny Noppert v Edhouse/Cameron
- Jonny Clayton v Beaton/van Trijp
- Joe Cullen v Evans/Sherrock
Latest Betting Odds On The Tournament With Bet365
Bet365 is offering these latest odds on the outright winner market for the PDC World Darts Championship 2023:
- 5/2 β Michael van Gerwen
- 6/1 β Gerwyn Price
- 7/1 β Michael Smith
- 10/1 β Peter Wright
- 14/1 β Luke Humphries
- 16/1 β Josh Rock, Jonny Clayton
- 25/1 β Rob Cross
- 28/1 β Dmitri van den Bergh, Dirk van Duijvenbode
- 33/1 β Nathan Aspinall, Dave Chisnall, Danny Noppert
- 40/1 β Joe Cullen
- 50/1 β Gary Anderson, James Wade, Ryan Searle
- 55/1 β Ross Smith
- 66/1 β Damon Heta,
- 80/1 β Chris Dobey, Raymond van Barneveld
- 100/1 β Jose de Sousa
- 125/1 bar
There has been significant money bet on Michael Smith after his Grand Prix win which has seen his price shorten from 15/2 to 7/1, while Ryan Searleβs price has come in from 66/1 to 50/1 in recent days too.
Our PDC World Championship Picks
Outright Winner β Michael Smith (7/1) β Bully Boy landed his first major with a win at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton recently, which really gets that monkey off his back. He is in form and is rated by his peers as one of the best players never to win a World title. That could change this year.
Each Way Bet β Josh Rock (16/1) β The current World Youth Champion has been in sensational form of late, hitting a 9-dart finish against Michael van Gerwen at the Grand Slam of Darts recently. He is improving quickly and I think he will go far in this tournament.
Tune in from tomorrow afternoon to catch the start of this fantastic tournament!
Tags: bet365 Sport Darts Betting PDC World Darts Championship
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