World Matchplay Darts 2021 Begins on Saturday Night
The 32-player World Matchplay competition is the second most important darting competition on the calendar. Trailing only the World Championships, it features the top-16 players from the PDC’s (Professional Darts Corporation) order of merit and 16 PDC ProTour qualifiers. SKY Sports cameras will be at the venue to broadcast every match of the nine-day tournament giving in-play punters a feast of betting opportunities.
Two-time World Matchplay winner Michael van Gerwen ©PDC
World Matchplay Format and Prizes
The World Matchplay format dictates all games must be won by two clear legs, with a game being extended if necessary for a maximum of six extra legs before a tie-break leg is required. For example, in a first to 10 legs first-round match, if the score reaches 12-12 then the 25th leg will be the decider.
First-round matches are played as a race to 10 legs. In the second round the first player to reach 11 legs wins. In the quarter-finals finals, 16 winning legs is the magic number. The semi-finals are played as ‘first to 17 legs’ confrontations and the final is a ‘first to 18 legs’ showdown.
As for the prize on offer, the winner will receive £120,000 but there is big money all the way down. Even first-round winners are guaranteed £10,000. Combined this year’s Matchplay prize-pool is £700,000.
Matchplay Favorites Sprinkled Everywhere
All seeded players are separated in opening round matches meaning they will all tackle a qualifier in their opening game. The draw is also pre-set. This year it sees defending champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, reigning world champion Gerwyn Price and 2019 World Matchplay winner Rob Cross all housed in the top half of the draw.
The stage is set. World Matchplay darts returns to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens this weekend ©PDC
2015 and 2016 winner Michael van Gerwen and the 2018 victor, Gary Anderson, are housed in the bottom half. Here you will also find 2020 World Champion Peter Wright.
In the most open World Matchplay betting market in years it is Michael van Gerwen who is the marginal favorite at 9/2. Gerwyn Price follows at 5/1, then it is 7/1 Jose De Sousa and 8/1 Peter Wright. Dimitri Van den Bergh is 12/1.
Can Van den Bergh Do The Double?
One man who should have a good idea of the destination of this year’s prize is former world number one Colin LLoyd. Winner of this tournament in 2005, he now works as a pundit for SKY Sports. Talking exclusively to online-casinos.com Lloyd believes “this is the most competitive World Matchplay ever. There is cream, in form players, everywhere. If you go through the brackets, it is clear no player has a potentially easy route to the final.”
Dimitri Van den Bergh was unseeded when winning this competition last year. He was the first unseeded finalist since 2006 and the first, and only, non-seeded winner since Peter Evison in 1996.
It must be pointed out, due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Van den Bergh’s 2020 victory came behind closed doors at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. Was this a factor in his success?
“There is no doubt crowds bring pressure and the sport’s bigger names feed off the buzz they create,” Lloyd tells us. “Dimitri Van den Bergh is a class act and nothing fazes him. He didn’t get handed wins en-route to last year’s final and he beat Gary Anderson there. That’s a player who knows what to do in a major final.”
