PDC World Championship: Thursday afternoon preview and best bets

(Featured image: Alamy Images)

Written by: Matt Hill

We’re back to double sessions at the Ally Pally today as the PDC World Championship round one and two action rolls on.

Our darts tipster Matt Hill (@Matt_Hill93) bounced back to form yesterday with 5/6 and 2/1 winners, softening the blow after his opening 21/20 shot was beaten at 1/50 in-running!

Matt will be hoping luck is on his side today with six selections from eight matches.

PDC World Championship 2025 betting tips

Chris Landman vs Lok Yin Lee

I’m delighted to say the 100% record of my antepost round one picks has lived to fight another day after Madars Razma overcame Christian Kist last night despite losing the 180 count.

That was the exact combination we were after and translated into a 2/1 winner to go along with Kai Gotthardt most 180s (4/1) and Connor Scutt to win 3-0 (6/4).

This fantastic run feels unlikely to continue, particularly as it’s now over to my biggest outside poke of all, Lok Yin Lee.

The Hong Kong World Cup star will be looking to follow in the footsteps of his international teammate Man Lok Leung, who lit up Ally Pally last year when plundering in double-figure 180s en route to stunning Gian van Veen 3-2.

I’m not sure this is going to be quite as spectacular a contest when he takes on Chris Landman, though I do think the Asian Tour ace can outrun his odds, providing he handles the occasion.

Dutch thrower Landman is a very solid operator with plenty of big stage experience, having won at Ally Pally on his only previous visit back in 2022 against Scott Mitchell.

He was also a WDF World Championship finalist last year, so there’s no doubting his ability but I do worry about two things — his form and his experience of being an overwhelming favourite.

Landman only made it beyond the third round of three Players Championship events this term and suffered a first-round exit at last month’s PC Finals in Minehead, so he’s not had much big stage exposure recently.

He also won’t have experienced anything quite like this. A crowd almost certain to be firmly behind his opponent coupled with a huge expectation (as a 1/6 favourite) that he’ll prevail comfortably.

I see this game being a bit more nip and tuck than the market suggests. As a result, I’m having a point on over 3.5 sets at 17/20 and a further half point on Lee to spring an upset, at a best price of 5/1.

It’s speculative, but it could pay.

Best bet - over 3.5 sets @ 17/20 (Quinn Bet)/ Lok Yin Lee to win @ 5/1 (general)

Callan Rydz vs Romeo Grbavac

Callan Rydz has had a fairly torrid time of things since his fairytale run to the quarter-finals here three years ago but I still think he’ll have too much for Romeo Grbavac here.

The Geordie has been sliding down the rankings and now finds himself entering at the first stage for the first time since 2022, where he memorably raced to the last eight while only dropping one set, before losing an overtime epic to eventual champion Peter Wright 5-4.

Since then, he’s lost his opening clash in consecutive years, exiting 3-0 to Josh Rock two years ago before losing a narrow contest 3-2 to Ricardo Pietreczko this time last year.

There’s no doubting Rydz is some way from the best version of himself but equally, this is a far kinder draw than those two previous ones and he will expect to take advantage.

We’ve not seen all that much of Grbavac, though he did impress at this year’s World Cup of Darts where he and big Boris Krcmar muscled their way into the quarter-finals.

Grbavac is a steady operator but I find his throw to be quite snatchy, with a lot of stray single ones and fives. He can hit a 180 too but that lack of consistency does tend to offer up ample chances for his opponent.

Rydz has struggled for form recently but should still fancy himself against Grbavac. (Photo credit: Alamy Images)

Occasional high scoring shouldn’t scare Rydz, who is a talented maximum hitter himself and I think he’ll get plenty of chances on the outer ring, which is his usual Achilles heel.

Followers will know my 3-0 bets have not gone well so far, to say the least. Nathan Aspinall was the latest selection and for the FIFTH time in a row, it was another 3-0 correct score pick that my man ended up winning 3-1 instead.

You could say I’m failing to learn my lesson but I still think if you think the price is big, you must stick to your principles.

I’d go closer to 13/8 or 6/4 about Rydz here and at 9/4 with William Hill, the correct score looks worth chancing.

We must be due some luck here!

Best bet - Callan Rydz 3-0 Romeo Grbavac correct score @ 9/4 (William Hill)

Martin Lukeman vs Nitin Kumar

I’ll keep things brief here. Martin Lukeman should be far too good for Nitin Kumar and I won’t win any awards for saying that, with Smash a best-priced 1/25 to prevail.

In such clashes, it’s easy to try and side with the 3-0 correct score as a starting point but at a skinny 4/9, there’s ample risk involved in that strategy — just look at Rashad Sweeting vs Jeffrey De Graaf on Tuesday evening as a prime example.

Kumar has played on this stage three times and is yet to win a set, though the Royal Bengal has been competitive to a point. He averaged 90 in defeat to Brendan Dolan, for example, which is a very fair standard.

So while I wholeheartedly expect a 3-0 success forLukeman, who made the Grand Slam of Darts final in impressive fashion just a few weeks ago, there’s no point in chasing a bet here.

Instead, I’ll just give this a watching brief.

Best bet - No bet

Gabriel Clemens vs Robert Owen

Gabriel Clemens is another classy operator who, like Callan Rydz, is sliding down the rankings at an alarming rate after a poor 2024.

This is a big tournament for the German Giant, who is defending £100,000 from his semi-final run 24 months ago and will plummet out of the world’s top 32 as a result unless he can somehow match that feat this year.

It should be just a temporary exit from the elite for Clemens, who has bundles of class, though nobody is guaranteed top status in the ultra-competitive PDC these days.

But his record here is, generally speaking, an excellent one and I still think he’ll have too much for Robert Owen, who did well to dump out Niels Zonneveld.

Both myself and my colleague Adam Smith were hopeful of a deep run from Zonneveld but fair play to Stack Attack, who produced one of his best big-stage performances in many a year to get the job done.

Owen is in good form but I find it hard to get too enthusiastic about him facing a real quality player on the big stage, given how few of these kind of matches he has prevailed in during quite a long career.

His two solitary Euro Tour second round appearances this term both ended in comfortable defeats to Gian van Veen, while he’s not won two games at any major TV tournament since his fairytale run to the UK Open semi-finals in 2018.

Owen has been well backed for an upset, the reasons for which are obvious to see (Clemens’ poor form, largely) but I still think there’s a class difference and, crucially, a big-stage experience difference between the pair.

At the prices, I’m happy to take the favourite on a -1.5 sets handicap line to double our money.