World Darts Championship day one predictions and PDC darts betting tips

PDC darts tips, best bets and player analysis for day one of the 2022 William Hill World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, London.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Arena & Main Event, 7pm Wednesday

Best bet

M Campbell +1.5
1pt Evs bet365, Hills

Day one preview

Reigning champion Gerwyn Price begins the defence of his title on night one of the William Hill World Darts Championship, although it's another former winner who looks slightly more exposed.

Gezzy is last on against the winner of the tournament's opening game, a first-round tussle between Ritchie Edhouse and Peter Hudson, a last-minute replacement for China's Lihao Wen, who has not received his visa in time to travel to the UK.

The other ex-champ on the card is the mercurial and enigmatic Adrian Lewis, who is well fancied to take care of Canada's Matt Campbell.

The reality is that two-time champ Lewis is capable of pretty much anything, and it's that inconsistency these days which makes him very hard to fancy at skinny odds.

Campbell was, by his own admission, rubbish at the Grand Slam where he lost three games heavily, although slicker finishing may have altered that record. His tournament checkout percentage in Wolverhampton was just 22, which was never going to cut it.

But the Ginga Ninja is a three-time winner on the European Challenge Tour – with a fourth title pocketed in Canada – and he threw sublimely 12 months ago when losing an epic to Scott Waites, against whom he averaged almost 95. That form gives him a sniff.

The other match pits Ricky Evans against Nitin Kumar, the Indian whose two previous trips to the Palace have seen him win just three and four legs in crushing defeats to Jeffrey de Zwaan and Brendan Dolan.

It's questionable if he's got the scoring power to fluster Rapid Ricky, who is there for the taking on 2021 form. The whirlwind has managed just one last-16 appearance in a poor year on the floor and was battered 6-1 averaging under 80 against James Wade in the Players Championship Finals.

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