Darts Betting Tips: 9/4 boosted double for Sunday’s World Championship action

The PDC World Darts Championship gets underway on Sunday and to mark the occasion, the kind traders at Betfred HQ have offered up a boosted double at the request of resident darts expert Sean Rafferty.

Jermaine Wattimena highest checkout over 110.5

Jermaine Wattimena faces a potentially-tricky opening match against the Swiss Stefan Bellmont. Bellmont makes his debut at Ally Pally and also makes history as the first-ever Swiss player to feature at the PDC World Championship.

He came through the PDC West Europe qualifier which was littered with known players and played very well, beating the highly-rated Jimmy Van Schie 7-6 in a tense final with a 96.5 average. Other names he dispatched en-route were Berry Van Peer and Moreno Blom. Bellmont didn’t drop out of the 90s all day before the final either, averaging 93, 95, 92, 100, 92 and 92.

Stefan has mainly been plying his trade on the Challenge Tour this year, but he's also dipped his toes into some Pro Tour events due to being high on the Challenge Tour reserve list. He made two Pro Tour QFs this year.

He won a Challenge Tour back in January, beating the likes of Scott Mitchell, Richie Burnett, Romeo Grbavac and Andy Boulton on that run. He’s a solid player and will likely average somewhere between 85 to 95 - it’s up to Wattimena if that will be enough or not.

Wattimena has enjoyed arguably the most successful period of his career to date. He recently reached the European Championship final, featuring some brilliant wins over Peter Wright, James Wade, Luke Humphries and Danny Noppert before losing out to Ritchie Edhouse at the final hurdle. That run wasn’t a huge surprise as he’s been playing better this year, he’s slowed his own throw down a bit which seems to be benefitting him.

Read Sean's outright tips for the 2024 World Darts Championship here

'Machine Gun' has followed up that European Championship run pretty well, reaching the QFs of the Grand Slam having topped a group featuring himself, Michael Smith, Mike De Decker and Mensur Suljovic courtesy of three wins out of three. He then made a fantastic comeback from 4-0 down to beat Van den Bergh 10-9.

He was on the wrong end of a drubbing against Luke Littler in the quarters, but didn’t let that knock his confidence as he then went on a solid enough run to the last 16 of the Players Championship Finals in Minehead, which included a thumping 6-0 win over Josh Rock.

Wattimena looks the likely winner on paper, given he’s far more experienced on the big stage and has averaged almost six points higher than Bellmont in 2024, but the latter is a methodical player and the expected slow pace is something that Wattimena will have to contend with. Ally Pally has never been the happiest stomping ground for Jermaine, failing to go beyond the third round in 10 previous appearances here.

So, instead of taking a chance on Wattimena at a rather short 1/5 and gambling on a handicap at odds-on, I’ll opt for him to hit a big checkout instead. His highest checkout in three of his five matches at the Grand Slam were 160, 148 and 126 - two of these were only first to five legs, whereas you need to win a minimum nine legs in this format to win, meaning more opportunities for a big out.

He may need a big checkout to dig him out a hole at some point and this looks the best value in an otherwise tricky match to bet on.

Kim Huybrechts to win

If you look at the previous meetings between Kim Huybrechts and Keane Barry, you’ll probably be wondering why I’m tipping up Kim to take the spoils. Barry has dominated their three meetings in the last three years 6-0, 6-2 and 10-6. However, a match at the Ally Pally is a completely different kettle of fish.

It’s a venue and tournament Barry has never really managed to settle in - in five previous visits to Ally Pally, 'Dynamite' has never gone beyond the last 64 stage, suffering some disappointing defeats and performances along the way.

He’s took no more than a set off the likes of Grant Sampson, Jeff Smith and Vincent Van der Voort. In all of his WC matches, he’s averaged 92, 88, 84, 96, 78, 87 and 96. Some poor performances in there and a couple elevated averages in the 90s due to his opponent playing well. He never quite seems to have got to grips with this event, unlike his opponent Huybrechts who has consistently competed well here.

Huybrechts has vast experience here. Between 2019 and 2023, 'The Hurricane' reached the third round or beyond every year - a round Barry has never reached in five attempts. Kim also made the QFs on his debut here in 2012.

His form hasn’t been the best for some time, but he’s always up for the big occasion and will be as fired up as ever. He did make a Euro Tour final from somewhat out of the blue in October, which helped him qualify for this.

Don’t expect this match to be a classic, but Kim is averaging a point higher than Barry over the past 12 months and as I say boasts a far better record at the Worlds.

This could be a tight one but I think Kim’s grit and determination see him get over the line.

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