The 2022 PDC Masters Darts is the tenth staging of the tournament. As with last year, the field is now the top 24 ranked players on the O.O.M. Danny Noppert has withdrawn to attend the birth of his first child. Nathan Aspinall has also been ruled out due to injury. They have been replaced by Simon Whitlock and Devon Petersen, the 25th and 26th ranked players.

This remains a non-ranking tournament but there is a prize money pool of £220,000, with £60,000 for the winner. The winner may, and it is not official, be one of the picks for the Premier League which starts just four days after the end of this tournament. Last year saw Jonny Clayton winning the Masters, being the final pick for the PL and going on to win it.

Wait And See For PDC

My guess is that the PDC are not saying as they want to see who the winner is. It may well be won by someone who is in the likely line up in any case. However, if, say Whitlock or Ian White won it, would the PDC make room for them over, say, Michael Smith? Probably not, but if Ryan Searle or Dirk van Duijvenbode, then yes, they might well get a pick.

The top eight ranked players get a bye into the second round while the players ranked 9-24, play in the first round on Friday evening in a best of 11 legs format. The second round and quarter finals are best of 19 and the semi-final and final best of 21.

Five Different Winners

There have been five different winners of the title. Michael Van Gerwen won five from 2015 to 2019 and there has been one title each for Taylor, Wade, Wright and Clayton. Until last year, there were just 16 players involved and it was a lesser tournament because of it. For some, it was just a pipe opener for the season ahead and a chance to pick up a minimum of £5k just for turning up.

The fact that it is non-ranking does mean it is a tournament not held in as high regard as it should. The prize money is decent, and it is a televised tournament. However, in the past, some players may not have been as finely tuned as they would normally be.

Premier Motivation

Now that there may be a place in the PL up for grabs, I dare say more of the players will have tried to prepare better and take it a bit more seriously. However, the fact remains that most players in the field will not have played a competitive match this year. There is bound to be a bit of rust on the players. Especially those that may have enjoyed a long Christmas break and a holiday.

The fact that MVG dominated for five years was down to him taking it seriously, wanting to win another title and to sharpen himself up for the PL. Mervyn King, one of the biggest practicers there is, has only played in four Masters, but made two finals. Others with decent records are Wade, Wright and surprisingly, Gary Anderson. He is one player who won’t have practiced much if at all, but he has played in four semi-finals and made one final.

Hard To Judge Form

It is harder to judge a player’s form coming into this event than any other just because of the extended break that the players have had. The top 8 seeds only need to win four matches to claim the title. They avoid the short format first round matches, so they do have something of a head start. Last year was the first time we had this first to six leg first round format. Of the unseeded players, only three won their second-round matches. One of them was Jonny Clayton and he went on to win the title.

The bookmakers had Gerwyn Price as the joint 5.50 favourite to win the title, (in the last 24 hours, MVG has been cut to 5.00). That is despite the fact that he has never gone beyond the semi-final in his previous four visits to the Masters. Price has won eight of his last ten matches and has the second highest average over the last 12 months. He is an obvious contender.

MVG Still Scoring Heavily

One time co-favourite is five-time winner, Michael van Gerwen. With a 12 month average of 99.28, MVG is the heaviest scorer in the sport. He has won eight of his last ten matches, but he had to pull out of the World Championship due to catching Covid. That means he has played no competitive darts since December 18th.

He has not won a major title since March 2020 and his two titles in 2021 were the distinctly lightweight World Series of Darts final and a players championship title. The form of a 5.00 shot? His odds are fair enough given his tournament record and no doubt he will see this as a good opportunity to start 2022 in the right way.

Peter Wright won this in 2020, on the back of winning his first World Championship. It was the first, and very nearly only, time he was introduced, to a full house, as the World Champion. The crowd went mad, and he loved it. He was denied that pleasure for the rest of his reign as World Champion. He now has another chance to get the credit he deserves.

Snakebite has won his last 12 matches and in 2021 he won four players championship titles, the World Matchplay, the Players Championship finals and started 2022 by winning the World Championship. He is the form player in the tournament and his tournament record suggests that he takes it seriously. Some might say that Snakebite should be favourite and that there is value in odds of 6.00.

Ferret To Be Feared

Defending champion Jonny Clayton is 8.00 to defend his title. He would be only the second player to do so. He remains one of the very top players and his consistency is to be commended. It is that consistency which will make him a real threat to defend his Premier League title. His draw this weekend means The Ferret is due to meet Gerwyn Price in the quarter final. He has only won two of their last eleven matches (although he has won two of their last three).

Of course, this is a non-ranking tournament and Clayton has banked a small fortune from unranked events. The 2020 World Cup of Darts, the 2021 Masters, the 2021 Premier League and the 2021 World Series of Darts were all won by Clayton. Clayton must be on the shortlist in any tournament.

Bully Boy Too Short

Michael Smith is the 10.00 fifth favourite. That seems very short to me. His loss in the final of the World Championship at the start of the month was his seventh televised PDC final and his seventh loss. Another blow to the heart. He remains the best player never to have won a televised tournament, yet he is always short in the betting. It is one thing to be able to make finals, another to win them.

It is not going to get any easier for him. Smith lost the final here in 2020, 10-11 to Peter Wright and he should have won that one. He has the game to win any tournament. However, until he gets it over the line on TV, he is a no bet for me.

It is 23.00 bar the top five in the betting and the bookies clearly think it will be one of the above who wins on Sunday night. They are probably right, but there are a few outsiders worth considering.

Wade One To Watch

James Wade is a past winner, albeit back in 2014, and the runner up in 2019. He has won seven of his last ten matches and while his scoring is not top drawer, he knows how to get the job done. He lacks the consistency of the top players, but he has reached the semi-final of the two of the last three majors. If he is in the mood, Wade could have a good weekend. Odds of 29.00 are not to be sneezed at.

Having won eight of his last ten matches, Ryan Searle is one of the form players here. Runner up in the 2021 Players Championship finals, he reached the last 16 at Ally Pally, but it must be said that his form was not what it had been in the build up to the World Championship.

A rest may have done him good and 2022 is the year where Searle really needs to get a stage win under his belt. He has a tough first round tie against Merv King and if he wins that, he faces Gerwyn Price in the second. He can be backed at 51.00 but he has a tough path to the final.

King Poorly Drawn

A mention must go to Mervyn King. A two-time finalist here from just four appearances. Like Michael Smith, he just can’t win the big titles, but his professionalism means he is likely to be in as good a shape as he can be, and he will have prepared properly. Like Searle however, he has a horrible draw, but he just gets on with playing whoever is put in front of him and he is capable of beating anyone on his day. Given his tournament record, odds of 101.00 are a touch generous, even if his form at the end of 2021 was not great.

2022 PDC Masters Darts Outright Selections

This is not an event to go mad on as the players form is a little cold, but somebody will win it. Of the nine previous winners, four won it on the back of winning the World Championship. That should not be a surprise, but it makes Peter Wright’s odds of 6.00 look attractive.

From the top half of the draw, I’ll take James Wade. It is the tougher looking half of the draw, but he has made two finals here and two other semi-finals, so he looks to be a player who takes the event seriously.

2022 PDC Masters Darts Tips: 2 points Peter Wright to win The Masters @ 6.00 with SpreadEx, Hills, Betfred

2022 PDC Masters Darts Tips: 0.5 point e/w James Wade to win The Masters @ 29.00 generally available

-JamesPunt