Betfred World Matchplay Saturday match predictions & free darts betting tips

Free darts tips, best bets and analysis for the Betfred World Matchplay semi-final at the Blackpool Winter Gardens on Saturday.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Arena, 7pm, Saturday

Best bet

K Ratajski +2.5 legs
3pts 11-10 Betfair
Peter Wright
2pts 20-23 Betfair

Preview

Dimitri van den Bergh is producing an impressive title defence at the Betfred World Matchplay but he can expect his sternest challenge yet from Krzyzstof Ratajski in their semi-final.

The layers have no doubt that the eighth-seeded Belgian will win the race to 17 legs at Blackpool's Winter Gardens, which is easy to understand given the manner in which he put world champ Gerwyn Price back in his box in Thursday's quarter-final.

But 4-9 looks plenty short enough against a nuggety star like Ratajski, a consistent high-90s arrowsmith who is becoming a mainstay of the latter end of major tournaments.

The value bet is arguably the Pole at 2-1, but he's definitely worth taking to cover a 2.5-leg handicap at odds against.

Ratajski is such a hard man to beat these days and has been playing as well as anyone this week and better than most.

To hammer first Brendan Dolan (10-4), then Luke Humphries (11-5) and finally Callan Rydz (16-8), is a sign of how good he is. Decent opponents are being blown off the oche by a man who boasts a tournament average of 99.6 and a checkout percentage up in the 40s.

Van den Bergh used good old ringcraft to help see off Price – it’s usually the fiery Welshman who gets under opponents' skin, but the Dream Maker got his antics going first by irritating the life out of the world number one with his slow play – though he also produced much the better darts and was a worthy winner. This, though, is set to be far closer.

In terms of performance Michael van Gerwen's quarter-final against Nathan Aspinall was pretty much as poor as it gets at this level and MVG is going to need to raise his game significantly to trouble Peter Wright.

Van Gerwen managed just a 94.72 average in the quarter-final, but the standard was worse than those numbers suggest.

Snakebite rattled in a 100 average when thumping Michael Smith 16-7 in the pervious round and the Scot's scoring power should put MVG under plenty of pressure.

Of course, Van Gerwen could easily produce a special performance, but on the balance of what we have seen from Mighty Mike in this event and over the last few months that may not be as likely as the prices suggest.

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