WITH the 2015 Unibet Masters only a fortnight away, title sponsors Unibet take a look ahead to the exciting tournament at ArenaMK, which features the world's top 16 players competing on January 31 & February 1 live on ITV4...
The memories of James Wade's victory in the 2014 Unibet Masters event are still fresh in the memory, and on January 31 the world's top 16 players will once again be rubbing shoulders on the oche.
When the stars of the PDC take to the stage at ArenaMK, one tungsten talent will be only four games away from being crowned as the 2015 Unibet Masters champion and taking home the trophy and first prize.
Last year's tournament was thrillingly won by James Wade when he came back from a seemingly hopeless 2-9 deficit in the final to win 11-10; in fact, our odds compilers at Unibet stopped offering odds on fellow finalist Mervyn King while making Wade a derisory 50/1 shot!
It has gone down in darts folklore as arguably the BEST comeback ever.
And would you believe it, with Wade being seeded sixth and King being the 11th seed, the two will face each other in the first round of this event.
Unibet make Wade 2/5, with King at 39/20 – but as we saw last time anything can happen when these two play, and that opener on Saturday evening should not be missed!
Unibet are bracing themselves for an epic weekend of darts - and darts betting.
No less than one in three at the venue placed a bet with the company at the last Unibet Masters, while we saw record levels of turnover at www.unibet.co.uk.
And we will now have wi-fi capabilities at ArenaMK, enabling customers to download our award-winning app and to place wagers as the action unfolds at this year's Unibet Masters.
We will also be offering hundreds of markets throughout the two-day event at www.unibet.co.uk – even now we have over 100 different markets to place bets on!
Although the more straightforward and popular markets will be on players to win their particular games and on who will win the 2015 Unibet Masters itself, other less high profile markets, but popular ones, are available such as handicap betting, correct set betting, most 180s per match, total 180s during the whole tournament, first 180 of each match, and even who will score the highest checkout in each game.
We will have plenty of live markets to play on too - one live market that proved popular last time with Unibet customers was whether they'd be a 180 thrown or not in the next leg to be played.
And this time we are also introducing even more live bets such as our red checkout market – where you can bet on whether the last dart will be in the red or green – as the game is being played; this will be available from the quarter-final stage on Sunday.
As far as the outright betting is concerned we have already seen some support for top seed Michael van Gerwen at 11/4 – and don't forget that if you place a bet with Unibet on the outright market and your player loses in the final, we'll refund your stake (up to £20).
This is the first event for a long time where Phil Taylor hasn't been first or second favourite to win a tournament, but this time around World Champion Gary Anderson is second favourite at 33/10, with Taylor at 7/2.
One outsider who has proved popular with punters is Premier League champion Raymond van Barneveld at 18/1. The Barney Army have seen a bit of value on their hero, and it's no surprise either following his recent run to the World Championship semi-finals.
He was ranked 16th in the last Unibet Masters and came up against the number one seed in van Gerwen, but took his fellow Dutchman down to the wire that night and has since jumped up six places in the PDC Order of Merit.
Van Barneveld plays seventh seed Simon Whitlock in the first round, but is favourite with Unibet at 4/6, with the Australian star the outsider at evens.
Those thinking of placing any multiple bets should cast their mind back to the last Unibet Masters in November, when every favourite won on the first day, and prices are already available on the first round of matches on Saturday January 31.
Unibet Odds
Tournament Winner
11/4 Michael van Gerwen
33/11 Gary Anderson
7/2 Phil Taylor
8/1 Adrian Lewis
12/1 James Wade
18/1 Raymond van Barneveld
20/1 Peter Wright
22/1 Dave Chisnall
25/1 Terry Jenkins
25/1 Mervyn King
25/1 Robert Thornton
25/1 Ian White
28/1 Simon Whitlock
40/1 Brendan Dolan
50/1 Wes Newton
66/1 Andy Hamilton
First Round Match Odds
5/9 Peter Wright v 11/8 Brendan Dolan
Evs Robert Thornton v 4/5 Dave Chisnall
3/10 Adrian Lewis v 5/2 Ian White
6/5 Simon Whitlock v 4/6 Raymond van Barneveld
2/5 James Wade v 39/20 Mervyn King
2/15 Phil Taylor v 23/5 Terry Jenkins
1/9 Gary Anderson v 51/10 Andy Hamilton
1/10 Michael van Gerwen v 23/4 Wes Newton
Odds subject to fluctuation. See www.unibet.co.uk for latest odds.