World Grand Prix Darts Betting 2009
Darts Betting continues to grow in popularity among the internet sports betting community keen to have high profile, prominantly featured broadcast events to follow their wagers on throughout the course of the year, and thanks to household names like Phil 'The Power' Taylor and Raymond 'Barney' van Barneveld filtering into our betting conscience, prime-time darts tournaments such as the current World Grand Prix Darts betting 2009 will extend awareness in the virtual betting arena.
Monday 5th October 2009 sees the start of the World Grand Prix Darts Championship whereby 32 of the world's best darts players will one by one eliminate rival competitors from the annual PDC tournament whilst homing in on the £100,000 first prize. Of increased importance year on year, World Grand Prix darts betting 2009 is provided courtesy of Sky Sports, who are televising this unique event in the darts calendar, with live screening of the double-start darts tournament. A tournament which sees defending champion, Phil 'The Power' Taylor gunning for a record-breaking ninth World Grand Prix title. In last year's corresponding World Grand Prix his 6 - 2 final victory over Raymond van Barneveld helped further cement his virtually immovable stranglehold over the tournament; something which he's managed to establish ever since its inception back in 1998.
However the record books tell us that on the three rare occasions that he's failed to claim the championship it's due to falling at the first hurdle. In 2001, 2004 and again in 2007, Taylor's seemingly unshakable grip on the World Grand Prix title was wrestled away from him in shock first round exits at the hands of Kevin Painter, Andy Callaby and Adrian Gray respectively. Which goes some way to prove that if the otherwise formidable Taylor's is human and does in fact have an Achilles heel, it could well be these short, best of three set first round ties.
Phil Taylor Favourite To Win World Grand Prix Darts 2009
The man from the Potteries is in the middle of a purple patch at the moment though, and experts don't predict any slip-ups from the Taylor who so far this year has already bagged the Ladbrokes.com World Championship, Blue Square UK Open, Stan James World Matchplay and Las Vegas Desert Classic. That's unless five-times World Champion Raymond van Barneveld has anything to say about it. Out of action since the summer's Stan James World Matchplay Darts in Blackpool, yet this does not necessarily mean that his ambitions for the World Grand Prix are hampered any the less, having enjoyed the same sabbatical before storming to last year's final where he eventually lost out to Taylor.
Wherever the online darts punter looks for World Grand Prix betting 2009 outright win odds, they're confronted with the one name that leads from the front. Phil 'The Power' Taylor is the Grand Prix specialist, having taken the title an astonishing eight times to date, and in the eyes of the virtual bookies is more or less a dead cert to add another to his tally. The most competitive of the current prices on Taylor to win (8 - 15) are found at Bet365, Blue Square, SkyBet, Stan James, 888sport, Coral and William Hill. Installed pretty much across the markets as second favourite for the tournament is James Wade, who can be backed at 7 - 1 on average with Totesport, Boylesports, Betfred, Paddy Power, SkyBet and William Hill amongst others. 2008 defeated finalist Raymond van Barneveld is posting a 10 - 1 price with Blue Square, Stan James, 888sport and Ladbrokes, while Gary Anderson (12 - with Bet365), Terry Jenkins (20 - 1 with Totesport), Adrian Lewis (25 - 1 with Victor Chandler), Mervyn King (33 - 1 with SkyBet) and Ronnie Baxter (40 - 1 with Paddy Power) are attracting degrees of interest in the darts betting community.
PDC World Grand Prix Darts Championship 2009 Unique Matchplay Format
The format of the event is different from any other on the current professional darts circuit (hence the probability to throw up some surprise results as have been observed in the past) in as much as it fronts shorter opening rounds than is normal professional darts championship practice, whilst insisting that players must start and finish each leg on a double, including the bull as an exception to the double rule. Before settling on this more exacting format, the tournament has experimented with alternative stipulations for periods of time. For example in its infancy back in 1998, the event was played out in a legged matchplay assimilation rather than the sets commonplace today.
12 months later and a group stage was adopted, whereby there was only four seeded players going into the tournament, all of whom reached the semi-final which was hitherto unheard of. This format was usurped the following year by a straight knock-out preference, whilst the second round expanded from the previous best of three sets to best of five since 2003.
The first round of the 2009 World Grand Prix Darts Championship takes place over the Monday and Tuesday of the week, with the second round following on the Wednesday and Thursday, whilst the single session on the Friday night determines the quarter-finals. After that, Saturday night is set aside for the semi-finals and the traditional Sunday final draws the tournament to its natural conclusion. The SkyBet-sponsored World Grand Prix Darts Championship 2009 is being hosted by Dublin's brand new Citywest Hotel International Event and Conference Centre, which accommodates 3,000 fans per session, and comprises a tournament purse of some £350,000 in total to be shared out amongst later stage competitors.
Incidentally, John MaGowan from Donaghadee stands out as the oldest competitor in the field this year, as the 68-year old tries to at least emulate his 2005 run to the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix Darts event, with his initial path possibly made a little easier by being paired with debutant Paul Nicholson.