Along with the Mosconi Cup in Pool, one of the. biggest tournaments that runs over the festive season and leading up to it, is the PDC World Darts Championship and the 2023 edition has now reached the third round stage.

And what a remainder of the tournament we have in store!

After two exciting opening rounds, only three of the top 32 seeds have been eliminated from the tournament, which means that 29 of the best players in the world will go forward into the next stage of the tournament, which begins tomorrow on Tuesday 27^th December.

Let’s now take a look back at some of the key results from the first two rounds of the tournament, before we then go on to look at the matches and the best betting tips for that stage of the tournament, odds provided of course by bet365 Sport.

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PDC World Darts Championship – First Round Results (Best Of 5 Sets)

1. Mickey Mansell 3-1 Ben Robb
2. Keane Barry 1-3 Grant Simpson
3. Jermaine Wattimena 2-3 Nathan Rafferty
4. Alan Soutar 3-0 Mal Cuming
5. Boris Krcmar 3-0 Toru Suzuki
6. Adrian Lewis 3-0 Daniel Larsson
7. Rowby-John Rodriguez 2-3 Lourence Ilagan
8. William O’Connor 3-0 Beau Greaves
9. Keegan Brown 2-3 Florian Hempel
10. Martin Lukeman 3-0 Nobuhiro Yamamoto
11. Simon Whitlock 3-2 Christian Perez
12. Adam Gawlas 3-2 Richie Burnett
13. Ryan Meikle 3-2 Lisa Ashton
14. Cameron Menzies 3-1 Diogo Portela
15. Josh Rock 3-1 Jose Justicia
16. Madars Razma 3-1 Prakash Jiwa
17. Karel Sedlacek 3-0 Raymond Smith
18. Luke Woodhouse 3-0 Vyadyslav Omelchenko
19. Mike De Decker 3-1 Jeff Smith
20. Scott Williams 3-1 Ryan Joyce
21. Matt Campbell 0-3 Danny Baggish
22. Andrew Gilding 3-2 Robert Owen
23. Danny Jansen 3-2 Paolo Nebrida
24. Niels Zonneveld 0-3 Lewy Williams
25. Geert Nentjes 1-3 Leonard Gates
26. Ritchie Edhouse 2-3 David Cameron
27. Steve Beaton 0-3 Danny van Trijp
28. Jim Williams 3-2 Sebastian Bialecki
29. Jamie Hughes 1-3 Jimmy Hendriks
30. Ricky Evans 3-1 Fallon Sherrock
31. John O’Shea 2-3 Darius Labanauskas
32. Martijn Kleermaker 3-0 Xicheng Han

The first round went pretty much to the form book this year with just a few surprises across the 32 games.

All three female players, Beau Graves, Fallon Sherrock and Lisa Ashton went out and Richie Burnett’s return to the PDC didn’t last too long with the former BDO World Champion defeated by Adam Gawlas.

Steve Beaton went out beaten by Danny Van Trijp and former Champion Adrian Lewis, and runner up Simon Whitlock both made it through the first round of games.

PDC World Darts Championship Second Round Results (Best of Five Sets)

1. Peter Wright 3-0 Mickey Mansell
2. Kim Huybrechts 3-0 Grant Simpson
3. Michael Smith 3-0 Nathan Rafferty
4. Daryl Gurney 0-3 Alan Soutar
5. Dmitri Van den Bergh 3-0 Lourence Ilagan
6. Damon Heta 3-0 Adrian Lewis
7. Nathan Aspinall 3-1 Boris Krcmar
8. Jose de Sousa 3-2 Simon Whitlock
9. Gerwyn Price 3-1 Luke Woodhouse
10. Raymond van Barneveld 3-1 Ryan Meikle
11. Callan Rydz 0-3 Josh Rock
12. Dave Chisnall 3-1 Andrew Gilding
13. Mervyn King 3-2 Danny Baggish
14. Gabriel Clemens 3-0 William O’Connor
15. Michael van Gerwen 3-0 Lewy Williams
16. Stephen Bunting 3-1 Leonard Gates
17. Krzysztof Ratajski 3-1 Danny Jansen
18. Ryan Searle 3-0 Adam Gawlas
19. Mensur Suljovic 3-0 Mike De Decker
20. Dirk van Duijvenbode 3-2 Karol Sedlacek
21. Gary Anderson 3-1 Madars Razma
22. James Wade 2-3 Jim Williams
23. Luke Humphries 3-2 Florian Hempel
24. Vincent van der Voort 3-0 Cameron Menzies
25. Brendan Dolan 3-1 Jimmy Hendriks
26. Chris Dobey 3-0 Martijn Kleermaker
27. Ross Smith 3-1 Darius Labanauskas
28. Rob Cross 3-1 Scott Williams
29. Martin Schindler 3-1 Martin Lukeman
30. Danny Noppert 3-1 David Cameron
31. Jonny Clayton 3-0 Danny van Trijp
32. Joe Cullen 3-1 Ricky Evans

The second round of matches very much went to the form book with 29 of the 32 seeds making it through and just a small number of games being pushed to the full five sets.

The shocks saw Daryl Gurney beaten by Alan Soutar, Callan Rydz beaten by the emerging and hugely talented youngster Josh Rock while the biggest shock saw number 8 seed James Wade defeated by Welshman Jim Williams.

Raymond van Barneveld made a winning return to the Alexandra Palace beating Ryan Meikle but the most impressive performer was Michael van Gerwen who steamed past Lewy Williams with a 101.87 average, the highest of the tournament so far.

Those set of results in the second round of the tournament leave us with the following Round 3 matches.

PDC World Darts Championship Third Round Results (Best of Seven Sets)

Tuesday 27^th December

• Dmitri Van den Bergh (15) v Krzystof Ratajski (18)
• Nathan Aspinall (10) v Josh Rock
• Jonny Clayton (7) v Brendan Dolan (26)
• Jim Williams v Gabriel Clemens (25)
• Gerwyn Price (1) v Raymond van Barneveld (32)
• Peter Wright (2) v Kim Huybrechts (31)

Tonight, sees arguably the best tie of the Third Round taking place as the top seed Gerwyn Price will face one of the legends of the game making his return to the Alexandra Palace in Raymond van Barneveld in what should be a cracker.

Nathan Aspinall’s clash with Josh Rock should also be a fantastic game between two of the young guns on the PDC scene.

I’ve put together my selections for all Tuesday’s games below:

Tips to win

• Dmitri van den Bergh – 8/15
• Josh Rock – 8/13
• Jonny Clayton – 1/4
• Jim Williams – Evens
• Raymond van Barneveld – 11/5
• Peter Wright – 2/9

Wednesday 28^th December

• Ryan Searle (16) v Jose de Sousa (17)
• Danny Noppert (9) v Alan Soutar
• Gary Anderson (11) v Chris Dobey (22)
• Joe Cullen (13) v Damon Heta (20)
• Michael van Gerwen (3) v Mensur Suljovic (30)
• Michael Smith (4) v Martin Schindler (29)

Wedneday’s action may not have a barn-burner like Price v van Barneveld, but it is still a very good selection of games starting off with the most even contest in the tournament so far as Ryan Searl and Jose de Sousa, the 16^th and 17^th seeds clash.

Gary Anderson, twice a winner here, faces a tricky game against Chris Dobey, while Michael van Gerwen will take on Mensur Suljovic confident of the win.

The same can be said for Michael Smith who should be confident of beating German pro Martin Schindler here.

Tips to win

• Jose de Sousa – 11/10
• Danny Noppert – 2/5
• Gary Anderson – 4/5
• Joe Cullen – 4/5
• Michael van Gerwen – 1/12
• Michael Smith – 1/4

Thursday 29^th December

• Dirk van Duijvenbode (14) v Ross Smith (19)
• Rob Cross (6) v Mervyn King (27)
• Dave Chisnall (12) v Stephen Bunting (21)
• Luke Humphries (5) v Vincent van der Voort (28)

The final four Third Round games kick off the action on Thursday ahead of the start of the Fourth Round and we begin with a couple of cracking games as Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode takes on Ross Smith in what should be a very keenly contested game.

Rob Cross will be hoping for another solid performance to defeat Mervyn King here and then we move on to the battle of St.Helens as Dave Chisnall faces former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting.

We finish the third round action with perhaps the most improved player of the year, Luke Humphries taking on the flying Dutchman Vincent van der Voort in what should be a keenly contested match up.

Tips to win

• Dirk van Duijvenbode – 8/11
• Rob Cross – 1/4
• Dave Chisnall – 2/5
• Luke Humphries – 2/7

Join me next week when we will take a look back at the Third and Fourth Round games as well as looking ahead to the quarterfinals, semi-finals and of course, the final.