We are in the middle of a really busy time in the darts season and on Friday evening another tournament begins when the Ladbrokes World Series of Darts Finals are played out at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.
The series of exhibitions across the globe over the last few months drew up an order of merit from which we have a seeding list who face a batch of qualifiers to battle it out for the £50,000 first prize.
Recent Winners
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
The 16 qualifiers take each other on over the best of 11 legs on Friday night for the right to face one of the eight seeded players in the last 16 over the same distance on Saturday evening. The quarter finals take place on Sunday afternoon over the best of 19 legs with the semi-finals and the final over the best of 21 legs on Sunday evening.
The Seeds
The eight seeds have come about from who went well over the events around the world. Gary Anderson is the number one seed with Michael van Gerwen the second seed and Peter Wright the third one. Raymond Barneveld is the fourth seed and James Wade the fifth seed. The last three seeds are Daryl Gurney, Kyle Anderson and Gerwyn Price.
The Qualifiers
There are some tasty qualifiers or invited players in this tournament. Dave Chisnall, Simon Whitlock and last week’s runner up Rob Cross set a pretty decent standard with Mensur Suljovic, Jelle Klaasen and Adrian Lewis all of the top class too as is Michael Smith.
Players like Justin Pipe, Mark Webster, Max Hopp and Jonny Clayton all have the opportunity to earn some decent cash ahead of Christmas while all eyes will be on the talented Corey Cadby to see how he goes.
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Betting
This isn’t a weekend to go too mad in. I’m not sure how seriously this event is taken by the big names and with the Grand Slam beginning next weekend they might have bigger fish to fry but there is one at a nice price who has a draw which could open up and he’s in the top half of the draw after from the bottom where the likes of Daryl Gurney, MVG, Rob Cross, Peter Wright, Kyle Anderson, Adrian Lewis, Simon Whitlock and Dave Chisnall are all housed.
The man I like is Michael Smith. He hasn’t delivered his potential for a while but I get the feeling his best form isn’t too far away. He could do with a little bit of luck with the draw and he might have had that this week and if he can get into the longer formats there might be no stopping him for a while. There are some big events on the horizon which he’ll want to compete in and with the other half of the tournament looking like an event on its own the 50/1 on Smith, who is away from the trouble, is too big.
Tips
Back M.Smith to win World Series of Darts Finals (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Betbright (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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