The 2024 Betfred World Matchplay continues at the Winter Gardens on Thursday night so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and a suggested acca.
Darts betting tips: World Matchplay day six
1pt Humphries to win, hit the most 180s and highest checkout at 2/1 (Sky Bet)
1pt Ross Smith (-6.5) to hit more 180s than Wade at 11/10 (Paddy Power)
SL Double: 1pt Humphries (-4.5) & Smith (-3.5) both to win at 3/1 with Sky Bet
Evening Session (1900 BST)
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports
- Format: Quarter-Finals, best of 31 legs
Ross Smith v James Wade
- Three-Dart Average (2024): 95.79 - 93.75
- 180s per leg (2024): 0.38 - 0.20
- Checkout % (2024): 38.47% - 40.77%
There's three certainties in life. Death, taxes and Ross Smith hitting more 180s than James Wade tonight.
Smith, who is one of the most prolific on tour, fired in a whopping 13 against Gerwyn Price in the previous round while Wade has managed just three in his two games so far.
The Machine better hope his finishing is as clinical as usual otherwise he'll find it very hard to live with such insane scoring power throughout a long format encounter. Of course we've seen Smith maintain these kind of levels throughout long World Championship games so don't expect the 180s to dry up as we enter the latter stages.
Overall, Smith has averaged close to 100 in both of his matches so far and in beating Price 11-9, he reaffirmed his capability of putting an all-round performance together on a major stage under intense pressure - even if his doubling could have been better.
Wade obviously handles these types of occasion like a duck to water and but I don't think his battling qualities will be enough on this occasion.
As for a bet, I'm not convinced about going high on match 180s because we've only got one player who will realistically pull his weight - and it could be so one-sided on that front I'm backing Smith on the maximum handicaps.
Verdict: 16-12
CLICK HERE to bet on Smith v Wade with Sky Bet
WATCH: RANKING THE MAJOR WINNERS AT THEIR PEAK
Luke Humphries v Dimitri Van den Bergh
- Three-Dart Average (2024): 99.41 - 93.93
- 180s per leg (2024): 0.34 - 0.29
- Checkout % (2024): 42.9% - 35.84%
Luke Humphries was clear favourite to beat Dimitri Van den Bergh when they last met in the UK Open final back in March but despite fighting back brilliantly after a slow start, it was the Belgian who had the coolest of hands when it came down to a deciding leg.
The world champion looked more human in the opening months of the season than he did at the end of 2023 amid all the attention, pressure and hectic schedule so it would have been unrealistic to expect his relentless run of winning majors to continue without a break. Especially with a certain Luke Littler stealing the limelight.
Indeed, Van den Bergh was quick to point out ahead of this quarter-final that "Humphries is still in Littler's shadow" and while that's obviously true from a fame point of view, the world number one now has a golden opportunity exert his darting superiority without the 17-year-old grabbing the headlines.
Humphries is certainly displaying his usual high levels and ruthless consistency on the Winter Gardens stage having opened up his campaign with a breathtaking 109 average in a 10-4 thrashing of Ricardo Pietreczko before managing 102 in an 11-7 victory over the Masters champion Stephen Bunting 11-7.
Van den Bergh produced a magic nine-darter as he soundly put Martin Schindler to the sword and then showed a below-par Jonny Clayton no mercy to get here with the minimum of fuss, but he'll struggle to live with Humphries on this kind of form in the longer format.
I'm going to side with Humphries in the Match Treble market as he's the more prolific when it comes to 180 hitting and if he wins the majority of legs, then the highest checkout is more likely.
Verdict: 16-9
CLICK HERE to bet on Humphries to win, hit most 180s and the high checkout with Sky Bet
CLICK HERE to bet on Humphries v Van den Bergh with Sky Bet
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