PDC WDC round 1: Wright on opening night, Anderson begins defence

Holly Thackeray | December 16, 2015

Day 1: First round evening session plus preliminary action

• 2016 PDC World Darts Championship
• Thursday, December 17th
• Session from: 19:10-23:00 GMT
• Alexandra Palace, London
• Live on Sky Sports Darts and Sky Sports 2

Gary Anderson, Peter Wright and co raise curtain

The 2016 PDC World Darts Championship finally arrives on Thursday evening, amid much fanfare, with four top fixtures warming up the stage for a weekend of arrowsmith excellence ahead.

First up as an appetiser, is a preliminary round wrangle between Andy Boulton and Per Laursen, for the honour of facing title holder Gary Anderson later in the evening. While, further first round frays see Peter Wright, Keegan Brown, Jamie Lewis and Daryl Gurney get proceedings underway.

So, Coral bring customers our best bets for the opening evening…

Preliminary round (best of three sets, no tie-break)

Andy Boulton v Per Laursen

These two have never tussled before, but X-Factor is odds-on favourite at 8/15 to reach the last 32 for the first time, despite Danish dartsman Laursen (11/8) knowing what it takes to reach that stage, having done so three times before. It may not be so cut and dry for recent PDC convert Boulton, then, though he is ranked 37 places above his rival.