World Darts Championship day one predictions and PDC darts betting tips

PDC darts tips, best bets and player analysis for day one of the 2023 Cazoo World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, London.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Arena, 7pm Thursday

Best bets

Over 885.5 tournament 180s
4pts 5-6 Betfair, Paddy Power

Nathan Rafferty to beat Jermaine Wattimena
1pt 8-5 Coral, Ladbrokes

Michael Smith most tournament 180s
1pt 7-2 Betfair

World Darts Championship day one preview

Defending champion Peter Wright makes his bow on the opening night and should have little difficulty dispensing with Mickey Mansell or Ben Robb, who meet in the World Championship’s first match.

Game three of the opening-night card between Jermaine Wattimena and Nathan Rafferty is perhaps the most interesting betting heat and the Northern Ireland debutant is worth backing at 6-4.

Wattimena, whitewashed by Boris Koltsov at this stage last year, has improved as 2022 has gone on but has never been a particularly reliable sort.

Rafferty has hoovered up titles on the Development Tour and won games on the Pro Tour so has to fancy his chances.

There was a belief in 2019, when the 96-player format was introduced, that we would be looking at a tournament with 1,000 maximums very quickly.

In fact, the 880 180s from that event four years is still the high benchmark, but the record should go this year.

It might well have gone last year but for Covid which caused three third-round matches to be abandoned – that's a minimum of 36 legs – two of which featured Michael van Gerwen and Dave Chisnall.

These players are getting better, so much better, first-round games are getting more competitive and all the top players are now merciless around the treble-20 bed.

Michael Smith set the bar ridiculously high last year with 84 tournament 180s, easily surpassing the previous record. If he reaches the final he'll be uncatchable once more.

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