Due to the BBC coverage, this is still a popular betting contest, although the BDO has lost several notable players to rival body PDC in recent years. This includes Raymond Van Barneveld, who won the World Championship title on four different occasions.

Last year’s winner Martin Adams heads the betting for the 2008 championship, where you can expect the majority of matches to be covered on an In-Play basis. Despite the repetitive nature of darts, it throws up many excellent pre-match betting opportunities, such as Match Result, Winning Score and Number of 180’s. Match Result is also the primary In-Play market and, when you get matches such as the 2007 final (where Martin Adams took the first six sets, then lost the next six before triumphing 7-6), you can understand the appeal for many punters.

As with any darts competition, it’s worth keeping an eye on player averages leading up to the tournament as well as during it. In the BDO, there have been a fair few shocks in recent years, with Jelle Klaasen and Tony David triumphing at huge odds in 2006 and 2002 respectively.

Our favourite bookmakers for Darts betting are: Stan James and Ladbrokes