Ladbrokes Masters predictions and darts betting tips: Cash in on Clayton

Darts tips, best bets and player analysis for the Labrokes Masters at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes.

Where to watch

Live on ITV4 from 7pm Friday

Best bets

J Clayton
2pts 7-1 general

L Humphries
1pt each-way 40-1 Betfair, Paddy Power

Preview

No one pinged the lids slicker than Jonny Clayton last year and it may well pay to back the Ferret to do so again when the 2022 PDC campaign kicks into gear with the Ladbrokes Masters this weekend.

Clayton got into the field last year only thanks to the PDC's decision to increase the field from 16 to 24 and took advantage of the organisers' generosity by dotting up in some style.

And having proved he traps better than most after the post-Ally Pally downtime, the Welshman has to be a massive runner at the seasonal curtain-raiser in Milton Keynes.

Again, 24 players will be toeing the oche at the Marshall Arena, a field missing top-20 stars Nathan Aspinall and Danny Noppert but still packed full of class, and confidence is bound to be high in the Clayton camp after an extraordinary 12 months.

The world number eight was quite simply the player of the year in 2021, kicking off the season with victory at the Masters where the 150-1 outsider saw off Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright and averaged almost 103 for the tournament.

This time he goes to post at odds of around 7-1, hardly a surprise given Clayton's feats over the past few months when he added Premier League, World Series and Grand Prix glory to his Masters triumph.

He opens up in round two against the winner of Dimitri van den Bergh and Ian White, not an easy draw but then there are no easy draws in a field culled from the game's elite.

Clayton is also expected to meet Gerwyn Price in the last eight and world finalist Michael Smith in the last four, although the bottom half is no less classy featuring Van Gerwen, new world champ Wright, the recently-married Gary Anderson and a few other class acts, among them Luke Humphries, who will be on a few shortlists at odds of 40-1.

Clayton missed out on World Championship glory when well fancied, but he left Alexandra Place with his head held high after being pipped in a fourth-round thriller by Smith. Clayton bowed out of the tournament with a 102.83 average, the highest of the tournament.

Going back to Humphries, Cool Hand is getting better and better. He also shone at the worlds either side of Christmas and went one better than Clayton, reaching the quarter-finals for the third time in four years.

He is one of 16 players entering at the first-round stage but will be delighted to be going up against Devon Petersen, a player who has been struggling for a while and looks set to tumble down the rankings unless there is significant improvement in 2022.

The eight first-round ties take place on Friday night over a best-of-11 distance before the top eight players enter the fray in round two when we are best-of-19.

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