The darting action continues throughout this week in Blackpool. There wasn’t many surprises on Sunday with most of the fancied players obliging. James Punt has previewed all of tonight’s games and he is recommending a trio of value bets. Check out his PDC World Matchplay Monday tips below.

Daryl Gurney vs. Ian White

Two players looking to find some better form. Neither found it at Super Series 5 with White winning just five matches and ending the week losing three in a row at the Euro tour qualifiers. His win rate in 2021 is just 49% down from 61% in 2020. His scoring in recent matches has been very erratic, everything from 78 to 102 averages which makes predicting his performance difficult, but he his losing more matches than he is winning.

Superchin’s seasonal win rate is 59%, actually very slightly up on last year but well shy of his 71% peak in 2017. He won six matches at Super Series 5 and qualified for two of the three Euro tour events on the Friday. That means Gurney has won seven of his last ten, White just four.

Their H2H record is a surprising 9-4 to White but since 2017 it is a more realistic 3-3. They have met just once this year. That was at Super Series 4 and it was White who won, despite Gurney averaging 101. These two met at this stage of this tournament in 2016 with White winning 10-2.

The bookmakers make Gurney the 1.91 favourite and White 2.00. I cannot argue with those odds and with neither player full of confidence, it does not look like a good beating match. No bet.

PDC World Matchplay Monday: Nathan Aspinall vs. Merv King

These two have only met twice and King won both and by some margin. They last met in this years Masters when it was a 10-3 win and previously back in 2019 when King won 10-5 here at the World Matchplay.

Aspinall’s 2021 form has taken a dip. His win rate in 2019 and 2021 was a steady 69% but this year that has dropped to 59%. His scoring average is now a healthy 95.5. King is averaging 95.8 but he a better win rate at 65%. Not a lot between the two and their recent form sees six wins from ten for Aspinall and seven from ten for King.

Merv King just shades it stat wise and their H2H form is another positive for Kings chances. The bookmakers have Aspinall as the 1.73 favourite and King at 2.25 but I would have to make King a slight favourite. Aspinall has never got beyond the first round in his two Matchplay first rounds while King is a former semi-finalist and has made three more quarter finals, including 202 and 2017. He may be getting on a bit, but he remains fully competitive and committed.

PDC World Matchplay Monday Tip: 1 point Merv King to win @ 2.25 with Skybet

Michael van Gerwen vs. Damon Heta

Van Gerwen’s win drought continues. It is now nearly eight months since he edged out Merv King 11-10 in the final of the Players Championship finals. There have been plenty of near misses, including PC 20 a couple of weeks ago, when he lost 2-8 in the final. Van Gerwen averaged 106 in that match and was thrashed. He will be getting frustrated and perhaps a little worried.

His game peaked in 2016 when his win rate was an incredible 91% but it has fallen every years since and this year is 71%. That is still a very high win rate and only six of the other 32 players in the tournament have a better win rate. But he is losing his lustre.

Damon Heta is tenth for seasonal average at 96.4 and has good win rate of 64%. He beat MVG in the only match this year, a 7-3 win in the semi-final of PC4 back on the last day of February. Ever since Heta has won plenty of matches but rarely puts a long run together, reaching just one quarter final since. His most recent form has seen five wins from ten but there were four ton plus averages in his last six.

Heta Needs To Kick On

Heta is a very good player but just hasn’t kicked on as well as many expected. This is his debut in the Matchplay and we have seen only two of this years seven debutants win so far, and one of them, Rydz, drew the out of form Glen Durrant, and even he struggled.

Their H2H record is 5-2 to MVG but Heta has won two of the last three.

Van Gerwen is the 1.30 favourite, Heta a 4.00 shot. There is some value in Heta’s odds but it is marginal. Instead, I will have a small bet on Heta to win and have the most 180’s. Heta is ranked 6th for 180’s per leg, MVG 73rd. If Heta is to win he will need to score well and hit quite a few 180’s. MVG tends to go for treble 19 a lot of the time , hence his low 180 scoring rate.

PDC World Matchplay Monday Tip: 0.5 point Heta to win and have the most 180’s @ 5.00 with Betfair

Gary Anderson vs. Stephen Bunting

Bunting picked up his first PDC title since 2016 when he won players championship 17 last week. He beat Van den Bergh in the final and Gerwyn Price in the semi-final. He backed that up by reaching the quarter final the next day but since then he rather reverted to type, and he has won just five of his last ten matches.

Gary Anderson leads their H2H stats 10-3 and he has not lost to Bunting since 2015. They have played each other three times in this event and Anderson has won all three, the last two 10-7. His most recent form has seen Anderson win five of his last ten matches. He reached the quarter final of PC19 but had two sub 90 averages and his scoring is inconsistent and unpredictable.

There is no doubt that Anderson’s game is on the slide, time waits for no man and all that, but he still puts in big averages reasonably regularly. The problem is the next match can be completely different. PC 14 last month was a case in point, he beat Joe Cullen 6-4 in the quarter final, averaging 106 but lost 2-7 to MVG in the semi-final averaging 88.

There is very little between them in terms of scoring averages, win rates and so on, but the H2H record and specifically in this event suggests that Anderson wins this, not convincingly.

PDC World Matchplay Monday Tip: 0.5 point Gary Anderson to win 10-7 @ 8.50 with Boylesports

-JamesPunt