Chris Dobey vs Raymond van Barneveld Preview
The Cazoo Players Championship Finals is right around the corner, which is fantastic news for darts fans. The tournament begins on Friday, November 24 at 12:45 PM. There are 32 games on the first day, including some big matchups in the evening session. Chris Dobey vs Raymond van Barneveld is the second match on the main stage at around 7:30 PM. Neither player is in great form heading into the competition, but anything can happen on the big stage.
The players will meet in the first round of the 2023 Players Championship Finals held at Butlin’s Minehead. Dobey is coming off a 10-8 Grand Slam loss to James Wade, and Barney lost 2-6 at the Players Championship. Predicting a first-round match is never straightforward, and these two are close in the world rankings. Dobey is just inside the top 30 this year, with van Barneveld sitting seven places higher in 36th.
Chris Dobey vs Raymond van Barneveld Head-To-head and Key Stats
Chris Dobey and Raymond van Barneveld have met three times since 2019. The first time these two shared the stage was also at the Players Championship Finals in Minehead. The match was very one-sided, with Dobey winning by eight clear legs. It finished 2-10, and Dobey dominated for most of the game.
Dobey was in fine form when he came up against the veteran. They threw seven 180s in the match, five of which were by the Englishman. Barney had a terrible time checking out, ending up with a success rate of 8.7% across 23 attempts. Dobey finished the match with a 40% success rate, checking out 10 out of 25 times. The highest checkout from Raymond was 24, a figure dwarfed by Dobey’s 167.
The next time the players faced off was in 2021 at the 17th event of the Players Championship. Both made it to the round of 16 where Barney got his revenge. The Dutchman won the day by three legs, with the final score finishing 3-6 in his favour. The next time the two players were at the oche was in February 2023. In the second Players Championship event of the year, Barney once again dispatched Dobey, this time by an even wider margin. Dobey only won two legs and Barney was clinical in a 2-6 thumping.
Looking at the last ten matches across all competitions there is not much to split the two. Dobey has won five and lost five over the past month. He has beaten the likes of Jonny Clayton, the current number nine in the world rankings, and Danny Jansen from the Netherlands. However, his recent defeats have come at the hands of other experienced players, such as James Wade and Peter Wright. Dobey also lost his recent match with Northern Ireland sensation Josh Rock, the 22-year-old now ranked 22nd in the world.
Raymond has also struggled in recent weeks, winning six matches out of his last ten. His two most recent defeats came at the hands of Ross Smith and Ryan Searle. Barney narrowly lost to Searle at the 29th event of the Players Championship, 6-5. He won his first two games of the Players Championship 30 event, only to be knocked out by R. Smith, 6-2. Looking at his other defeats, van Barneveld lost to the number one rank Michael Smith and 128th in the world, Dom Taylor. It’s hard to judge a darts player in their recent form, but both players seem a little all over the place.
If you were going on the world rankings alone, betting on Chris Dobey to win seems like the safest bet. However, this is the point in the dart season where big players emerge, and Barney is exactly that. We have not seen the best of him over the past few years, but given Alexandra Palace is coming up, you can expect the pros to find another gear ahead of the biggest spectacle in darts.
Chris Dobey vs Raymond van Barneveld Predictions
Looking at the darts betting markets available at Novibet, there is a clear favourite to win the match. Placing a €10 bet on Dobey to win has odds of 1/2. That means the wager will return €15 if he is successful by any margin. Betting on van Barneveld has odds of 8/5, which will return €26 if you place a ten-euro wager. There is no possibility for a draw, as the PDC Players Championship Finals is a knockout-style tournament.
We predict that the bookies have it right. Dobey will win on the day and progress into the next round of the competition. As much as we would love to see Barney beat Dobey for the third time in a row, it’s Chris who is playing the better darts now. While both players lost their last competitive game, Dobey has the edge. He lost 10-8 to a lethal James Wade, and the stats reflect a well-fought contest. Raymond’s last defeat to R. Smith was a 2-6 thumping where he only managed one 180 in eight legs compared to the five scored by Ross.
Raymond van Barneveld had a better three-dart average across the match compared to Smudger. But the turning point in the match was on the sixth leg of the match. It was Smith’s throw, and he got off to a shaky start. However, a maximum after nine darts put Smith on 161 and Barney on 182. Smith only got thirty on the board after his trip to the oche, leaving the door wide open for Barney. Raymond gets his score down to 44 but Smith checked out a delightful 131 finish. After that leg, Raymond missed more chances to capitalise on any mistakes made by his opponent, and that was the end of his tournament.
An increasingly popular way to bet on darts is to wait until the match begins. Live betting on the PDC is an exciting way to enjoy the match. You can bet on the next leg winner, which player will get the bigger checkout and various other unique markets. In-play betting is a fantastic alternative for players who don’t just want to bet on the outright winner. Being more accurate with predictions, such as the number of legs won, will pay significantly more than just predicting who will progress to the next round.
We predict Dobey will win and do so with a margin of at least three legs. But there are other well-paying wagers to consider. If you sign up for Novibet, you can use your welcome bonus on a variety of darts markets. In the section below, we go into greater detail about the various wagers we think will win on the day.
Chris Dobey vs Raymond van Barneveld Betting Tips
Darts betting is unpredictable at the best of times, but there are plenty of wagers to consider. If you want to avoid the match-winner market, what other options do we recommend? Looking at Dobey’s last match against Wade, he threw five 180s and threw 140 or more 16 times. At Novibet, you can bet on Dobey to score three or more 180s with odds of 4/5. That means if you placed a €20 bet, you could win €36 if Dobey gets more than two maximums.
Other similar markets that don’t involve an outright prediction include the total 180s in the match from both players. You can bet on there being over five 180s scored during the entire match. Also, there are markets for you to predict which player will be the first to get a maximum and who will get the most 180s throughout the game. That just goes to show, there are options out there besides betting on Dobey to win.
Let’s say you wanted to bet on the winner of the match but were unimpressed by the odds. Seeing as this round of the competition is first to six legs, you can bet on the number of legs won by each player. We predict Chris Dobey will beat Raymond van Barneveld six legs to three. The odds offered at the bookie for this exact scoreline are 9/2. If you were to place a €10 wager on this market, you could win €55. Choosing the correct number of legs won by each player is far more rewarding than just betting on a winner.
The Cazoo Players Championship Finals is an important event on the darts calendar. Neither player will want to go into the World Darts Championship in a run of poor performances. However, only one can progress in this knockout tournament.
