PDC Darts World Championship Free Bets and Sign-Up Offers

The PDC World Darts Championship is the pinnacle of the sport for betting, and the highlight of darts fans’ years. The 64 best players on the planet converge on the Alexandra Palace, London for nearly three weeks of scintillating oche action in December and January each year.

Using your PDC Darts World Championship Free Bets

The World Championship is always a thoroughly popular tournament for punters to bet on, helped by the fact that it has been sponsored by William Hill since 2015 and previously by Ladbrokes from 2003-14.

As a result there are plenty of markets to choose from and any bookmaker worth their salt will be offering odds for free betting on the World Championship. When you have chosen your preferred market and bookmaker then click on the link on the right of this page which will take you to their homepage. Once here it is a case of signing up with them which is a straight forward process involving you entering your details which will take just a few moments.

Once registered you will be ready to bet, depending on the bookie you may or may not have to make an initial deposit, if so this is simple and will be explained on site. Once funds are there to be used, find darts in the sportsbook and then the World Championship, click on the odds by your chosen market, this will put the selection in the betting slip and you will be ready to use your free World Championship bet.

2022 PDC World Darts Championship

 

Seeded players to enter the tournament at the second-round stage of the competition:

The tournament takes place at the Alexandra Palace in London from December 15 to January 3.

Gerwyn Price (1) v Ritchie Edhouse or Lihao Wen

Kim Huybrechts (32) v Fallon Sherrock or Steve Beaton

Stephen Bunting (16) v Ross Smith or Jeff Smith

Dirk van Duijvenbode (17) v Jermaine Wattimena or Boris Kolstov

Jonny Clayton (8) v Keane Barry or Royden Lam

Gabriel Clemens (25) v Lewy Williams or Toyokazu Shibata

Michael Smith (9) v Ron Meulenkamp or Lisa Ashton

Glen Durrant (24) v William O'Connor or Danny Lauby Jnr

James Wade (4) v Maik Kuivenhoven or Ky Smith

Vincent van der Voort (29) v Adam Hunt or Boris Krcmar

Joe Cullen (13) v Ted Evetts or Jim Williams

Simon Whitlock (20) v Martijn Kleermaker or John Michael

Dimitri van den Bergh (5) v Florian Hempel or Martin Schindler

Devon Petersen (28) v Jamie Hughes or Raymond Smith

Krzysztof Ratajski (12) v Steve Lennon or Madars Razma

Mervyn King (21) v Ryan Joyce or Roman Benecky

Peter Wright (2) v Ryan Meikle or Fabian Schmutzler

Damon Heta (31) v Luke Woodhouse or James Wilson

Ryan Searle (15) v Williams Borland or Bradley Brooks

Danny Noppert (18) v Jason Heaver or Gordon Mathers

Jose de Sousa (7) v Jason Lowe or Daniel Larsson

Mensur Suljovic (26) v Alan Soutar or Diogo Portela

Nathan Aspinall (10) v Joe Murnan or Paul Lim

Brendan Dolan (23) v Callan Rydz or Yuki Yamada

Michael van Gerwen (3) v Chas Barstow or John Norman Jnr

Chris Dobey (30) v Rusty-Jake Rodriguez or Ben Robb

David Chisnall (14) v Darius Labanauskas or Mike De Decker

Luke Humphries (19) v Rowby-John Rodriguez or Nick Kenny

Gary Anderson (6) v Adrian Lewis or Matt Campbell

Ian White (27) v Scott Mitchell or Chris Landman

Daryl Gurney (11) Raymond van Barneveld or Lourence Ilagan

Daryl Gurney (22) v Ricky Evans or Nitin Kumar

Top 10 Darts World Championship Shocks

Every year there are huge shocks at the PDC World Championships, be it in the first round or deep into the competition. Seeds fall to unknowns and powerhouses are toppled by players finding form hitherto unseen from them.

Here is a look back at the most seismic upsets ever to happen in the tournament.

Dave Chisnall 4-1 Phil Taylor – 2012

Ahead of the 2012 PDC World Championship, Phil Taylor’s worst ever result in the tournament was a quarter-final appearance. That all changed at the hands of Dave Chisnall.

It was unfortunate for Taylor that he met Chizzy so early as Chisnall’s ranking of 32 was false given his recent switch from the BDO. He was far, far better than that and he showed it as he averaged 99 to smash the Power 4-1.

Taylor did little wrong, averaging over 100 but Chizzy was superb and dumped out the world number one early doors.

It was a big shock, but a lot was expected of Chisnall so not completely seismic, which is why it ranks below other Taylor defeats here.

Gary Welding 3-2 Colin Lloyd – 2006

In 2006 Colin Lloyd was not the best player in the world, but he was the number one seed and he was certainly expected to challenge for the World Championship, especially with Phil Taylor in the other half of the draw.

But when it came to it, Jaws showed no bite at all and fell at the first hurdle to debutant Gary Welding who edged him out 3-2 in a thrilling, if low quality game. Welding went on to make the quarter-finals that year with a high average of 90.25.

Lloyd had won the Matchplay earlier in 2005 and the Grand Prix the year previously, this was not how it was meant to end at the Circus Tavern.

John Ferrell 3-0 Dennis Priestley – 1999

Dennis ‘The Menace’ Priestley won the PDC World Championship in 1994 then lost in three of the next four finals. In 1999 he was fully expected to challenge once again, especially as he faced a first round opponent in John Farrell that had never won a tournament, never mind two world titles.

Farrell had other ideas, though, and hammered the Yorkshireman 3-0 and handing Priestley a very rare failure on the world stage. Farrell went on to make the quarter-finals and Priestley was back in the final, losing to Taylor yet again the following year.

Mark Webster 5-2 Phil Taylor – 2011

This was a high quality quarter-final as Phil Taylor came in as the defending champion and Mark Webster as the previous year’s semi-finalist. No one was predicting this scoreline, though.

Taylor was the overwhelming favourite against a man he had beaten six of the seven times he played him in the past (and has gone on to beat him 14 straight times since).

The Power was superb, averaging over 101 but that was not enough to beat an inspired Webster who somehow managed to beat Taylor 5-2 with a 98 average and surge into the semis for a second consecutive year.

Kirk Shepherd 6-4 Wayne Mardle – 2008

World Championship debutant Kirk Shepherd had caused some serious waves en route to the semi-finals, but few thought he could pull off another miracle in the final four against Wayne Mardle, who had just knocked out Phil Taylor in the quarters.

Unheralded Shepherd had already seen off top five seeds Terry Jenkins and Peter Manley, but surely the Cinderella story was about to end against the veteran of four World Championship semi-finals.

No. Mardle could not get the job done, despite averaging nearly four points more than his young foe, Hawaii 501 went down 6-4 and Shepherd was in the final at his very first attempt.

Wayne Mardle 5-4 Phil Taylor – 2008

The 2008 PDC World Championship was the first at the Alexandra Palace and is now seen as a bit of an anomaly in terms of results, but at the time, Phil Taylor losing in the quarter-finals was absolutely incredible.

The Power had never failed to reach the final in 14 editions of the tournament up till then. When he stepped to the oche to play Wayne Mardle in the quarter-finals, everyone expected him to march towards another final.

Taylor held a head-to-head record of 19-2 over Mardle at the time and simply did not lose in quarter-finals. However, there were signs of frailty beforehand. He had won his three previous matches by just one set each and his best average was below 97. Mardle only needed a 92 average in the last eight to edge out Taylor 5-4 and shock the world.

Alan Caves 3-2 Wayne Mardle – 2007

Maybe we should have seen Mardle’s semi-final failings coming because the year before he was losing in the first round to a bloke no one was expecting anything of at the World Championship.

Alan Caves had played in the World Championship twice before, losing in the first round on both occasions and both times to men of little repute in Josephus Schenk and Steve Alker. When he turned up to play Mardle, Hawaii 501 had reached each of the last three semi-finals.

Caves needed just an 83 average to beat Mardle that day who was expected to go deep in the event as he had been since 2004.

Michael Smith 4-3 Phil Taylor – 2014

The Power may not have been the unstoppable force he once was by 2014, but he was the reigning world champion, not to mention the holder of the World Matchplay, Grand Prix and Grand Slam as well.

At the 2014 world champs he met the precocious young talent Michael Smith in the second round. There was a lot expected of Smith but this was seen as too soon for the youngster who averaged under 80 in his first round match.

Bully Boy stepped up his game in the second round, though, and the number 32 seed edged out the top seed 4-3 for a monumental victory. Taylor exiting the PDC World Championship before the quarter-finals for only the second time ever.

James Richardson 3-0 Raymond van Barneveld – 2012

There are almost always one or two complete unknowns who sneak their way into the World Championships each year, and in 2012, one of them was James Richardson. The unseeded underdog was not just making his World Championship debut, but his debut in any major tournament.

Ruthless was taking on the five-time world champ in the first round, and although Raymond van Barneveld had not had a great year on tour by his standards, he was still the overwhelming favourite against the debutant who worked as a bricklayer.

Barney had a bad night, a very bad night and eventually trudged off stage after a 3-0 defeat to the man many had never even heard of before and would scarcely see again.

Bill Davis 3-0 John Part – 2009

By 2009 John Part was a three-time world champion and the defending champion heading into the Alexandra Palace that year. He was by no means favourite to retain the title, but he was fully expected to see off unfancied American Bill Davis in round one – he did not.

Davis had only ever played one World Championship match and he had lost it, beating the reigning champ seemed not only unlikely, but almost impossible.

However, Part, who went into the tournament as the fourth seed, was appalling, averaging just 91.5 and was seen off 3-0 by the man they call Classic.

What should I use my free PDC Darts World Championship bet on?

All year round the debate rages in darts circles over who is going to be crowned the next world champion so there is no surprise at all that it is this market that is the most popular and attracts by far the most money. The way the odds have panned out in recent years is that there are one or two clear favourites and a host of players with pretty long odds, so pick a dark horse and there is plenty of money to be won from your World Championship free bet. However, bear this in mind; only seven men have ever won the title, so this is far from easy.

With it being such a big tournament the winner of each quarter market can be a much more profitable endeavour than usual as the favourites’ odds are stretched and with more upsets at this tournament than any other it is possible to pick an underdog to make a run to the last four on occasion.

Who will hit the most 180s in the tournament is also a popular market at the World Championships and given the length of the matches there are often a lot of maximums scored. On his run to winning the 2017 world final Gary Anderson broke the record for an individual total over the tournament when he hit an incredible 71 180s.

The number of maximums over the tournament as a whole is often backed as well, the record for this was also set in 2017 when 704 were hit.

The format of the tournament is set play so this can make it easier to bet for free on the World Championship on the correct score market. The first round is best of five sets, steadily increasing until the final where the players race to seven sets. By the latter stages it is more difficult but until the quarter-finals when it is best of seven there are relatively few combinations of scorelines that the match can finish and so a shrewd bet can prove very profitable and easier to pin down than in a matchplay tournament.