Alan Alger on a great night for punters in Week 2 of the Betway Premier League.
The second week of Betway Premier League Darts saw the PDC trucks roll down to the South Coast, as Bournemouth played host to five matches between the chosen ten.
Sun (well not really – it is February), sea (check), sand (check)… all in view of the Bournemouth International Centre (or BIC for short – oh for a razor sharp pun).
I arrived into Bournemouth station just after 3pm and found myself in the taxi queue with the PDC Darts Dancers! Being the chivalrous kind of guy I am I offered them the first taxi – only to be reprimanded by the first driver on the rank that it would be ‘more than his job is worth’ to allow them to go before me.
Something about rules in the queue and being watched by CCTV – surely Big Brother has bigger fish to fry?
He eventually got me to the Marriott on the seafront and I dumped my bags to go and catch up with Betway’s dynamic venue dressing duo Dave and Mike at the BIC. Great timing as I arrived during the soundcheck for all the songs that were about to be played during the night.
A shouted conversation with Mike over the opening bars of ‘Chase The Sun’ echoing around the empty venue suggested I would find Dave sticking up our Betway adverts in the toilets around the spacious hallways (it’s all glamour in this betting game).
Having found Dave I made the kind of half-hearted offer that you make after seeing your other half slave over an oven to make a Sunday roast – ‘can I do anything?’. Not one to be afraid of getting my hands dirty I used my 15+ years of industry experience to place Betway ads expertly above the hand-driers.
After that we had a few staff games of ‘soft-tipped Darts’ – which you must try if you join us at one of the venues in the coming months!
So onto the action and Peter Wright will be left cursing the first slot of the night as he suffered a second 7-1 defeat on the spin in the curtain-raiser.
Last week in Leeds it was at the hands Dave Chisnall, this week he was the victim of the new world champion Gary Anderson. Punters had got off to the perfect start and it was only going to get worse for us bookies.
Michael van Gerwen fist-pumping his way to a 7-3 win over Stephen Bunting, notable for his entrance to the stage with a Lois Griffin lookalike to back up his Family Guy walk-on. The bird certainly wasn’t the word as the Dutch master swept him aside at odds of 1/2. The popular Anderson and van Gerwen double already paying out by 8.30pm.
Some Betway customers were ‘two down – with three to go’ as they looked to go through the card.
Next up it was a difficult choice as no clear favourite was emerging from our ‘11/8 each’ offering for Taylor v Lewis. Although our screens saw one clear choice throughout the raft of multiple and single bets on the game. The backers wanted to be with ‘The Power’ and in a dominant display, averaging 108.33, he took the two points in a 7-2 victory.
It was the worst ‘Apprentice’ v ‘Master’ mauling I’ve witnessed since sitting through Anakin Skywalker’s troubles on Mustafar in the cinema watching ‘Revenge of the Sith’.
James Wade was the next name on electronic slips of most Betway customers and he had no trouble swatting away newcomer Kim Huybrechts by a 7-2 scoreline.
At this point our trading team were down on their knees praying that Barney could rescue them from a monster payout on all of the 5-timers that had all four winners and the name of Dave Chisnall waiting patiently in the unsettled bet section of their account.
It was maybe some consolation that Barney made them work for their money. Although eventually Chizzy made us dizzy as nearly £250,000 came out of our pockets directly into yours. Including one punter who turned £200 into over £5000 with the five winners on the night.
The only tonic for such losses is a trip round the venue and into the toilets to remove our branding ready for next week in Liverpool.
See you there,
Alan.
