Raymond van Barneveld returns for the first time in five years, Michael Smith looks to build on a first World Championship success and Gerwyn Price wants to underline his status as the most in-form player in darts. Oh, and there’s the small matter of reigning champion Michael van Gerwen’s quest for a 47th major title after recently winning the Premier League for a seventh time.
It's fair to see the Betfred World Matchplay has plenty riding on it when the 2023 tournament gets underway on Saturday at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.
The opening night of action is headlined by Price. Surely the most divisive character in the sport today, ‘Gezzy’ bossed long stretches of the Premier League Darts season to finish top of the group but then lost the final to Van Gerwen at the O2 in London. He bounced back as the senior partner for Wales alongside Jonny Clayton as the pair clinched a second World Cup of Darts win in four attempts.
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For many, though, his most notable moment of 2023 so far came on the very first day of the year when he donned ear defenders to block out the crowd noise during his World Championship quarter-final exit to Gabriel Clemens, winning just four of the last 19 legs along the way.
In truth, the Iceman has put that contentious evening behind him and is rightly considered one of the three co-favourites by Betfred at 9/2 to win the Matchplay event. The Welshman is 7/4 to get his campaign off to a flyer against Stephen Bunting on Saturday by logging the highest checkout and throwing the most 180s in a win.
Van Gerwen’s campaign begins on Sunday against Brendan Dolan, who is coming off the back of a curtailed World Cup effort with Northern Ireland having lost first up to France and been eliminated at the group stage as a result.
The Dutchman didn’t take part in the team event in Frankfurt due to a pre-planned dental operation, while a shoulder injury had blighted the end of his Premier League season. That didn’t stop him winning the tournament for a seventh time though, and his 9/2 to win the Betfred World Matchplay seems on the generous side. He’s also 11/2 to beat Dolan 10-5 in their first-round encounter, which seems eminently possible.
That clash is immediately followed by Michael Smith’s opening match against Steve Beaton, but while the reigning world champion is a 1/8 shot to get through Sunday his route immediately gets tougher as he’s lined up to play the winner of James Wade v Chris Dobey.
The value in the 32-year-old’s first-round match might be in backing the two players to combined for over 8.5 180s, which is priced at 10/11 with Betfred.
Van Barneveld’s return after five years away from the event comes on Monday night against Ryan Searle. The 56-year-old five-time world champion would face a tough old route to the latter stages, hence his 100/1 odds for the tournament, but after a lengthy spell out this might be more a case of savouring the sight of him back at the Winter Gardens oche. ‘Barney’ is evens to come through his meeting with world number 15 Searle.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
