World Darts Betting Tips Day 9: Rock to rise to the occasion

• Josh Rock available at 16/117.00 to win the World Championship 

• Rock to run riot at Ally Pally

• Gurney worth backing

The last day of first round action sees a number of heavy hitters and high scorers take to the stage with Josh Rock a 16/117.00 fifth favourite to take the title.

Rocky to rise to the occasion

Josh Rock continues to get more and more impressive, playing a key role in Northern Ireland's World Cup success in the summer. His 180 hitting is up there with the best and his ability to cause problems for every player on the planet are well known but despite picking up one title on the floor, he'll feel he should have won more in 2025.

With two finals on the Euro Tour this year, the exuberant 24-year-old will be hoping for a career best run here at Ally Pally, having reached the fourth round on debut in December 2022.

Up first, an opponent he'll feel he should make light work of in Gemma Hayter, whose story is a good one and probably resonates with many. Having taken time away from the game, she started playing again when she saw Luke Littler reach the final two years ago and it soon became apparent that she was going to mix it with the best on the Women's Series.

Picking up two wins early on in her PDC career, she'll be disappointed that she's not added any more this year.

Getting opportunities at the back end of legs is going to be incredibly difficult due to Rocky's far superior scoring power. Given how far ahead he is in every metric, there's little value in backing correct score or for him to hit the most 180s.

Given how heavily he scores, at 8/19.00, I'm backing his to hit 2+ 180s in each set. 

Gurney worth getting behind

Beau Greaves has already helped change the landscape of darts. She has a silky smooth action, tremendous ability and a CV that would be envied by many seasoned professionals.

With 46 women's Series triumphs, two Women's Matchplay wins and three world championship victories under her belt already, she will next season take another big step having secured her Tour Card.

The 21-year-old has more consistently competed on the Development Tour and finished the season second on that particular order of merit, in addition to picking up a couple of titles on the Challenge Tour, she arrives in London for her second PDC World Championship campaign a completely different proposition to when she took on Willie O'Connor.

With more belief in herself and her game, she ran both Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen close at the Grand Slam last month and of course, got the better of Luke Littler in a thriller to reach the World Youth Final.

Whilst Beau's brilliance can't be questioned and this is a very difficult match to call, an established player, former major winner and two-time quarter-finalist at Ally Pally being 6/52.20 is worth backing. 

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