The BDO Darts World Championship has always suffered in comparison to the more lucrative PDC World Championship and, this year, the tournament is even more of a case of ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’.
The drama of Rob Cross’ victory over outgoing superstar Phil Taylor at Alexandra Palace will be hard to recreate at the Lakeside. There is no question that the standard in the BDO version of the world title is not as high as its PDC counterpart and the former’s competition has been devalued further by the withdrawal of current ninth-ranked James Durrell. His absence is good news for Wales’ Richie Edwards, however, who now gets a slot in the main draw and will face American Joe Chaney or the Netherlands’ Danny Noppert in the first round proper. That could be a blessing in disguise, however, with Noppert strongly fancied to go all the way and no bigger than 8/1 in bookmakers’ lists.
Defending champion Glen Durrant is bidding to become only the third first-time winner to successfully defend his crown – Eric Bristow and Raymond van Barneveld are the only two to have achieved the feat so far – and admits he’s under pressure. Durrant is already 47 so has left it late in life to establish himself in the upper echelon of darts. He’s only ranked third in the BDO rankings going into the World Championships and a best 11/8 with Ladbrokes for back-to-back wins doesn’t look much value as he looks to have a tough draw from round one onwards.
Current BDO world number one Mark McGeeney is currently 22/1 with sportingbet as he starts his campaign against one of the lesser tour’s most well-known faces, Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams. The latter is a three-times winner and making his 25th consecutive appearance at Lakeside but is a general 40/1 this year.
The 16 seeds for the men’s competition include four more former Lakeside semi finalists – ‘Sparky’ Wesley Harms, ‘Flyers’ Richard Veenstra, Welshman Martin Phillips and the ‘Dazzler’ Darryl Fitton – so the tournament should be competitive enough, though it’s probably a measure of it’s popularity away from the locality that Channel 4 are still undecided about a bid to extend their TV coverage beyond this year.
BDO Darts Men’s World Championship Current Best Odds
Glen Durrant 11/8, Danny Noppert 8/1, Scott Mitchell 12/1, Jamie Hughes 16/1, Cameron Menzies 20/1, Scott Waites and Mark McGeeney 22/1, Geert De Vos, Kyle McKinstry and Dean Reynolds 33/1, Martin Adams and Andy Baetens 40/1, Jim Williams and Nick Kenny 50/1, Richard Veenstra, Ross Montgomery and Darius Labanauskas 66/1, Derk Telnekes, Martin Phillips, Michi Unterbuchner and Willem Mandigers 80/1
