Phil Taylor still huge favourite despite unimpressive start
Published:After a less than inspiring start to his defence of the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship, it’s turned into a pretty good week for Phil Taylor.
He came through his first round game thanks to an unimpressive whitewash against a poor Gary Mawson, before coming second in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award behind Tony McCoy.
To make things even better, a tricky second round game against former world champion John Part – who won the PDC World Championship in 2003 and 2008 – was avoided. Part succumbed to relative unknown, Per Laursen, 3-0 in the first round, meaning it’s now the Dane who faces Taylor in the second round.
Taylor is massive favourite for that game against the world No.80 at 1/33 and should have no problems making it to the third round.
Taylor has drifted slightly to 5/6 to win the tournament outright, but for the 15-times world champion to be odds on for a knockout tournament shows how highly he is rated.
Second favourite for the tournament is James Wade. The World No.2 has moved slightly in the betting from 8/1 to 13/2 after his opening 3-0 win against Spaniard Antonio Alcinas, who was part of the Spain team that defeated Wade and Taylor at the World Cup of Darts a fortnight ago.
Wade now faces the winner of tonight’s first round game between Michael van Gerwen and Mensur Suljovic for a place in the third round. Whoever he faces though, he should have no trouble progressing beyond the Christmas break.
A £10 bet on Taylor to beat Per Laursen 4-2 pays out £60. New Ladbrokes customers can sign up here for a free £10 bet.
