TAYLOR OUTSIDER
For the first time in seventeen years, Phil Taylor is the outsider to win a match and Sky Bet make him 11/8 to beat Dutch master and PDC world champion Raymond Van Barneveld (even money) when they meet on Thursday in Sheffield in the Holsten Premier League darts tournament.
Barney is 4/9 to score most 180s and 8/15 to score over 3.5, having thrown eight last week against Jenkins. Taylor is 3/1 to score most 180s and 5/6 to score over 2.5, having only produced three maximums in his 8-2 win over Peter Manley.
Sky Bet quote 4/6 for Van Barneveld to get the highest average and it’s 8/13 for him to average over a hundred, while Taylor is quoted at 8/11 to do the same.
13-time world champion Taylor has won this event in both 2005 and 2006 and has remained unbeaten throughout. Both Taylor and Van Barneveld remain unbeaten this year and both have 6 points currently. Van Barneveld came back from three sets down to beat Taylor 7-6 in the enthralling PDC world final in January. He has gone on to beat Taylor 3-0 at the Masters of Darts in the Netherlands earlier this month.
Sky Bet’s darts compiler, Craig Ibbotson, said, “The last time Taylor was an outsider was when he beat Eric Bristow as a qualifier in the Embassy World Championship on January 13th 1990, to claim his first world title. However, the tide is turning now and where punters used on rely on Taylor to win at all costs, they now see Van Barneveld as the new force in darts.”
Premier League Darts
The two biggest players in the world game clash in Premier League Darts.