Phil Taylor will still be glowing after beating Michael van Gerwen to win the inaugural Champions League Of Darts in Cardiff last weekend and is a best 5/1 with Sportingbet, among others, to come out on top again in Dublin next week in the Unibet World Grand Prix.
‘The Power’ has won the World Grand Prix 11 times since it was first staged in 1998. Taylor regards the CityWest Hotel in the Irish capital as a second home and is hugely popular with the locals.
World Grand Prix History
The World Grand Prix is a PDC tournament held in Dublin each October. Its original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999, and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford.
In 2001, the tournament moved further north to the CityWest Hotel in Dublin. In 2009, the tournament moved from the hall at the main hotel to the newly completed bigger venue on the same site, the Citywest Hotel Convention Centre. When the World Grand Prix was founded in 1998, it replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.
The World Grand Prix was sponsored by Paddy Power from 2001 to 2003, before Sky Bet took over in 2004. The subsidiary Sky Poker was the tournament’s sponsor in 2008. In 2010, online gambling site Bodog became the event’s title sponsor until PartyPoker.com took over in 2011. Unibet take over as sponsor this year so this tournament has always had a strong link with the betting industry.
Although he has dominated the event with 11 title wins, Phil Taylor has been knocked out of the World Grand Prix four times in the first round.
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Taylor seems to have been around the top of world darts forever but has averaged an incredible 94 per visit to the oche in his World Grand Prix victories and that’s the kind of return his opponents will have to match if they are to stop the 56-year-old in his tracks.
Van Gerwen has won in Dublin in two of the last four years, however, and was beaten finalist 12 months ago so it’s no surprise that the world number one is favourite to avenge his defeat in Cardiff (5/4 in places). Defending champion Robert Thornton is a massive 80/1 with several bookmakers this year, though was available at big odds last year.
If I was going to oppose the big two of van Gerwen and Taylor, I might be interested in James Wade at 22/1 with Betfred.
Wade has won the World Grand Prix twice, in 2007 and 2010. He was also the beaten finalist in 2014. Clearly the Dublin air agrees with the Aldershot left-hander and he’s in good form.
World Grand Prix Of Darts Current Best Odds
Michael van Gerwen (5/4), Phil Taylor (5/1), Gary Anderson (6/1), Adrian Lewis and James Wade (22/1), Peter Wright (28/1), Dave Chisnall and Raymond van Barneveld (40/1), Kim Huybrechts and Mensur Suljovic (66/1)
