2023 World Darts Championship predictions and PDC darts betting tips

PDC darts tips, best bets and player analysis for the 2023 Cazoo World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, London.

When to bet

Tournament starts 6pm Thursday

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Main Event & Arena

Best bets

Michael Smith
2pts each-way 15-2 Paddy Power

Alan Soutar to reach quarter-finals
1pt 10-1 Betfair

Chris Dobey to reach quarter-finals
1pt 5-1 Betfair

Jonny Clayton to reach quarter-finals
1pt 2-1 Betfair

World Darts Championship preview

Another thrilling darting year comes to its customary riotous end at Alexandra Palace, where Michael Smith can serve up a Christmas cracker and strike it third time lucky by winning the PDC World Darts Championship.

Twice before Smith has endured the heartache of being second-best on final night, most recently 12 months ago when he blew a 5-4 lead against a majestic Peter Wright.

He looked a broken man as he tearfully reflected on yet another failure in a major final, leaving punters to wonder whether they could ever trust Bully Boy again.

But that was then. Now the mood music has changed.

This time Smith strides to the oche with a new-found self-belief, the monkey well and truly off his back, having snapped a sequence of eight major final losses by coming good at the Grand Slam only last month.

And he came good in serious style, the sort of style that had final victim Nathan Aspinall gushing that Smiffy will now go on to win plenty more major titles.

So how about he starts that run now, on the biggest stage of the lot, against the best field of the year, at odds of 15-2?

He's certainly playing as well as anyone and better than most. Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright, the other three top seeds, are the obvious dangers, but in terms of big-stage pedigree and current form, it's hard to look beyond that quartet.

And the only reason Snakebite gets swerved is because his build-up has been dogged by health issues – affecting both him and, more recently, his wife, Jo – and if he does lose focus at any point, opponents will pounce all over him.

Van Gerwen has been talked up for a while now and has been garnering major titles all year. He's not quite the consistent, ruthless beast he was when he was winning the last of his three world crowns and there will always be doubts over Price's relationship with the London crowd, one of the most hostile he'll ever face.

Gezzy's sole triumph was at an empty Ally Pally in Covid times and during last year's semi-final defeat to Smith he almost raised the white flag as the crowd tried to bury him.

Smith thrives at the Palace and has thrived all year, with finals reached at the UK Open and European Championship as well as the Grand Slam.

He has also won three floor titles, the Dutch Darts Championship, and beat Wright and Van Gerwen en route to landing the US Masters in New York in the summer.

Jonny Clayton, Premier League winner last year and now an established threat, looks the best of the rest, although much hype surrounds young Josh Rock, clearly a class act but surely too short at 16-1 given he's not even had a full year on tour yet.

Then you're making cases for contenders such as Dimitri van den Bergh, Danny Noppert, Joe Cullen, Rob Cross, Luke Humphries and plenty more top stars, but players who always seem to find one too good. And the big four are seriously good.

Betfair are offering 'eighth' betting – to reach the quarter-finals – and that throws up a number of decent investment opportunities, among them Alan Soutar at 10-1 in section two.

The 44-year-old Scot reached the fourth round on debut last year and can easily go one better by emerging from a section where Noppert, James Wade, Gabriel Clemens and Daryl Gurney are all beatable.

Souts is fresh off wins over Aspinall and Clayton at the Grand Slam and is one of those Pro Tour aces who the seeds really wouldn't want first up.

Clayton is also a great bet in section six. He's 2-1 which, given his draw, means he's pretty much 2-1 to beat either Rock or Aspinall in the last 16 and you'd take those odds any day of the week.

Arguably the most open of the eighths is the last one, which Rob Cross is expected to win.

However, the value could well be Chris Dobey, a European Championship quarter-finalist as recently as the end of October courtesy of wins over the likes of Michael van Gerwen and Jose de Sousa.

Hollywood has three times made the last 16 at Ally Pally and will never get a better opportunity to make the last eight.

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