PDC World Darts Championship: Day 6 Betting Tips - Evening Session

• Over 3.5 Sets: 5/6 at BetGoodwin
• Tomoya Goto Most 180s: 29/20 at William Hill

Mickey Mansell comes into this year’s World Championship in terrific form after a fabulous run to the semi-final of the Grand Slam. He had to come through the qualifiers and beat Raymond Van Barneveld and Gerwyn Price on route.

In the Players Championship floor events, he failed to get past round 4 in 30 events which meant he didn't qualify for the recent Players Championship Finals in Minehead.

This is his 9th appearance at Ally Pally and has made the last 64 on 5 occasions. Mansell is certainly playing as well as we’ve seen in recent years but does face a bit of a banana skin in his first-round match.

Tomoya Goto is back at the World Championships after taking the scalp of Ian White in the first round of last year's tournament before losing to Ryan Searle 3-1 in the second round. He was superb and lit up Ally Pally with plenty of 180s and big finishes.

He looks like a real talent and is certainly one of the best players to come out of Asia in recent years so I wouldn't be surprised if he created even more memorable moments here once again.

Goto only finished 6th in the Asian Tour rankings this year but I wouldn't read too much into that as he's already proved himself capable on the biggest stage of them all.

Mickey Mansell as well as he's playing isn't the biggest 180 hitter in the world, only averaging 0.19 per leg.

We saw last year that Tomoya Goto can score high so I would suggest backing the 180s market in this game. I also don't expect it to be a simple game for Mansell as the Japanese star won't just roll over.

• Jeffrey De Zwaan to win: 6/4 Bet365
• Over 7.5 180s in the match: 11/10 SpreadEX

Florian Hempel created one of the highlights of the tournament here last year in his comeback win against Dimitri Van Den Bergh 4-3 in the second round. He became the first player in PDC history to hit back-to-back 10 dart legs in a World Championship.

The best he has done on Tour this season is a semi-final at Players Championship 17. It's been an inconsistent season for the German, highlighted by only qualifying for two European Tour events. He did beat Jonny Clayton in the first round of the Players Championship Finals but lost in the following round 6-3 against Dirk van Duijvenbode.

Jeffrey De Zwaan is a darting enigma, he has all the talent in the world and should be a top-class player by now, although injuries have not helped. He had a last-gasp qualification into this event by getting through the PDC Tour Card qualifier.

He’s been forced to skip numerous tournaments this season due to a continued battle with an injured shoulder and now faces the possibility of losing his Tour Card after dropping to 74th in the World Rankings. He reached the 2018 World Matchplay Semi-Final after wins against Michael Van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis and Dave Chisnall and also made the last 16 at Ally Pally in 2020.

Although those results were a while ago, it only takes someone with his clear outstanding ability, to simply flick a switch and he’s dangerous again. Still just 28 years old, he’ll be hoping to put his injury woes behind him and kickstart his career again.

De Zwaan is definitely the player in better form between these two after averaging over 96 in 5 of his last 8 games on tour.

Florian Hempel always seems to play well at the World Championship and although favourite for this game, he’ll need to again to get past the Dutchman.

Both players hit a lot of 180s when on form and if De Zwaan gets his finishing boots on then he has a real chance of getting through this game.

• William O’Connor Most 180s and Win Match: 21/20 at BoyleSports

This will be William O’Connor’s 8th appearance at the PDC World Championship and his draw looks very promising. In my opinion, he’s one of the most underrated players on tour and he’s never an easy draw. If he becomes more consistent he can be very dangerous in any event he plays in.

He’s in pretty decent form after reaching a Players Championship semi-final a few months ago and although losing in the first round in the Players Championship Finals, he always seems to play pretty well here and pushes the top seeds in the games he loses.

A seasonal average of 93.68 is not to be sniffed at and if he ups that by a few points he can definitely go deep in this tournament. 

Dylan Slevin had a wonderful first year on tour in 2023 but has struggled to make the same impression this season. He managed to get here by qualifying through the PDC Tour Card qualifier and impressively averaged 100+ in 2 of the 3 games he played in.

An early exit in the UK Open and failing to qualify for the Players Championship Finals has really halted his progress and he faces the possibility of losing his Tour Card if he doesn't win this match.

William O’Connor has a great opportunity in this tournament and with a win here he will then face the vulnerable seed, Dimitri Van Den Bergh in round 2. The draw may suddenly open up for him but he has to concentrate on this match first.

Slevin is no slouch but he’s definitely not the player he was in 2023 so I expect ‘The Magpie’ to come through this one. O’Connor usually hits plenty of 180s and is averaging 0.24 per league this season compared to Slevin’s 0.16.

• Michael Van Gerwen Most 180s and Win Match: 5/6 at BoyleSports

The great Dutchman Michael Van Gerwen comes into this year’s World Championship with more question marks over his form. In the last 4 TV Majors he has failed to progress past the second round, including first-round losses at the Grand Prix, Players Championship Finals and failed to get through the group stage of the Grand Slam. 

Last year ‘Mighty Mike’ looked as if he was cruising into at least a semi-final but he suffered a shock Quarter Final defeat to Scott Williams 5-3. He’s only managed to win two TV titles in the past 2 years and none so far this year, although he has made it to 5 finals ultimately coming short.

The once-dominant MVG has been dragged back into the chasing park and will be hoping to turn his fortunes around at this tournament because he will hate the fact that Luke Humphries and Luke Littler are far superior to him right now. You can never rule the great man out though and if he's got the hunger back again it definitely wouldn't surprise me if he sparked into life and won a 4th World Title.

James Hurrell was extremely impressive on debut, beating Jim Long in straight sets on Tuesday afternoon. He hit 3 180s and averaged 88.75. Of course, he will know that he needs to improve on that to trouble Van Gerwen but it's clear now that he has a decent TV game after there being some doubts over him on the big stage. If he settles down and gets in early against MVG he definitely has the calibre of game to cause an upset here.