PDC World Darts Championship 2023 Preview and Tips

The greatest show in darts is ready for lift-off as the kings of the oche get ready to take centre stage at Alexandra Palace in London.

The 31st PDC World Darts Championship begins on December 15 when number one seed and reigning champion Michael Smith kicks off the defence of the title he won for the first time in thrilling fashion last January.

Railed against ‘Bully Boy’ are another 95 players from across the globe, all hoping that they will be the one holding aloft the Sid Waddell Trophy on January 3.

Three-time winner Michael van Gerwen plus former champions Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Gary Anderson are among the big names who will be on many people's shortlists.

But it is Luke Humphries, a player who had not won a major televised title until as recently as October, who heads the betting at 3/1 after a sparkling autumn in which he picked up the World Grand Prix, the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals.

Tip 1 – Rob Cross to win the PDC World Championship @ 14/1

Rob Cross, as one of seven former PDC world champions in the field, knows what it takes to go all the way at the Ally Pally and he has to fancy he can reclaim a title he won in 2018.

More than two years have passed since ‘Voltage’ won the last of his four major titles and he has been through some tough times.

But in 2023 the 33-year-old from Sussex has produced some of his best darts for years while winning on the Pro Tour and the European Tour as well as two World Series events in Australia and New Zealand respectively.

On top of that, Cross has been producing in the televised events this autumn, including a run to the Grand Slam final where a 103 average wasn't enough to land a mark on man-of-the-moment Humphries.

As the eighth seed this year, Cross finds himself in the opposite half of the draw to both Humphries and Van Gerwen – it is a draw that should leave the 14/1 shot feeling seriously bullish about his prospects.

Tip 2 –Stephen Bunting to win the PDC World Championship @ 33/1

There is no doubt that Humphries is the in-form man in the field but 3/1 for a player who has never won the world title before is a leap of faith. This is a long, high-pressure three weeks of sustained quality and even the very best players can fall short.

He is Evens just to win his quarter of the draw, a section where obstacles en route to landing those odds could include Joe Cullen and Nathan Aspinall, two hugely impressive arrowsmiths who are quite capable of toppling ‘Cool Hand Luke’ on a good day.

If Cross is taken to emerge from the top half, then Stephen Bunting gets the nod from the bottom half.

Not one of the seven PDC world champions in the 96-player field, Bunting did win the BDO version at the Lakeside way back in 2014 and has reached the semis and the quarters at the Palace in two of the last three runnings.

‘The Bullet’ is playing better than this year than he has for some time, culminating in a run to the last eight of the Players Championship Finals and the last four of the Grand Slam, where he saw off Dave Chisnall, Wright and Danny Noppert.

Tip 3 – Quarter 2 Winner James Wade @ 9/1

The big guns in Quarter 2 are Wright, who is enduring a terrible year, and Price, the pantomime villain of the oche who has never warmed to a venue where his only win came when no fans were allowed in.

Both are class but fragile and are well worth opposing in quarter betting with the likes of Raymond van Barneveld, James Wade and Anderson sharing the sectional top billing.

Eleven-time major winner Wade gets the nod at 9/1. He may be something of a veteran now but he is still only 40 and is remains capable of throwing some world-class darts.

For those wary that Wade might lack the scoring power of some of the emerging stars, his quarter is actually overflowing with the old guard with the likes of Wright, Van Barneveld and Anderson also joined by Andrew Gilding, Brendan Dolan and Simon Whitlock.

That will suit Wade, who beat Humphries on his way to the European Championship final in October and the likes of Smith and Josh Rock when reaching the semis at last month's Grand Slam.

For other odds check out our dedicated PDC World Championship odds page.