World Matchplay Darts 2024 Predictions: Voltage about to light up Blackpool

It's finally time for one of the showpiece events of the darting calendar as the PDC roadshow rolls into Blackpool for the prestigious Betfred World Matchplay. 

As title sponsors, we'll have a whole host of interviews and reaction from the Winter Gardens, as well as daily tipping pieces from our star Darts tipster Sean Rafferty, who is on red-hot form! First though, he's taken a look at this magnificent event and given us his outright World Matchplay Predictions.  

History, Location and Format

The 2024 Betfred World Matchplay is the 31st edition of this PDC event and the tournament, as always, is being held at the iconic Winter Gardens in Blackpool, with this year's event running from the 13th to 21st July and will be shown live on Sky Sports.

The tournament was introduced in 1994 and has since gone on to establish itself as one of the most sought after titles and most exciting televisual spectacles in the sport.

The matchplay format of legs rather than sets means that you are never really out of a match and can result in some incredible comebacks.

Despite the tournament running for 30 years, there have been just 12 winners in its history, with Phil Taylor winning the title an incredible 16 times and the only other multiple winners being Michael van Gerwen (three times) and Rod Harrington (twice).

The field is comprised of 32 players, with the top 16 players on the PDC Order of Merit at the cut-off point on 7th July seeded for the tournament. The top 16 players on the ProTour Order of Merit, not to have already qualified on the cut-off date will be unseeded.

Nathan Aspinall is the defending champion after defeating Jonny Clayton 18-6 in the 2023 final.

Prize Money

There is a total prize fund of £800,000 on offer to the 32 participants.

Draw

Betfred World Matchplay Odds

2u Rob Cross each-way (1/4, 4 places) @ 14/1

2u Rob Cross to win Quarter 4 @ 3/1

'Voltage' is a player I decided to be on for this months ago. I always fancy his chances at the Winter Gardens as he’s a consistent player who is well suited to longer format matches. It is a bit surprising that outside of his title win here in 2019, Rob has failed to go beyond the last 16 in his six other appearances in Blackpool.However, some examples of his success in longer legs format recently, is him making QF stage or better in five of the past seven renewals of the UK Open and making the final of Grand Slam last November.

I won’t read too much into his poor record here since 2019, as his form has improved significantly from around last Autumn. His quarter of the draw is stacked with big names - Michael Smith, Gary Anderson, Chris Dobey etc but he doesn’t need to meet any of these guys until the QFs.

I make Cross big favourite to reach the QF stages - he faces Gian Van Veen first up who’s form has dipped in recent months (Cross has averaged three points higher than Van Veen over the past three months). Cross also won their only meeting in 2024 on the Euro Tour. He’d then face the winner of Damon Heta/Ryan Searle who again aren’t playing their best stuff currently - both had strong starts to the year but have tailed off and Cross boasts a far stronger major record than the pair of them.

It will come down to a QF against one of the three names I listed in Dobey/Smith/Anderson for me, to reach the business end of the tournament - but I don’t think any of them are as reliable or consistent as Voltage is right now in major tournaments. 14/1 is a solid price for Crossy and I expect him to reach the final four at 3/1.

1u Josh Rock each-way (1/4, 4 places) @ 33/1 

1u Josh Rock to win Quarter 2 @ 13/2

'Rocky' is another I’ve had my eye on for this for at least a few weeks now. I was hoping for a big tournament from him at the World Cup and even if he was let down somewhat by his team mate Brendan Dolan, he produced terrific darts himself throughout on his debut for Northern Ireland. He really carried them through every game and looked to love the experience. Rock averaged around 98 individually for the entire event which is mightily impressive in a doubles format.

This is on top of some good form on the tour recently - picking up his first ever Euro Tour title in May, having gone on an unwanted run of losing ranking finals prior to that. He lost on debut to Damon Heta here last year but I think he’s playing with more confidence now than he was this time last year. I’ve touched on it before, but I also think he’s playing with a bit more freedom and less pressure this year after the arrival of Luke Littler, which has deflected away some of the attention Rock was receiving before this as the next big thing.

The 23-year-old has a very tricky opening tie against Ross Smith, but it's one I believe he can win. They did play on the Pro Tour last month, with Smith running out a 6-5 winner. But playing on this stage is a different kettle of fish - Ross Smith has played here twice and lost in the opening round on both occasions, failing to average above 92 in either match. Outside of his European Championship title, Ross Smith has made just one QF appearance in 30 televised tournaments since 2019. There’s no denying he’s a talented player but I’m not convinced he’s comfortable on the big stages.

Rock too has yet to go beyond the QF stage of a major but is still at a very early stage in his career and I think this could be the one. Gerwyn Price is the other main threat in his quarter of the draw but he isn’t fully firing of late and has some injury/health concerns at the moment. 33/1 is good value for someone I believe to be an elite level player, 13/2 to win a wide open quarter too is worth being on.

0.75u Dimitri Van den Bergh each-way (1/4, 4 places) @ 50/1 

1u Van den Bergh to win Quarter 1 @ 9/1

Dimi isn’t a player I back all that often these days but I usually like his chances at the Winter Gardens and I particularly like them at a brilliant price of 50/1.

This is a player who just won the UK Open little over four months ago. He also boasts a strong record in Blackpool - in his four previous appearances he has won the event once, made a final and made the semis in three separate years. He’s clearly a lover of lengthy legs format, a win and SF in his last two UK Open appearances further backs this up.

I’m happy to ignore his indifferent form at the floor events at times, as he definitely preps himself to peak at these big tournaments. The form is relatively good - despite his mainly poor Pro Tour form, he won a title on the floor just last month, as well as the UK Open title I touched on above. I fancy him to overcome Martin Schindler in the opening round and have to say I’m surprised to see Dimi priced as clear second favourite in that tie, considering Schindler has never gone beyond the QFs in 31 televised singles events and has lost first round in two Matchplay appearances, compared to Dimitri who has won his opening round on all four appearances here.

Luke Humphries is the clear favourite in this quarter but Dimitri proved he can beat him over a long distance, winning the UK Open final 11-10 against him this year in dramatic circumstances. 50/1 about a proven player in the majors is cracking value.

1u Jonny Clayton to win Quarter 1 @ 7/1 

Jonny Clayton went through a tough time of it for a while recently, after a family loss but he looks to have his full focus back on the darts now and is slowly creeping into some good form.

He made a Euro Tour final in May and while he's only played two events since this on the Pro Tour, he won the second event after making the QFs in the first event (won 11 out of 12 matches). He looked back to his top form - averaging 100+ in six out of 12 matches and only averaged below 95 once.

Despite ongoing personal issues at the time, The Ferret went on a stunning run to the final here last year. I fancy him to get past Barney in the opening round then will hopefully face Van den Bergh in last 16 which would be a win/win for us.

Again, he’s priced generously and is arguably coming in with better form this time round. He’s still being priced up as being relatively out of form but he’s very much back in it now.

1u James Wade to win Quarter 2 @ 14/1

'Wadey' really had to produce some good runs of results to scrape into a qualifying spot for this but he just managed it over the last two Pro Tour events. He narrowly pipped Kevin Doets to the final spot, proving he can produce some good stuff still, when he really needs to and I’m hoping he can carry that into the tournament itself now.

Wade won 10 of his last 14 matches on Pro Tour, averaging 100+ in six of them, which Wade doesn’t usually do with great regularity. He’s definitely in the most wide open section of the draw - he plays Danny Noppert first match up, which realistically was probably one of the better draws he could’ve got out of the seeds, as Noppert’s not in any great form just now.

He’d then face the winner of Aspinall/Woodhouse which I’d almost make him slight favourite in against either, as Aspinall battles ongoing injury problems and Woodhouse is still a bit of a novice on these stages and not playing amazing of late either.

He’s then one win away from winning the quarter and it would be another winnable game as anybody is beatable in this section. Looking for Wade to roll back the years a bit here, but if anyone can produce their best on a big stage it’s 'The Machine'.

1u Dave Chisnall to win Quarter 3 @ 11/2

It’s fair to say for a player of Chisnall’s calibre, his Matchplay record is far from impressive, but all bad runs must come to an end at some point!

He’s never gone beyond the QF stage in 13 previous appearances in Blackpool. However, he won’t get a better chance to at least make the QFs here - he faces  Krzysztof Ratajski first where he’ll be a fairly strong favourite to win, despite a poor record against the Polish Eagle.

If he wins this then he’s almost a shoe-in in my eyes to beat the winner of Peter Wright/Andrew Gilding who are both shy of any kind of form. Chiz comes in with some nice form - winning the European Darts Open just a few weeks ago. He’s also enjoying the most successful period of his career - winning a staggering seven titles since the start of 2023 between the Euro and Pro Tours.

He just needs to transfer this winning habit over to the majors. I needed to find an alternative for Littler in this section and Chizzy looks the best bet, as he definitely holds the strongest form outside of The Nuke.

You can find all our darts tipster Sean Rafferty's latest Darts Betting Tips on our main Insights content hub.