Bdo World Darts Betting
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While darts is often disparagingly dubbed a “pub game”, you only need to throw a few arrows yourself to gain an appreciation of the skill – and practice hours – required to get to the pinnacle of this popular sport.
Darts betting is very popular amongst our members who put in many hours of research before making their predictions. We provide all the information so that you can decide who you think the best darts tipster is at OLBG. The betting options for the BDO World Darts Championship are as comprehensive as you would find for any tournament in any code. In terms of the outright winner they are also released very early so punters should be able to stake in this market almost as soon as the previous edition finishes. Bulls i World Darts YouTube Channel. BDO Merchandise World Masters 2018 Qualifiers. Mens Qualified Players. Betting & Related Activity COP No 7 - Sports Equity Policy COP No 8 - Child Protection Policy. BDO World Trophy - Mens Rules BDO World Trophy - Ladies Rules.
With darts tournaments run by both the British Darts Organization (BDO) and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) increasing in popularity with spectators and gamblers alike, there are plenty of options when it comes to betting on – and winning money from – the sport. Read on for our guide to the types of bets you can place and some strategies to help you win when betting on darts, so you can hit the bullseye with your wagers.
- In This Article:
How To Bet On Darts
With more darts events than ever the bookies have introduced a good number of darts betting markets in recent years, from tournament betting to individual matches, there are many wagering options available.
Darts Bets
- Winner – There are no draws in darts matches making backing the winner as simple as it gets.
- Correct score – With the winner of a darts match being the first player to win a specified number of sets, the correct score betting market allows you to bet on the final score in sets of that match.
- Handicap betting – This involves backing the match winner, but with a plus or minus handicap of a number of sets or legs. So a favourite who is short odds in the outright match winner market could be worth backing with a -1 set handicap, for instance.
- Over/under – Simply backing whether a match will contain greater or fewer than the specified number of sets or legs, usually stated in half sets/legs to avoid a tie.
- Tournament outrights – as well as backing the outright winner of a particular tournament you also have the option to bet on players who you think will make the final.
- 170 checkout – In this bet you pick the player (or players) you think will achieve the maximum checkout of 170 in a given tournament.
- Highest three-dart average – This is a bet on which player will have the highest threedart average over the course of a tournament.
Darts Betting Rules
Whilst darts is not the most physical of sports, anything can happen on the oche, so it’s worth noting a couple of betting rules lest you get caught out.
If for any reason (injury seems unlikely, but you never know!) a player is unable to complete a match, bets on that match will be voided. If a match is postponed but replayed within a certain amount of time (12 hours for some bookies) bets may stand, but check with the individual bookie to be sure.
Darts Betting Strategy
In recent years in the PDC side of the sport one of the most successful strategies has simply been to back Phil “The Power” Taylor for just about everything. But nowadays other players are coming to the fore and – particularly in the BDO tournaments – the winners are rarely dominant for long periods of time.
Darts can be a particularly good sport to indulge in a spot of in-play betting as even when a player goes into a big lead and looks to be throwing well there is a tendency for matches to swing the other way. When bookies shorten the odds on the player in the ascendency based on the score but not the balance of play, that is when to back the underdog. For instance if the losing player has had a number of unlucky bounceouts, or is looking the calmer of the two and has a reputation for dealing with pressure better).
Overall doing your research on the current form of players coming into a tournament will usually pay dividends. A former star who is fading up against a fearless rookie could be an opportunity to back the newcomer at big odds for the match and for the tournament outright, especially in the BDO code.
Major Tournaments & Leagues
Professional darts in the UK is a very popular sport among fans and punters alike. After the controversial ‘split in darts’ in 1993 – when there was a dispute over the sport’s television coverage from the late 80s to early 90s – the World Darts Council (WDC), later to become the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), was formed, breaking away from the British Darts Organisation (BDO).
To this day, the organisations have remained split, each holding their own major tournaments throughout the year. The BDO organises tournaments like the Winmau World Masters, the BDO World Trophy and the World Professional Championship, with the latter being their pinnacle. Meanwhile, the PDC holds several championship competitions such as the UK Open, World Grand Prix, World Matchplay and the famous PDC World Darts Championship.
There are rare times when players from both governing bodies compete in the same events, with the Grand Slam of Darts being the only ongoing tournament where that is the case. That’s organised by the PDC and despite being the newer body, it is the PDC world title that is the most prestigious event in darts. PDC events also generally boast significantly higher prize money and receive more media coverage.
Winmau World Masters
The Winmau World Masters is the longest running BDO major tournament, starting way back in 1974. The competition was first staged in Fulham, and has since moved from Wembley to Earls Court and Kensington. Nowadays, the championship takes place at Lakeside Leisure Complex in Surrey. Winmau, which is a darts board manufacturer, has been the tournament’s sponsor for over 40 years.
The World Masters is one of three major BDO events, and it’s considered to be the second biggest behind the World Championship. As of 2017, in the 40+ year history of the Masters, only seven players have managed to win the title on more than one occasion. Eric Bristow holds the record for most tournament wins with five. Only 14 players have won the Masters and World title in their career.
The BDO World Trophy
The BDO World Trophy is the newest major darts tournament added to the British Darts Organisation’s calendar. The first event took place at Blackpool Tower in 2014, with James Wilson coming out on top. Since then, the championship has moved from Blackpool to Barry, via Manchester and Surrey.
As it’s a relatively new tournament, the World Trophy has yet to claim the hearts of all die-hard darts fans, but it’s certainly in the process of trying. Eurosport held the rights to broadcast the event in 2014 & 2015. After an issue with partner De:Luxe Sports Group, (TV channel) Dave ended up showing the 2016 event, while FrontRunner showed some of the 2017 event. The 2017 champions were Peter Machin and Aileen de Graaf.
BDO World Professional Championship
The World Championship is without doubt the BDO’s biggest tournament, and it has taken place at Lakeside annually since 1986. The first version was held at the Heart of the Midlands Club in Nottingham in 1978, but moved the following year to the Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke. There have been 24 different winners of the World Championship. Since the split, Raymond van Barneveld has lifted the trophy more than anyone, with five titles to his name. Van Barneveld is just one of many players to use BDO glory as a stepping stone to the PDC.
Over the years, the likes of BBC Sport, Channel 4, ESPN and BT Sport have all won the rights to broadcast the BDO World Championship. From 2017, Channel 4 signed a two-year deal to broadcast men’s and women’s matches from the tournament. Channel 4 showed afternoon games and the first semi-final, while BT Sport showed evening matches and the second semi. The 2017 final, meanwhile, was shown on both channels.
Whilst the BDO World Championship cannot rival its PDC equivalent for the standard of darts, it retains a unique charm and appeal. Moreover, with it generally being free to view, it often has a larger UK TV audience.
UK Open
Moving onto the PDC’s events, the UK Open, which is currently sponsored by bookmaker Coral, is one of the most popular PDC competitions on the calendar. Over the years, the tournament has earned the nickname the ‘FA Cup of darts’, due to the different levels of experience of the participating players, and a random draw after each round. The UK Open was established in 2003, with Bolton Wanderers’ Reebok Stadium (now the Macron Stadium) hosting the event for 10 years. Since 2013, Butlin’s Minehead has been its new home.
At the time of writing, Phil Taylor has won more UK Open titles than any other player in history, having won five of the six finals he’s participated in. Taylor’s only defeat in the final came in 2012, when Robert Thornton beat him 11-5 in Bolton. The 2017 winner was Peter Wright, as he saw off Gerwyn Price 11-6, bagging £70,000 prize money in the process.
World Matchplay
The World Matchplay tournament, known at the time of writing as the BetVictor World Matchplay for sponsorship reasons, is a major PDC competition played in a legs format. The event is played annually, and has been held at the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool since its emergence in 1994. Phil Taylor has been the dominant player in this event, winning 15 titles, which includes 13 of the last 17 (prior to the 2017 tournament). “Phil Taylor has been the dominant player in this event” is a sentence we can just about apply to every PDC event worth noting!
From 1994 to 2012, matches at this championship had to be won by two clear legs. However, since 2013, if a two-leg lead had not been established after six extra legs, then a sudden death scenario would come into play. Over the course of the competition’s 22-year existence, there have only been seven different winners.
PDC World Darts Championship
The PDC World Darts Championship is the sport’s leading and most prestigious event on the calendar each year. In 2018, the prize fund will be a staggering £1,800,000, compared to BDO’s World Championship fund of just £300,000 (as of 2016). The tournament begins in December, ending in early January every year.
At present, Phil Taylor is once again the most successful player in this tournament, winning 14 of the 24 World Championship events. However, Taylor’s last win came in 2013, with Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson both winning twice each since Taylor’s last triumph. The PDC World Championship has taken place at Alexandra Palace every year since 2008, with Circus Tavern being its home from 1994 to 2007.
Between 1995 and 2006 Taylor won 11 out of 12 titles, a truly staggering achievement. Many in the darts world feel that the Stoke legend is under-appreciated outside the sport. One thing is for sure though, anyone who has bet on The Power over the years certainly WILL appreciate him!
Premier League
The darts Premier League is unique in running over the course of much of the season, being a league, effectively, as opposed to a single tournament. It usually takes place between February and May each year.
Now featuring 10 of the best players in the world and with action every week, the Premier League is a popular event that travels the country. The exact format, including the number of players, has varied over the years. One thing that doesn’t vary is the name most frequently found on the trophy. Phil Taylor has won this one six times since the inaugural 2005 league.
Other Tournaments
Various other tournaments take place over the course of the season. The PDC also organises the likes of the World Grand Prix, the aforementioned Grand Slam of Darts, the Players Championship Finals and the European Championship. Several non-ranking events also take place each year.
Bdo World Darts Betting Rules
As for the BDO, they have the International Darts League, World Darts Trophy and BDO Gold Cup. With so many tournaments and so many matches taking place over the course of the year, there’s plenty to bet on when it comes to the darts!
The formerly prestigious darts organisation that nurtured the talents of Eric Bristow, Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen, amongst many others, now sadly ceases to exist after it was place into liquidation.
For decades, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) was the premier authority in the sport, but the formulation of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in the early 1990s set into motion a slow and painful demise for the amateur body.
After a series of catastrophes and gaffes in recent years, the BDO has now officially been liquidated as a commercial entity, with ownership of county darts now passing to the United Kingdom Darts Association (UKDA) following a revolt from BDO members.
At the time of filing for voluntary liquidation, the BDO had suffered a monumental £468,000 loss during the preceding financial year, and without any major commercial sponsors or a mainstream TV deal to speak of the organisation simply could not continue.
It all means that 40 years of history, including the prestigious World Championship – held largely at the Lakeside Country Club – and the World Masters, will no longer be played unless the UKDA is able to set up their own versions of the flagship events.
Blood On the Oche: Why Did the BDO and PDC Split?
It’s worth remembering that the BDO has always been the organisation for amateur darting stars, and it never had any pretensions of being anything else.
Quality players would make their way through the county system and into the bigger BDO events, with the aim of hopefully reaching the Lakeside each January.
That amateur stance was not to everyone’s tastes, and when Barry Hearn created the PDC in 1992 – securing a broadcast deal with Sky Sports and promising to increase the number of events played and the prize money kitty, it was a given that many would follow their wallets.
The BDO was initially founded in 1973, and five years later it hosted its first edition of the World Championship at the venue that would become synonymous with the sport, Lakeside.
Many of the greats of darts would go on to lift the trophy in the 1970s and 80s, including John Lowe, Eric Bristow (five times) and Jocky Wilson, while a young Phillip Taylor would get his hands on first of his sixteen world titles in 1990.
But there was a creeping desire that there was money to be made in darts, and so 19 rebels left the BDO in 1992 to form their own darting authority, which would latterly become Hearn’s PDC.
In 1993, Lowe won the last of the ‘unified’ World Championships, and since then the BDO and the PDC have hosted their own annual extravaganza.
The Expanding Divide in Fortunes for Darts
The PDC continued to grow thanks to their year-round exposure on Sky Sports – at this point, the BDO were only televised once a year on the BBC, and as the prize money and prestige rose so too did the number of players leaving the amateur game behind for a shot at the big time.
The BDO was given a shot of authenticity when Raymond van Barneveld emerged on the scene, but the Dutchman soon fled for the PDC along with many of his countrymen as the Netherlands became the hotbed of the sport.
Things were so dire for the BDO that Hearn even made a £1 million offer to buy out the beleaguered organisation in 2009, but that was rejected by the authority’s founder Olly Croft.
Croft was voted off the board in 2010 as he struggled to adapt to a new modern age, and with the PDC setting up their Challenge and Development Tours – giving amateur players a new entry point into the pro ranks, the writing was on the wall for the BDO.
Bdo Darts Results
They lost their BBC contract soon after, and following a short stint on Channel 4 the action was soon shifted to Eurosport and away from the eyes of terrestrial TV viewers for the first time.
That was arguably the death knell of the BDO….
Bdo World Darts Betting
Des Jacklin, the O2 Calamity and BDO’s Liquidation
In 2018, a knight in shining armour emerged to save the BDO.
Bdo World Darts Betting Sites
In the end, Des Jacklin – the brand’s new leader – had as many detractors as he did supporters, and some questionable decision making, including shifting the BDO World Championship to the O2 Arena and away from its spiritual Lakeside home, accelerated its demise.
An inability to secure a mainstream TV deal or any noteworthy commercial sponsors was a disaster, and the 2020 Worlds played out to barely half-full crowds in what was a sorry state of affairs.
Worse was to come. The total prize fund had to be slashed by more than half for the men’s event, and in the end the champion – Wayne Warren – pocketed just £23,000 for his win. Glen Durrant, just two years prior, netted £100,000.
Warren even threatened legal action against Jacklin, and has vowed to keep the trophy until he is paid ‘what’s owed to me.’
Bdo World Darts Betting Tips
Rumours of huge debts emerged, and after a calamitous edition of the World Masters the World Darts Federation revealed that it was to stop recognising BDO tournaments as legitimate events.
Jacklin stood down as chairman in March 2020 following a series of allegations of financial malpractice, but just one month later he was reinstated. That led to many counties leaving the BDO to join the UKDA, and by September all of the member counties had left following a vote of no confidence.
Who Will Take Control of British Amateur Darts?
The coronavirus pandemic has prevented the UKDA from really showing their mettle as far as the organisation of a legitimate amateur darting scene is concerned, but the hope is that they can create a county system that unearths the next generation of talent.
Their stated ambition is to ‘provide a solid and financially sound organisation to run grassroots darts in the UK’, and that would be a fine start following the hapless last few years of the BDO. Hopefully, they reinstate a World Championship and the World Masters in years to come.
Bdo Darts Scores
Meanwhile, Barry Hearn has shown his desire to get a slice of amateur darts with the creation of Modern Amateur Darts (MAD), which will be overseen by the chairman of the Junior Darts Corporation, Steve Brown.
MAD will host a region-based system of events, with a pathway for ‘pub to pro’ aimed at attracting the best local amateurs into their rankings.
So Is This the End of the BDO?
If the UKDA and MAD prove to be effective authorities in the management of amateur darts, it seems highly unlikely that the BDO will ever return.
How can they? Unless a huge investment is made, anyone purchasing the BDO brand would need to pay off significant debts and somehow attract the counties and their players back into the fold.
It’s a crying shame, given all that the BDO has given to the sport, but the organisation’s terminal decline means it is nigh-on impossible it will ever rise from the ashes.