World Matchplay Darts: Night three predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time

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Two former champions in Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson are both in action on Monday night, as well as fellow seeded players Daryl Gurney and Nathan Aspinall.

Here's our match-by-match guide of all the action...

World Matchplay: Monday July 19

• TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 BST)
• Format: Best of 19 legs. Each game must be won by two clear legs, with up to a maximum of five additional legs being played before the sixth additional leg is sudden-death
• Suggested Acca: King and Heta to win at 7/1 (Sky Bet)

Daryl Gurney (10/11) v Ian White (10/11)

• Head to Head: 4-9 (TV: 0-2)
• Meetings since start of 2020: 1-1 (TV: 0-0)
• Last Meeting: 4-6 (Players Championship 13, June 2021)
• Career PDC Titles: 5-13 (TV: 2-0)
• Titles This Season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• Overall average in 2021: 93.96 - 94.72
• 180s per leg in 2021: 0.26 - 0.25
• Legs won with a 100+ checkout: 8.75% - 8%

As the odds suggest, it's pretty hard to pick a winner between two players who have fallen on difficult times this season from both a results and performance perspective.

Daryl Gurney, who was left out of the Premier League after three successive years involved, has only reached one quarter-final since a plucky run to that stage of the World Championship while Ian White went one step further at a Players Championship event back in February and has since struggled to string more than a couple of wins together.

Statistically they are both well outside the top 20 for seasonal averages so it goes without saying they need a couple of victories on the big stage to give their confidence levels a shot in the arm.

Gurney has the better record at the Winter Gardens having reached the semi-finals on two occasions whereas White has only got past the second round once when he got to the quarter-finals way back in 2015, so perhaps SuperChin will be relishing the surroundings more tonight.

Gurney's Player Performance targets of over 3.5 180s and a checkout of over 92.5 are pretty tame even if this isn't geared up to be a spectacular contest - the toughest part of the treble will be the win.

• Predicted Scoreline: 10-7
• Suggested Bet: Daryl Gurney to win the match, score over 3.5 180s and checkout over 92.5 at 15/8 (Sky Bet)

Nathan Aspinall (8/13) v Mervyn King (5/4)

• Head to Head: 0-2 (TV: 0-2)
• Meetings since start of 2020: 0-1 (TV: 0-1)
• Last Meeting: 3-10 (Masters, January 2021)
• Career PDC Titles: 7-8 (TV: 2-0)
• Titles This Season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• Overall average in 2021: 95.56 - 95.82
• 180s per leg in 2021: 0.28 - 0.22
• Legs won with a 100+ checkout: 11.6% - 13.9%

Of all the seeded players, Nathan Aspinall was arguably handed one of the toughest first-round draws considering how well Mervyn King has performed at major tournaments over the past six months.

Neither player has been tearing up the ProTour circuit with their averages or results this season although King had the marginally better Super Series a couple of weeks ago when reaching a couple of quarter-finals compared to Aspinall's one but they both averaged 100+ on three occasions so there's really not much between them when it comes to current form.

However, King thrashed Aspinall 10-3 at the televised Masters back in January as he went on to reach his second big final in three months having also done the same at the Players Championship Finals in November. He lost the latter - which was six years after his previous PDC major final - in a deciding leg to MVG whereas in the Masters he pushed Jonny Clayton hard before losing 11-8.

Aspinall also reminded everyone he's also a man for the big TV stages when reaching the Play-Offs of the Premier League for the second season running despite being among the favourites for Judgement Night relegation.

I do think there's the potential for this one to go a similar way to their previous meeting on this stage two years ago when King ran out a 10-5 winner but I'm going also going to include Aspinall throwing the most 180s to enhance the odds to 9/2. They threw five apiece when King battered him 10-3 in the Masters while Aspinall has a significantly higher 180s per leg in 2021 than the 55-year-old.

• Predicted Scoreline: 7-10
• Suggested Bet: King to win and Aspinall to hit most 180s at 9/2 (Sky Bet)

Michael van Gerwen (2/7) v Damon Heta (13/5)

• Head to Head: 5-2 (TV: 2-0)
• Meetings since start of 2020: 3-2 (TV: 0-0)
• Last Meeting: 3-7 (Players Championship 4, February 2021)
• Career PDC Titles: 138-2 (TV: 55-1)
• Titles This Season: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
• Overall average in 2021: 98.58 - 96.44
• 180s per leg in 2021: 0.20 - 0.31
• Legs won with a 100+ checkout: 15.57% - 11.55%

To think Michael van Gerwen hasn't won a title since November 2020 is pretty unfathomable considering he'd had three this time last year - including a major - despite there only being 16 events played.

His triumph at the Players Championship Finals back in November was his fifth of a very difficult year in which he seemingly lost that fear factor of old due to inconsistencies and vulnerabilities in his own game, but since then he's still performed very well from a statistics point of view.

His average of 98.58 may 'only' be third behind Jose de Sousa and Gerwyn Price this year but it's plenty high enough to put him in title contention on a regular basis. He lost in the Premier League semi-finals for the first time in his career and was also beaten in both of his ProTour finals to de Sousa and Peter Wright.

Although he should reach at least the quarter-finals and probably beyond in this softer section of the draw, Damon Heta shouldn't be underestimated and might be worth a flutter tonight.

The Australian debutant beat MVG in their last meeting en route to a semi-final back in February while his seasonal average puts him around the top 10 in the world. Even a couple of weeks ago at the most recent Super Series, he averaged over 100 four times in a row across two days and that included two narrow defeats to Gerwyn Price - who averaged 113 - and Scott Mitchell.

We saw during Heta's famous Brisbane Darts Masters title run in 2019 as well as two quarter-final runs on his Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals debuts last season that he's not fazed by the big occasion so don't expect stage fright tonight.

He's got a considerably superior 180s per leg ratio than MVG this season so I'm going to throw that into the mix as well.

• Predicted Scoreline: 8-10
• Suggested Bet: Damon Heta to win and throw most 180s at 4/1 (Sky Bet)

Gary Anderson (8/13) v Stephen Bunting (5/4)

• Head to Head: 9-3 (TV: 3-2)
• Meetings since start of 2020: 2-0 (TV: 0-0)
• Last Meeting: 6-5 (Players Championship 7, March 2020)
• Career PDC Titles: 47-3 (TV: 15-0)
• Titles This Season: 0-1 (TV: 0-0)
• Overall average in 2021: 95.73 - 93.97
• 180s per leg in 2021: 0.27 - 0.27
• Legs won with a 100+ checkout: 12.08% - 15%

Unfortunately three of my pre-tournament outsiders for World Matchplay glory - Dirk van Duijvenbode, Chris Dobey and Ryan Searle - have all been edged out in close matches over the weekend, leaving Stephen Bunting as my last big-price man standing.

I'm still sticking by him, obviously, despite bad luck elsewhere and hopefully he'll join my headline tip Dimitri Van den Bergh in the second round.

Here's what I wrote in my main preview: "Stephen Bunting played fantastically with home support en route to the quarter-finals here two years ago and appeared rejuvenated at the most recent World Championship when reaching the semi-finals.

"A slow start to the season followed but at last week's Super Series he brilliantly ended his five-year wait for a PDC title when defeating both Gerwyn Price and Dimitri Van den Bergh to pick up the £10,000 top prize that sealed his place in the World Matchplay field.

"You can never write off Gary Anderson, Nathan Aspinall and Mervyn King on these big stages but they've not been playing to a standard that will worry the others in this quarter and Bunting can take advantage. The 12/1 on him to win the quarter is tempting but if he can get past MVG then he's just one step away from a big each-way payout at 100/1."

Anderson's season has been very mixed having failed to reach the Premier League play-offs while he's also failed to reach a ProTour final, but the latter is obviously misleading considering he always tries to save his A game for the majors. It's not a given that always goes to plan, mind, and since reaching the World Championship final, he was knocked out of the UK Open and Masters early on.

It should be a hard-fought contest with plenty of 180s and high checkouts whatever the result, especially when you think that Bunting has the third highest 'legs won with a 100+ checkout percentage' (15%) behind Glen Durrant and Michael van Gerwen.

So I'm heading for the Match Action market where you can get 11/10 on the match having over 15.5 legs, a high checkout of over 116.5 and more than 7.5 total 180s.

• Predicted Scoreline: 8-10
• Suggested Bet: Match to have over 15.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 116.5 and over 7.5 total 180s at 11/10 (Sky Bet)

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