World Darts Championship Outsiders: Keith Deller's three players to watch

Former World Darts Championship winner Keith Deller MBE highlights three betting outsiders worth keeping an eye on as attentions get set to turn towards London's iconic Alexandra Palace for the 2025 tungsten spectacular.

Deller, who shot to fame with his colossal upset victory over the great Eric Bristol in the 1983 final, picked out Luke Littler - as a 100/1 shot - as one of his selections 12 months ago, and has scoured through this year's field to pick out a trio of players all capable of defying their potentially over-inflated odds.

No.1 - Martin Schindler (125/1)

Now Martin Schindler may not have been marked down on too many betting slips ahead of this year's tournament, but let me tell you why I feel he should be.

First of all, he is a supremely-talented player who has proven he can cut the mustard at the very top level, reaching six quarter-finals over the past couple of seasons, as well as capturing the International Darts Open title and Swiss Darts Trophy this calendar year - his first two titles on the professional tour.

Secondly, and most crucially for me, Martin's in the bottom half of the draw, which is where every single player would want to be given Luke Humphries and Luke Littler are in the top half.

Yes, his quarter features former winners Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson, but it would be in the last eight, if at all, that Martin would come up against one of those two, and, as he has proven in the past, he has the game to beat either.

He has reached the last 32 in each of the past couple of World Darts Championships, falling agonisingly short of the last 16, in final set shootouts, on each occasion (against Michael Smith and Scott Williams), but I just really feel that he has started to mature as a player over the past 12 months.

Plus, given the manner of those two painful last 32 defeats, he can now count on that big game experience on the grand Ally Pally stage too, something that will only benefit him.

Now listen, I'm not writing this saying that he will go on to win the tournament because, realistically, that isn't going to happen, but there is a chance that he comes through his quarter of the draw.

We've seen players like Martin enjoy deep runs in the past few years, and I just have a feeling that somebody is going to come through that bottom half and reach at least the quarters, or maybe even semis this time around too.

I have seen enough from Martin, who is priced handsomely at 125/1, over the past seven or eight months, in the TV tournaments and on the floor, to suggest that player could well be him.

No.2 - Jonny Clayton (80/1)

Another player that I have high hopes for in London this year is Jonny Clayton.

Nobody can deny that the Welshman has been below his previous high standards for the best part of 18 months, two years, but over the past few months there have been signs that his old game is starting to find its way back.

His power scoring disappeared previously, but those 180s have been flowing in of late, and we've even seen that trademark finger point towards the camera return too, which suggests to me, that his confidence is starting to flow.

We all know how good a player Jonny is when he is at the top of his game, but the big problem is that he hasn't been at that level for some time now.

But this could be the opportune time for him to rediscover his full groove and take advantage of being in that bottom half of the draw, which, on paper, appears wide open.

He has gone deep in a couple of the more recent Players Championship events, reaching the final of tournament 30 before succumbing to defeat against Josh Rock, whilst his record over the past couple of months includes some eye-catching heavy victories over the likes of Michael Smith, Chris Dobey and Stephen Bunting.

Those victories could have ignited a flame inside of him, and let's also not forget that he is ranked number seven in the world too.

Jonny has also reached at least the last 16 in each of the past three World Darts Championships, and an each-way bet at 80/1 represents tremendous value for me, as does the 17/2 on offer for him to come through his quarter of the draw.

No.3 - Josh Rock (66/1)

Josh Rock is a player who I still believe will explode at some point in the future and capture a number of titles.

Like Luke Littler, Josh is supremely-talented, but the problem he has had is that he hasn't yet been able to quite live up to that early hype surrounding him.

But, mark my words, he is a live wire at Ally Pally this year and a player who, at 66/1, should be receiving plenty of each-way attention.

It's not been a great 12 months for him, granted, with his run to the fifth round of the UK Open his best TV performance to date, but he has enjoyed more success in the floor tournaments, winning two Players Championship events as well as capturing the Dutch Darts Championship on the European Tour earlier this year.

Inconsistency has been his issue, underlined by his recent showing at the Players Championship Finals where he was sensational in his 6-1 demolition of Ricky Evans, before being dismantled 6-0 by Jermaine Wattimena 24 hours later.

The doubles often prove the Northern Irishman's Achilles Heel, but I know he has been putting a tremendous amount of time and work into rectifying that reoccurring issue.

If he can add a tad more consistency to his finishing then he has all the tools to cause plenty of problems across the bottom half of the draw for this year's World Darts Championship.

He's a player that I, for one, will be keeping a very close eye on over the coming week or two.