World Matchplay Darts 2024 Betting Tips: Rob to Cross out Van Veen on day two

The 2024 Betfred World Matchplay got underway yesterday and our star Darts tipper, Sean Rafferty, went two for two as he successfully backed Jonny Clayton to beat Raymond van Barneveld and the -3.5 handicap on Luke Humphries against Ricardo Pietreczko.

Sean returns today with his World Matchplay Darts 2024 betting tips for day two of the event, which you can check out below.

Darts Odds

World Matchplay Darts Odds

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Rob Cross to beat Gian van Veen @ 4/9

If you’d asked me a year ago to pick a winner in this fixture I’d have had to give it some thought…however, the tables have really turned since then. To give some insight into that – from January to July last year, Gian van Veen averaged 94.36 compared to Rob Cross at 95.67, so not much more than one point separating them. If we then fast forward to November 2023 to now, Van Veen is averaging 93.88 compared to Cross at 97.54, so it is almost four points greater now.

Van Veen has only averaged 100+ once in his last 15 matches, whereas he was posting the numbers for fun last year and the tail end of 2022. Cross also boasts a far more experienced CV at this level – Van Veen makes his debut today, and he didn’t cope very well on his World Championship bow in December, losing 3-2 to Hong Kong qualifier Man Lok Leung and only averaging 87.53.

Cross comes here for an eighth time, and although he hasn’t got the best Matchplay record outside of his win in 2019, he’s still won his opening round match five times in seven attempts.

On all four occasions they’ve played each other, it’s gone to a deciding leg in best-of-11 leg matches. I don’t think this one will be quite as tight; a combination of better form and vaster experience should see Cross win by a few legs. It’s more than backable at 4/9.

Brendan Dolan under 3.5 180s vs Joe Cullen @ 4/7

I don’t need to go into this a great deal as 180s are what they are – the stats do the talking for this one. It looks like a 50/50 flip of the coin in terms of a match-winner; normally I’d side with Joe Cullen but he’s really struggling at the moment with his game – he’s lost 10 of his last 11 matches, averaging below 89 in eight of these. Of all the 10 matches he lost, he was ranked higher than all of them – his highest-ranked opponent was 24th.

So it’s really concerning times for Cullen, but he can produce from out of the blue like he did when he made a Euro Tour final in April, in what has otherwise been a year to forget for The Rockstar. In his defence, he’s had a few personal issues away from the oche which hasn’t allowed him to put 100% focus into his game.

I’d rather put my trust in a more reliable selection – Dolan to have a lack of 180s. He’s never been a prolific maximum hitter – in nine of his last 11 matches, The History Maker has hit less than two 180s – these were the best of 11 legs so around half the length of today’s match or perhaps slightly more than half.

Over the last 12 months, Dolan is averaging 0.18 180s per leg, hitting 180 roughly every 5.5 legs, meaning he’d need around 22 legs to hit over 3.5 180s, which is unlikely to happen.

This looks a really solid option at 4/7, having had some joy myself going with under 180s with Dolan at the last World Championship.

Offers

Betfred World Matchplay (13/07 – 21/07): We are playing 4 places on the Betfred World Matchplay at 1/4 odds. (Available from 12:30 Thursday 04/07).

Betfred World Matchplay (13/07 – 21/07): We will be Top Price or joint Top Price on Luke Humphries to win the Betfred World Matchplay Darts with selected bookmakers using oddschecker.com for the comparison (Available from 09:30 Friday).

Betfred World Matchplay (13/07 – 21/07): Bet on any player to win the Betfred World Matchplay Darts, and if they win and hit a 9 Dart Finish during the tournament, we’ll double your odds!

You can find all our darts tipster Sean Rafferty’s latest Darts Betting Tips on our main Insights content hub.