Darts Betting Tips: MVG to shine in tipped double

| Wednesday 17th December 2025, 20:00pm

Wednesday 17th December 2025, 20:00pm

The World Championship continues on Thursday with eight more first-round matches taking place.

Sean Rafferty is our resident darts expert and he's in unreal nick right now, winning five of his six daily articles so far at Ally Pally!

On Thursday he's got one pick from the afternoon and evening sessions, so here we go with his darts betting tips...

World Darts Championship Day 8 Tips

Callan Rydz to hit most 180s vs Patrik Kovacs @ 2/5
Michael Van Gerwen -2.5 most 180s handicap vs Mitsuhiko Tatsunami @ EVS

2 units Double @ 9/5

*prices correct at time of publication

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Callan Rydz to hit most 180s vs Patrik Kovacs @ 2/5

I’d say the draw has been pretty kind to Rydz here - Kovacs has never impressed me much on the big stage, he’s made a couple appearances at the WDF World Championship and several on the Euro Tour, all have been relatively unsuccessful, with him failing to pick up a win in any. His WDF World Championship matches have been particularly poor, losing to Bjorn Lejon and Jim Widmayer, he was priced up as 1/3 and 2/5 favourite in those matches, with averages of 74 and 82. The pressure only intensifies up on that Ally Pally stage and I’m not sure the Hungarian is going to hold it together and play his game.

Rydz will probably be relatively disappointed with his year, he failed to pick up a title and only won one match across six appearances on the European Tour. He seems to come to life at the Worlds though - The Riot has plenty good memories here, reaching the Quarter Finals in 2022 and 2025, defeating names such as Nathan Aspinall, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Martin Schindler. He only narrowly lost out to Peter Wright and Michael Van Gerwen in those Quarter Finals too. Both of those years, he made it to the last 16 without dropping a set. He whitewashed Yuki Yamada and Romeo Grbavac opening round on those runs, so he tends to play a lot of good stuff from the start if he’s to go on a run.

Looking at the 180s side of it, Rydz is a lot more prolific than Kovacs - Rydz is averaging 0.30 180s per leg for the year, compared to 0.15 for Kovacs, that gap increases if you look at the last three months, with Rydz at 0.27 compared to 0.09 for Kovacs, Callan is essentially hitting three times as many. I can’t see past the Geordie dominating the scoring phase of legs and therefore bossing the 180s count. The last time I watched Kovacs against Wattimena on the Euro Tour, Kovacs deliberately tried to slow the game down at times in my opinion, so Rydz may have to contend with that, but he’s proved in the past he can still produce quality stuff at this tournament against slower players.

Michael Van Gerwen -2.5 most 180s handicap vs Mitsuhiko Tatsunami @ EVS

From what I’ve heard, Tatsunami is a bit of a character so he may well end up having the Ally Pally crowd on his side, thankfully MVG has successfully dealt with those sort of situations many times in the past and I’m sure it won’t be any issue for the Dutchman.

I fully expect Mighty Mike to coast through this match in all honesty, he’s 15 points ahead of Tatsunami in the yearly averages and 17 points ahead over the last three months. MVG hasn’t lost his opening round match since 2011, successfully navigating his way over the first hurdle in all of his last fourteen World appearances. I also think he’s had one eye on this tournament for some time, as he’s had a very tough year away from the oche, it’d probably be fair to say his head hasn’t been in it at some events, understandably.

I’m not seeing any great value in the handicaps for Michael in terms of winning the match, so instead I’m opting for Mighty Mike in the 180s handicap market instead. It’s another are he’s streets ahead in over his Japanese opponent - Van Gerwen is 0.29 180s per leg for the year, compared to
0.11 for Mitsuhiko. The last three months shows a far wider gap though, with MVG at 0.35 and Mitsuhiko at just 0.06. I can’t see Tatsunami hitting more than one if I’m honest so I think Van Gerwen probably only needs to hit four in order to land the double -2.5 selection. If he continues at the rate he’s been hitting the maximums at recently, he’ll on require around eleven legs to achieve that.

Callan Rydz V Patrik Kovacs - Most 180s @ 2/5

Callan Rydz

Michael van Gerwen V Mitsuhiko Tatsunami - Most 180s Handicap -2.5 @ 1/1

Michael van Gerwen -2.5

9/5

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Odds correct at time of publishing.

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