Darts Betting Guide
Everybody loves a bit of darts! From the confines of smokey pubs and clubs across the UK, darts arrived in a big way onto our TV screens in the 70s and 80s. Larger than life characters like Bobby George, Eric Bristow and Jocky Wilson became household names, bringing the sport into the limelight and front rooms across the country. This popularity has only increased with the inception of Sky Sports in the early 90s providing even more coverage and if we look at the present day, darts is one of the most heavily bet on sports in the UK market. It is popular due to the simplicity of markets and also due to the sheer number of competitions and events that are held all year round. We’ll take a look at some of the competitions later on but first, we need to look at the different darts organisations.
BDO & PDC
For many years there was only one darts organisation overseeing world darts which was the BDO, British Darts Organisation. Up until the early 90s players played in unity, it was under the BDO stewardship that darts was thrust into the public mindset and players became stars. There was growing unrest among some of the players though over the way the sport was being governed and also over television coverage, or the perceived lack of it. This led to the formation of the World Darts Council, a set of breakaway players and agents who were actively trying to improve public perception of darts. The 1993 BDO World Championship was the last time that all players played within a unified championships. After this, the WDC broke away from the BDO to form their own organisation, with the backing of televised events on Sky. This was a big blow to the BDO as the 16 players to break away were the biggest names in the sports, all of them previous world champions. The WDC later renamed to become the PDC, Professional Darts Corporation. Currently, the PDC is the bigger of the two, attracts the higher prize money and holds the biggest stars like Michael Van Gerwen. The PDC also attracts far more attention from the bookies, with lots of offers attached to the competitions.
PDC/BDO Competition Highlights
PDC World Darts Championship
The biggest event of the year, taking place over Christmas and with the final usually being held on New Year’s Day. Held at the Alexandra Palace, or the Ally Pally as it is affectionately known is the pinnacle of the PDC darts calendar. It attracts huge amount of interest from the public, from TV broadcasters and, most importantly for us, from the bookmakers. Multiple bookies throw loads of daily offers for this tournament, this includes the incredible two sets ahead early payout offer from Bet365. For this offer, Bet365 will pay your bet out as winning if your backed darts player goes two sets ahead, regardless of whether that player wins or not. Whilst this is a great betting offer full stop, it is an even better matched betting one! Find out more about matched betting further down.
PDC Premier League
This is the top league for darts and is a round-robin style tournament involving the top four players from the PDC Order of Merit joined by six “wildcard” players. The league runs from February through to May, with events running each week at venues across Europe. The top four players at the end of the league go through to a knock-out finals night. Michael Van Gerwen is the current champion, winning for four straight years in a row 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
BDO World Championship
The BDO World Championship is an annual event, currently held at Lakeside Country Club in Surrey. Whilst it is not on the same scale as the PDC equivalent, it still attracts media attention (broadcast on BBC opposed to the PDC on Sky Sports) and some bookmaker offers.
Betting On Darts
As mentioned earlier, darts betting is very popular and there are many different markets that you can bet on.
Match Winner: A simple bet where you back the player you feel will win the match. In the majority of matches this will be a two way market with no draw, however for league style matches the draw can come into play.
Handicap: In this market, you will need to back a player to win but that player will be handed a virtual deficit or head start such as -2.5 legs or +2.5 legs. Your selected player must either win by more than the deficit or be within the allotted head start figure. Read more on handicap betting here.
Total 180s: Bet on how many 180s, the highest score from one visit, will be scored in a match, set or leg.
9 dart finish: Bet on whether you think there will be a 9 dart finish, the fastest way to win a leg, in the match. You will get high odds for this if you back yes.
Matched Betting and Darts
Darts, and in particular the PDC World Championships, is simply fantastic for making profit through matched betting. Matched Betting is a way of taking advantage of the hundreds of free bet offers dished out by bookies. Although it has betting in the name there is no real gambling involved as, unlike normal betting, we cover all possible outcomes of an event. This means regardless of the result we can make profit and turn those free bets into real cash!
Keen to Get Involved?
The great news is you don’t need to be a sports fan or betting fanatic to sign up and use Profit Accumulator. Many of our members are not sports fans and had never placed a bet in their lives but that doesn’t stop them from making some tax-free cash.
For more info on what matched betting is, check out these articles: