It’s the Christmas season, and that can only mean one thing. No, not presents. No, not the nativity. No, not even the Xmas Coke ad. No, it’s the PDC World Championship 2015!!!

The big boys of darts (in more ways than one) will begin to line up tonight as the tournament starts at Alexandra Palace this evening.

Going into the tournament, the usual suspects are near the top of the PDC Order of Merit. Michael van Gerwen, the returning champion, is ranked number 1, with Spreadex giving him fixed odds betting of 2/1 to win the tournament.

Despite van Gerwen being the youngest winner ever at 24, Spreadex couldn’t resist placing Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, with 14 PDC World Championships to his name, as favourite at 6/4, regardless of the PDC ranking him second. Adrian Lewis, 2011 and 2012 champion, is ranked third by PDC, and is at 12/1; Gary Anderson, ranked fourth, is at 6/1. The braver of you out there may want a punt on an upset, with players like Christian Perez and Jermaine Wattimena at 2000/1.

If you can’t see beyond van Gerwen or Taylor to win the tournament, you can always take a look at Spreadex’s Outright Index, and bet on where you think a play will finish. With the winner at 60, runner-up at 40, a losing semi-final at 20, quarter final at 10, last 16 at 5 and others a 0, someone like James Wade, 16/1 fixed odds betting, has a spread betting quote of 9-11 on the Outright index.

With a 72-player strong tournament, the earlier rounds are most notable for keeping an eye on the favourites, and seeing how they warm up for the tougher rounds later on. The first big game its van Gerwen’s match against Joe Cullen, an outsider at 1000/1; the game begins tonight at 10 o’clock, and Spreadex have seen plenty of bets on a van Gerwen victory at van Gerwen/Cullen 10-3 spread betting quote.

Tomorrow then sees fan-favourite Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor face off against Jyhan Artut, another outsider at 1000/1, and ranked fourteenth out of the sixteen Pro Tour players that aren’t included in the Order of Merit. Taylor is unsurprisingly the favourite to win, with Spreadex providing a Taylor/Artut 10-3 spread betting quote of 15-18.

Adrian Lewis doesn’t make his first championship game of the tournament until Tuesday, with a match against 1000/1 Dave Pallett. Whilst Spreadex have Lewis as a comfortable win, we have seen a lot of bets around how many sets Pallett can take off the third ranked player, at a spread betting quote of 4.6-4.9.

Finally, as the darting community gears up for the biggest event in their sports calendar, Spreadex are providing great spread betting quotes on the Total Tournament 180s, with van Gerwen at 38.5-40.5, Anderson on 34-36, Taylor on 30-32 and Lewis at 24-26. We have seen a lot of bets on this final quote, as our clients look beyond the powerhouse duo of ‘Might Mike’ and ‘The Power’ to make them money.