Ask any Darts professional which darts tournament they would like to win aside from the World Championship each year, then you can bet that the World Matchplay tournament will be top of many players list.
This annual summer competition has long been held at the famous Winter Gardens in Blackpool in July and it has produced many amazing matches and incredible tournament winners over the years.
The tournament starts on Saturday 16th July and runs through until the 24th July.
This year, on the day of the final, there will also be a Women’s World Matchplay event taking place and there is betting available on both tournaments with bet365 Sport.
We will start our preview of the event with the more expansive men’s tournament before we look at the women’s tournament scheduled to take place next weekend.
PDC World Matchplay Men – Tournament Preview
This year will be the 29th year that the World Matchplay tournament will be contested after it was first formed in 1994 at the start of the PDC era in professional men’s darts.
The tournament is one of the rare matchplay events in the professional darts schedule, which means rather than legs and sets, players need to win a stated number of legs in a game and also win their match by two clear legs or more.
If a match reaches its total number of games with no player leading by two, then the match will continue for a maximum six additional games and if the players are still tied at this point, then a single sudden death leg is played with the winner of that leg progressing.
32 players compete in the men’s event, 16 seeds and 16 players that qualify for the event through various means.
- Past Winners
In its 29-year history, there have been just eleven winners of the World Matchplay tournament and only three players have won more than one tournament in that time.
Phil Taylor, whose name now adorns the trophy awarded to the winner, dominated the trophy in the 24-years he played in it, reaching 17 finals, winning an incredible 16 of them. He is by far and away the most successful player in the tournament’s history.
The only other multiple winners are Michael van Gerwen, who won back to back in 2015 and 2016 and Rod Harrington who did likewise back in 1998 and 1999.
Other players to have won the tournament once include Larry Butler, Peter Evison, Colin Lloyd, James Wade, Gary Anderson, Rob Cross, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Peter Wright.
Players who have reached the final but never won the trophy include Dennis Priestley, Alan Warriner, Ronnie Baxter, Peter Manley, Richie Burnett, John Part, Wayne Mardle, Mark Dudbridge, Terry Jenkins, Raymond van Barneveld, Adrian Lewis, Mensur Suljovic and Michael Smith.
The tournament also saw the final televised appearance of Scottish darting legend Jocky Wilson back in 1995.
The longest final was the 2018 game between Gary Anderson and Mensur Suljovic which lasted 40 legs in total before Anderson won by a 21-19 scoreline.
The shortest final was the 2009 final which lasted just 22 legs as Phil Taylor beat Terry Jenkins 18-4.
The 2022 World Matchplay Tournament
This year’s tournament has seen the prize pool increase by an additional £100,000 from £700,000 last year to £800,000 this.
Most of that extra cash will go to the eventual finalists of the tournament with the winner now picking up ÂŁ200,000 (up from ÂŁ150,000) and the runner up taking home ÂŁ100,000 (up from ÂŁ70,000).
Losing Semi Finalists receive ÂŁ50,000, losing quarterfinalists ÂŁ30,000, while those who lose in the first and second round receive ÂŁ10,000 or ÂŁ15,000 respectively.
- Tournament Format
As is custom with the World Matchplay, the tournament is played using legs alone and the length of games increases as you progress through the tournament.
- First Round – First to 10 Legs
- Second Round – First to 11 Legs
- Quarter Finals – First to 16 Legs
- Semi Finals – First to 17 Legs
- Final – First to 18 Legs
As mentioned previously, games have to be won by two clear legs and should a game go beyond six additional legs, a final sudden death leg will be played to decide the winner.
- First Round Draw
The top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit were seeded in the first round draw, with the top 16 players on the ProTour Order of Merit that had not already qualified for the tournament joining them in the first round draw as unseeded players.
The First Round Draw gave us the following matches (Seed shown in brackets).
- Peter Wright (1) v Madars Razma
- Krzysztof Ratajski (16) v Stephen Bunting
- Jonny Clayton (8) v Rowby-John Rodrigues
- Dmitri Van den Bergh (9) v Callan Rydz
- Michael van Gerwen (4) v Adrian Lewis
- Joe Cullen (13) v Damon Heta
- James Wade (5) v Martin Lukeman
- Luke Humphries (12) v Nathan Aspinall
- Gerwyn Price (2) v Martin Schindler
- Dave Chisnall (15) v Kim Huybrechts
- Jose de Sousa (7) v Gabriel Clemens
- Rob Cross (10) v Chris Dobey
- Michael Smith (3) v Andrew Gilding
- Dirk van Duijvenbode (14) v Ryan Searle
- Gary Anderson (6) v Daryl Gurney
- Danny Nopper (11) v Brendan Dolan
As is customary in PDC tournaments, the draw is seeded so the winners of the top two games in the list will meet in the second round and so on.
Latest Betting Odds
The somewhat open nature of the PDC Tournaments this season means that there is not a great deal between the top selections with the bookmakers to win the World Matchplay.
Michael van Gerwen is the lukewarm 5/1 favourite just ahead of Jonny Clayton (13/2), Gerwyn Price (7/1) and last year’s winner Peter Wright at 8/1.
Luke Humphries and Michael Smith are 10/1 chances, with Dmitri Van den Bergh, a finalist in the past two years, a 12/1 shot.
Outside of these players though the odds tend to drift out more down to the rank outsider Madars Razma who is a 250/1 chance to claim the title.
I do feel that those top seven players will produce the winner and with four different players winning the tournament in the past four years, I think we may see another new name on the trophy this year as I am backing Luke Humphries to continue his excellent form of late to claim a maiden PDC Major title win here.
Women’s World Matchplay
Preceding the men’s final on Sunday 24th July, there will be a women’s tournament, featuring eight players who will play a quarterfinal, semi final and final to decide who is the champion.
The four quarterfinalists have been drawn as follows:
- Aileen De Graaf v Laura Turner
- Fallon Sherrock v Katie Sheldon
- Lisa Ashton v Chloe O’Brien
- Lorraine Winstanley v Rhian Griffiths
Lisa Ashton is the 6/4 favourite to win the title ahead of Fallon Sherrock at 11/8 and then the odds drift out markedly to Lorraine Winstanley at 10/1 and Aileen De Graaf at 11/1.
It is hard to see past an Ashton v Sherrock final here and if that does turn out to be the case, it will be a closely fought one but I think Ashton’s greater experience may well prove to be the key here.
So I’d back Ashton to win at 6/4 with bet365.
All the action starts this coming Saturday, so remember to get yourself ready for some exciting darting action from the British seaside!
Tags: bet365 Sport Darts World Matchplay
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