PDC World Championship darts: Monday evening preview and best bets

Darts tipster Matt Hill (@Matt_Hill93) is back to give us his best bets from Monday evening's four games at the PDC World Championship.

Gerwyn Price makes his tournament bow against Keane Barry in the night's last clash, with the likes of Cameron Menzies and Connor Scutt also in action.

PDC World Championship 2025 betting tips

Neils Zonneveld vs Robert Owen

Though neither of these two players are household names, both Niels Zonneveld and Robert Owen arrive at Alexandra Palace having enjoyed strong ends to the 2024 season.

Zonneveld’s positive form is the easier to spot, having reached a maiden Euro Tour semi-final in the Czech Republic in October before securing two impressive wins over Willie O’Connor and Nathan Aspinall at the Players Championship Finals last month.

But Owen will also arrive high on confidence, having made a Pro Tour quarter-final in October — winning eight of his most recent 14 floor games overall.

The Welshman didn’t quite do enough to make Minehead but impressed on his Worlds debut two years ago, losing a close-run affair 3-2 to Andrew Gilding.

His throwing style is not the most aesthetically pleasing, to say the least, but it is quite effective and he’s got ample experience having now knocked around the tour for the best part of a decade.

But it is Zonneveld who I, and the market, lean towards. 

Both myself and Adam flagged him as a 100/1 shot to win his quarter on our big tournament preview. Admittedly, that’s a stretch, but it gives you an idea of the regard I hold him in.

After crashing out at round one on his first two visits to Ally Pally, Zonneveld got that first win monkey off his back 12 months ago when scraping past Darren Webster 3-1.

That seemed to help him relax into his second round encounter with Ross Smith, where he played much better despite falling to a 3-1 defeat — so you’d expect more improvement this time around.

The 11/8 at BoyleSports about Zonneveld winning with the most 180s seems a good way of playing this one. He outperformed his opponents in every maximum-related metric this year so it looks like a solid way of boosting his 4/7 best price on the moneyline.

Best bet - Niels Zonneveld to win and hit the most 180s @ 11/8 (BoyleSports)

Connor Scutt vs Ben Robb

It’s hard to chat about this one without any bias creeping in, given Darts Now recently became Connor Scutt’s latest sponsor. We’re all looking forward to him repping the brand on his shirt tonight — and hopefully in round two!

On our big preview, I made a case for Connor being overpriced to win this opening clash 3-0 at 6/4. Given the best price knocking about today is 11/10 (with quotes of 4/6 knocking about!), I think we can mark that up as a moral victory regardless of the outcome.

Of course, such victories don’t pay and I wouldn’t be encouraging anyone to get stuck into the revised price. I do expect him to win this one quite comfortably but Ben Robb is not the mug that the odds may suggest.

Nicknamed Big Rig, the imposing Kiwi is preparing for his fifth Ally Pally appearance and has taken a set off both Mickey Mansell and Rusty-Jake Rodriguez in previous visits.

He always seems to average in the mid-to-high 80s and my original point was that Connor should have more than enough quality to tackle a similar performance without too many issues.

As we’ve seen last night, though, these things can easily go astray and I think you can give this game a wide berth with the sheer volume of money which has come for Scutt.

Taking a longer term view, it’ll be interesting to see if money comes again for him against Damon Heta, should he progress. I’ll be watching with great interest.

No bet here but best of luck to our man!

Best bet - No bet 

Cameron Menzies vs Leonard Gates

Undoubtedly one of 2024’s standout performers, there’s few players I’m more intrigued by in this year’s World Championship than Cameron Menzies.

Sat inside the top 10 of virtually every statistical metric this season, the slightly bonkers Scotsman has shown he possesses the ability to win big titles in the PDC — but does he yet believe he can do so?

Having largely excelled in floor tournaments, there was finally some TV-based encouragement during a rollercoaster run to the Grand Slam of Darts quarter-final in October. 

In Wolverhampton, he came through a “group of death” at the expense of Martin Schindler and Beau Greaves, before edging out James Wade 10-9 in an epic last 16 match and then losing another last-leg decider to Mickey Mansell in the quarters.

I found myself contemplating how Cammy would opt to view that week’s work. Did he leave thinking he had made progress, or did it feel like an opportunity missed?

Both have some credence but if you’re a backer of his, you’d want him to be taking the positives rather than dwelling on what could’ve been. Judging by his reaction at the end of that clash, I fear he may have been more deflated than enthused.

This clash with Leonard Gates shouldn’t provide too many issues. Gates is one of the Senior circuit’s shining lights but has a season average 10 points lower than his opponent tonight.

One area there is a clear disparity between the pair is in 180 hitting. 

Menzies is one of the best around, averaging 0.36 maximums per leg in 2024, while Gates is down at 0.18 per leg over the last 12 months. 

Rather than taking him on some kind of handicap, though, I instead want to chance Menzies hitting a 180 in every set due to the sheer disparity in the market.

Just to give you a flavour, Betfair go 8/5 on this occurring, LiveScore Bet go 13/8 and Bet365 are all the way out at 9/4. It really does show the importance of shopping around in these type of events!

That 9/4 looks perfectly fair given this game could easily end up being a quick one.

Best bet - Cameron Menzies to hit a 180 in every set @ 9/4 (Bet365)

Gerwyn Price vs Keane Barry

Gerwyn Price always splits opinion and @TheConnorCain thinks the Ice Man finally has his head in the right place again 💪

However, his recent form is a definite cause for concern ❌ | @DartsNow_ pic.twitter.com/gAATaFA63Z

— Odds Now (@OddsNow__) December 14, 2024

I must admit, I had this pencilled in as Gerwyn Price vs Kim Huybrechts, as any readers of yesterday’s column will know!

Fair play to Barry though, who produced what I would call his best performance for at least two years — even if that wasn’t reflected in a 95 match average.

His 180 hitting and, in particular, his superb finishing in the final three sets will have made Price sit up and take notice. But the question is whether or not he can repeat the trick here.

One thing I will say is how impressed I was by Barry’s post-match interview. For a young player who’s had a rough year, he seems very focused on the process and able to take a long-term view.

You’d expect someone of his age and stature to be a lot more results-oriented and I think that bodes well for him getting his promising career back moving in the right direction.

This particular match will tell us plenty about where Price’s game is. A first-round exit to Tricole in Minehead was worrying to say the least but I tend not to read into such early exits too much.

My colleague Connor referenced the Ice Man’s improved mindset in our big preview, so hopefully that will translate into him re-finding his very best form in 2025. It would be good for the game.

On this particular clash though, a watching brief is advised.

Best bet - No bet

Matt's best PDC World Championship evening bets for Monday, December 16, 2024

• 2pts - Niels Zonneveld to win and hit most 180s @ 11/8 (BoyleSports)
• 2pts - Cameron Menzies to hit a 180 in every set @ 9/4 (Bet365)