A week after arguably the best World Cup of Darts, the European Tour returns with 32 leading darts players heading to Hamburg for the European Darts Matchplay. James Wade is the defending champion this weekend and he’ll be out to retain his title.
Recent Winners
2016 – James Wade
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
The 16 seeds have been slotted into a draw and the qualifiers have played on Friday to make it into the draw alongside them. The tournament is played out on Saturday and Sunday with the last 32 on Saturday and the remainder on Sunday. Each match is the best of 11 legs right through to and including the final.
Top Half
Peter Wright is the leading seed in this part of the draw. He is looking for another European Tour event but he’ll need to play well with Mensur Suljovic, James Wade, Jelle Klaasen, Ian White, Dave Chisnall, Cristo Reyes and Daryl Gurney are the other seeded players in this section.
The qualifiers are no mugs either. Dirk van Duijvenbode, Jimmy Hendriks, James Wilson, Peter Jacques, Stephen Bunting, Kyle Anderson, John Michael and Nathan Aspinall make up what is a tough half of the draw.
Bottom Half
All eyes will be on Michael van Gerwen in this half of the draw but he also has some competition this weekend. Mervyn King, Alan Norris, Kim Huybrechts, Joe Cullen, Benito van de Pas, Michael Smith and Simon Whitlock will all be out to get the Dutchman.
Some big names are in this half from the qualifiers. Andy Hamilton, Mike de Decker, Vincent van der Voort, Justin Pipe, Peter Hudson, Marko Kantele, John Henderson and Richard North make up another competition section.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
This is such a competitive looking draw that I’m only going to have one bet in the outright market. Mensur Suljovic looked to be in really good touch in the World Cup last weekend and if he has that form with him then I believe he can make it through a few rounds and possibly all the way.
He isn’t in the half of the draw that van Gerwen is in which is always a positive and having won these events before we know Suljovic can go the distance. At 25/1 he looks a more than acceptable price given his form of last weekend.
Tips
PLACED – Back M.Suljovic to win European Darts Matchplay (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Paddy Power (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
