This week, one of the biggest sporting events that takes place across Christmas and the New Year will get underway in the United Kingdom. The PDC World Darts Championship has become synonymous with this time of the year and this year’s tournament promises to be a cracker. Gerwyn Price is back to defend the title he won last year, but he faces a tough test against a field of top stars from the word of darts, including some additional players that have transferred over from the now defunct BDO. The action gets underway later this week and we are going to bring you all the key details of this tournament and preview some of the eye-catching first round games, before we then give you our tips on who we think will be crowned World Champion on New Year’s Day. As always, you can enjoy a wide range of bets on the tournament at Bet365 Sport, while BetRivers Sportsbook is a great option for US-based customers. Both sites offer a great selection of pre-match and In Play betting on the games throughout the tournament.

2022 PDC World Darts Championship Preview

This year’s tournament will take place at the now customary venue of the Alexandra Palace in London and will have a total prize fund of £2,500,000. The action gets underway on Wednesday 15^th December and apart from a short break for Christmas (24^th to 26^th inclusive) and New Years Eve (31^st December) there will be action every day from then. A total of 96 players will start in the tournament. The top 32 ranked players in the PDC are given a bye through to the second round of the tournament, with certain games from this round of the tournament played concurrently with the first round games. The first round will consist of 32 games between the 32 players ranked in the top 32 places in the Pro Tour Order of Merit, along with 32 International Qualifiers from a wide selection of events around the world. The winners of these 32 games then go on to face one of the seeds in the second round. Most sessions in the early stages of the tournament will feature three first round games and one second round match. Let’s now take a look at the fill First Round And Second Round Draws. Round 2 games shown in bold italics.

PDC First & Second Round

1. Round 1 – Richie Edhouse v Lihao Wen
2. Round 1 – Ricky Evans v Nitin Kumar
3. Round 1 – Adrian Lewis v Matt Campbell
4. Round 2 – Gerwyn Price v Winner of Match 1
5. Round 1 – Steve Lennon v Madars Razma
6. Round 1 – Scott Mitchell v Chris Landman
7. Round 1 – Chas Barstow v John Norman Jr.
8. Round 2 – Daryl Gurney v Winner of Match 2
9. Round 1 – William O’Connor v Danny Lauby Jr.
10. Round 1 – Ryan Meikle v Fabian Schmutzler
11. Round 1 – Ron Meulenkamp v Lisa Ashton
12. Round 2 – Gary Anderson v Winner of Match 3
13. Round 1 – Ryan Joyce v Roman Benecky
14. Round 1 – Keane Barry v Royden Lam
15. Round 1 – Jermaine Wattimena v Boris Kotsov
16. Round 2 – Krzysztof Ratajski v Winner of Match 5
17. Round 1 – Joe Murnan v Paul Lim
18. Round 1 – William Borland v Bradley Brooks
19. Round 1 – Ross Smith v Jeff Smith
20. Round 2 – Peter Wright v Winner of Match 10
21. Round 1 – Jamie Highes v Raymond Smith
22. Round 1 – Callan Rydz v Yuki Yamada
23. Round 1 – Darius Labanauskas v Mike De Decker
24. Round 2 – Ian White v Winner of Match 6
25. Round 1 – Adam Hunt v Boris Krcmar
26. Round 1 – Ted Evetts v Jim Williams
27. Round 1 – Rowby-John Rodriguez v Nick Kenny
28. Round 2 – Michael van Gerwen v Winner of Match 7
29. Round 1 – Maik Kuivenhoven v Ky Smith
30. Round 1 – Jason Heaver v Gordon Mathers
31. Round 1 – Alan Soutar v Diogo Portela
32. Round 2 – Stephen Bunting v Winner of Match 19
33. Round 1 – Martin Kleermaker v John Michael
34. Round 1 – Florian Hempel v Martin Schindler
35. Round 1 – Steve Beaton v Fallon Sherrock
36. Round 2 – Jonny Clayton v Winner of Match 14
37. Round 1 – Luke Woodhouse v James Wilson
38. Round 1 – Rusty-Jake Rodriguez v Ben Robb
39. Round 1 – Raymond van Barneveld v Lourence Ilagan
40. Round 2 – James Wade v Winner of Match 29
41. Round 1 – Lewy Williams v Toyokazu Shibata
42. Round 1 – Jason Lowe v Daniel Larsson
43. Round 2 – Mervyn King v Winner of Game 13
44. Round 2 – Dave Chisnall v Winner of Game 23
45. Round 2 – Vincent van der Voort v Winner of Game 25
46. Round 2 – Michael Smith v Winner of Game 11
47. Round 2 – Dmitri van den Bergh v Winner of Game 34
48. Round 2 – Devon Petersen v Winner of Game 21
49. Round 2 – Ryan Searle v Winner of Game 18
50. Round 2 – Glen Durrant v Winner of Game 9
51. Round 2 – Luke Humphries v Winner of Game 27
52. Round 2 – Joe Cullen – Winner of Game 26
53. Round 2 – Nathan Aspinall v Winner of Game 17
54. Round 2 – Dirk van Duijvenbode v Winner of Game 15
55. Round 2 – Kim Huybrechts v Winner of Game 35
56. Round 2 – Simon Whitlock v Winner of Game 33
57. Round 2 – Damon Heta v Winner of Game 37
58. Round 2 – Brendan Dolan v Winner of Game 22
59. Round 2 – Mensur Suljovic v Winner of Game 31
60. Round 2 – Jose de Sousa v Winner of Game 42
61. Round 2 – Danny Noppert v Winner of Game 30
62. Round 2 – Gabriel Clemens v Winner of Game 41
63. Round 2 – Rob Cross v Winner of Game 39
64. Round 2 – Chris Dobey v Winner of Game 38

Both the First and Second Rounds of the tournament will be completed by the 23^rd December, with the Third Round starting after the Christmas break on the 27^th December.

PDC World Championship Facts And Figures

The 2022 PDC World Championship is the 29^th time the tournament has been contested, the first taking place back in 1994. Dennis Priestley was the first winner of the tournament, winning £16,000 in prize money, while the winner in 2019, 2020 and 2021, as well as this year pockets £500,000. The massive increase in the popularity of darts has seen the prize money steadily increase from £64,000 in total in 1994, to £2,500,000 over the past four years. This year’s PDC will see a tougher than usual tournament with a number of former BDO players qualifying for the tournament, which swells the quality of the field. Phil Taylor is the most successful player in the tournament’s history reaching 19 finals, winning 14. The next most successful player is Michael van Gerwen who has reached five finals and won three. Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis and John Part are the only other players to have won multiple PDC world titles with two apiece. Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Peter Wright, Rob Cross and last year’s winner Gerwyn Price have all won one PDC World Title each. A total of 18 players have reached the final, with 10 different players winning a world title. Peter Manley reached three finals but was runner up in all of them to Phil Taylor. There have been ten nine dart finishes in the tournament’s history, the first in the 2009 quarter finals by Raymond van Barneveld and the last in the third round last year by James Wade. Adrian Lewis is the only player to have hit a nine-dart finish in the final of the tournament, doing so in 2011 against Gary Anderson.

Tournament Betting And Tips

Bet365 currently have Gerwyn Price as the 4/1 favourite to retain the trophy he won last year ahead of Michael van Gerwen at 9/2 and Peter Wright at 6/1. Jonny Clayton is 13/2 and then the odds drift considerably to Dmitri van den Bergh at 16/1 and after that the odds are 25/1 or greater for the remaining players. Given the season the top four have had, you can’t really argue with their shorter odds and I do feel the winner will come from that quartet. If he can replicate the season he has had, Jonny Clayton is an interesting option, but I think if I was going to back someone, my money would be on Peter Wright at 6/1. However, if you want an each way bet to possibly surprise a few people and reach the final, Jose De Sousa at 28/1 is a player to watch.