Avoid first round upsets with our 11/1 World GP fourfold

The World Grand Prix throws out all kinds of strange results in the early stages, so we’ve picked out some selections from the second wave of round one matches to help darts punters avoid potential banana skins.

Four picks in total pays out to the tune of 11/1, with Ian White upsetting two-time Grand Prix runner-up Raymond van Barneveld representing the longest individual price.

He’s 6/4 – which makes him a massive underdog in this two-horse race – but recent good form should see him arrive in Dublin confident of causing some problems.

White, another who hailed from the darting Mecca of Stoke-on-Trent, slammed compatriot Adrian Lewis in the European Championship in a 6-0 demolition, showing that he has the ability to turn it on against the biggest of big guns.

This win was the culmination of a spell that saw him beat Terry Jenkins by the same margin, Justin Pipe, Andy Hamilton and, his next adversary, van Barneveld, whose price of 1/2 is far too short to consider here.

Each have three wins apiece from seven clashes, and this is set to be the night when Diamond tips the scales in his favour.

Of the odds-on favourites, of which they are plenty, Michael van Gerwen is one expected to avoid first-round disappointment.
The young Dutchman – a 4/7 shot here – is finally starting to realise his enormous potential after faltering in recent years and his next opponent, Colin Lloyd, is a man whose career is on the wane.

Lloyd has the superior head-to-head record, yet van Gerwen has won the past two meetings, thrashing Jaws 6-1 the last time they squared off, while the former world number one has lost on three of his last five visits to the oche.

Wes Newton is another player who should smoothly navigate the troublesome first round when he takes on Ronnie Baxter.
Back the Fleetwood-born dartist to overcome the Rocket due to his reliability when it comes to hitting the double, which you must do to commence and conclude each leg in this format.

He’s at 8/15 for success here and the world number six has been threatening to make waves on the big stage for some time now, despite never surpassing the second round of this tournament.

The final selection is one that could go either way if the odds are anything to go by – it’s 5/6 for either Steve Beaton or Andy Smith to advance in this one, but the latter is the one we’re leaning towards.

The Pieman has a poor record against Beaton – losing all but one of their five encounters – but the current form of the latter is poor and Smith should capitalise on this. The Bronzed Adonis suffered a shock defeat to Chris Aubrey in his last outing and had lost five of the six games that preceded this one.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date