Ladbrokes PDC Darts World Championship 2010

PDC World Championship of Darts 2010
December 18th – January 3rd
Alexandra Palace

World Champion Phil “The Power” Taylor will open the defence of his crown at Alexandra Palace against Colin Monk. Taylor throws on Friday the 18th of December, which is the opening night of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship. Raymond van Barneveld, who Taylor beat 7-1 in the 2009 and Final, kicks off his challenge against Warren Perry from New Zealand. Canadian John Part takes on youngster Toon Greebe, a Dutchman in his opening match. This is the PDC World Championship, which is a separate event from the BDO Tournament which starts early in the new year.

Phil Taylor, who has won collectively 14 World Championships, will again start the tournament as strong favourite. Taylor recently won the Grand Slam of Darts, which was a big event bringing together players from the two main darts organisations for one tournament. In that final, he trounced Scott Waites by 16 legs to 2 in what can only be described as a rout. If you are ever thinking of great World Champions at their sport, then Taylor has to be one of them. Maybe it is not the most glamorous of sports, still seen in large circles as nothing more than a pub game, Taylor has been everywhere and done it all.

The strength of Phil Taylor is all in the stats. Not only has he won the tournament 14 times (including twice before the split in darts organisations), he reached 15 of the first 16 finals, failing only to get there once in 2008. That year was the turn of John Part to claim the honours, and is the only man aside from Taylor to have won the World Championship more than once in its current incarnation. This year sees the prize money at the highest it has ever been. Sponsored by Ladbrokes.com, the PDC World Darts Championship has a prize of £1 million for the first time ever. This is somewhat of a big leap up from last year’s tournament’s prize money of around three quarters of a million. The winner this year, will take home a cool £200,000.

As sponsors, online bookmakers Ladbrokes have a host of betting fields for the tournament. First and foremost for the World Championships, is the Outright Winner Market, and there is no surprise who is way out in front as favourite. From such a big field, for one man, Phil “The Power” Taylor to have such short odds says a lot about just how good this man is.

PDC World Championship Outright Winner
Phil Taylor – 4/11
J Wade – 8/1
R Van Barneveld – 10/1
G Anderson – 12/1
M King – 33/1

Incidentally, Taylor’s first opponent, Colin Monk is out at 1000/1, primarily because he has to play Taylor and will therefore likely be leaving the competition. There is a preliminary competition to be played, and that is why below, there are some matches with opponents as yet to be determined.

First round draw: (seeds in brackets)
Phil Taylor (1, Eng) v Colin Monk (Eng)
Roland Scholten (32, Ned) v Steve Hine (Eng)
Robert Thornton (16, Sco) v Per Laursen/Christian Perez
Wayne Mardle (17, Eng) v Jyhan Artut (Ger)
Adrian Lewis (8, Eng) v Aodhagan O’Neill/Les Francis
Wes Newton (25, Eng) v Jarkko Komula/Roman Konchikov
Dennis Priestley (9, Eng) v Kevin McDine (Eng)
Jelle Klaasen (24, Ned) v Barrie Bates (Wal)

Mervyn King (5, Eng) v Matt Clark (Eng)
Co Stompe (28, Ned) v Steve Maish (Eng)
Alan Tabern (12, Eng) v Ken MacNeil/Norman Madhoo
Mark Dudbridge (21, Eng) v Andree Welge (Ger)
John Part (4, Can) v Toon Greebe (Ned)
Kirk Shepherd (29, Eng) v Scott Burnett (US)
Mark Walsh (13, Eng) v Mark Webster (Wal)
Peter Manley (20, England) v Andy Jenkins (Eng)

Raymond van Barneveld (2, Ned) v Warren Parry (NZ)
Tony Eccles (31, Eng) v Brendan Dolan (NI)
Kevin Painter (15, Eng) v Mensur Suljovic (Aut)
Vincent van der Voort (18, Ned) v Dylan Duo (Gib)
Ronnie Baxter (7, Eng) v Haruki Muramatsu/Krzysztof Kciuk
Jamie Caven (26, Eng) v Gary Anderson (Sco)
Colin Lloyd (10, Eng) v Magnus Caris/Francisco Ruiz
Denis Ovens (23, Eng) v Tomas Seyler/Shi Yongsheng

Terry Jenkins (6, Eng) v Paul Nicholson (Aus)
Andy Smith (27, Eng) v Darin Young (US)
Colin Osborne (11, Eng) v Simon Whitlock (Aus)
Wayne Jones (22, Eng) v Alex Roy (Eng)
James Wade (3, Eng) v Steve Brown (Eng)
Michael van Gerwen (30, Ned) v Peter Wright (Sco)
Andy Hamilton (14, Eng) v Phillip Hazel/Osmann Kijamet
Steve Beaton (19, Eng) v Carlos Rodriguez (Spa)

A trip over to Ladbrokes.com will present you with odds on other markets, such as 180 Specials, Player Specials, Checkout Specials and Quarter Specials on which you can make selections on who will win each of the four sections of the draw itself. Go to Labdrokes.com and open an account today, and when you make your first bet of £10, Ladbrokes will match it with a Free £10 Bet!

The Ladbrokes World Championship of Darts 2010, start on December the 18th and draws to a conclusion on January 3rd with the Final.