The first European Tour event of the darts season takes place this weekend when the best players in the game head to Leverkusen for the European Darts Open. This is the first qualifying event on the Order of Merit to determine places in the European Championship towards the latter end of the year so it should be a competitive tournament.
Recent Winners
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Robert Thornton
2014 – Peter Wright
2013 – Michael van Gerwen
2012 – Raymond Barneveld
The Format
There has been a much needed change to the format of these tournaments this year. The 16 seeds progress to face 16 qualifiers in the last 32 on Saturday as always with those matches and the last 16 on Sunday afternoon being over the best of 11 legs. The quarter finals on Sunday evening are the best of 11 legs too but then comes the changes. The semi-finals are now the best of 13 legs with the final the best of 15 legs.
Top Half
Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed this week and he is the main man in the top quarter as he is in most tournaments he takes to the stage in. He is joined by some tasty fellow seeds this weekend though led by the world champion Rob Cross. The other seeds are Daryl Gurney, Gerwyn Price, Ian White, Simon Whitlock, Alan Norris and Dave Chisnall.
The qualifiers in this section are pretty decent too. There is no doubt that they are led by Adrian Lewis but Justin Pipe should not be underestimated. Cameron Menzies, Richard North, Ron Meulenkamp, Jermaine Wattimena, Tytus Kanik and Marko Kantele make up the rest of the draw.
Bottom Half
The defending champion Peter Wright is the main man seeding wise in the bottom half of the draw. I think it is fair to say the level of seeds are not as strong in this half but that only makes it very competitive. Taking Wright on will be Kyle Anderson, Joe Cullen, Kim Huybrechts, Mensur Suljovic, Mervyn King, Michael Smith and Jelle Klaasen.
There are some decent qualifiers going up against them too. James Wade, Danny Noppert, Jamie Hughes and Gabriel Clemens set a decent standard while John Henderson, Darren Johnson, Chris Dobey and Luke Woodhouse will be looking to ensure they don’t make up the numbers.
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Betting
A look at the outright market this week yields a couple of value plays. Mensur Suljovic is going under the radar in the Premier League and is coming back into some form and at 25/1 he is worth taking to come through a very open section of the draw. Suljovic has been the distance in these events before and now that he is adding more sustained scoring to his excellent finishing he’ll go close soon. It could very easily be this weekend.
In the third quarter Danny Noppert looks to have found a lovely part of the draw. He faces Joe Cullen in the first round and then the winner of Kim Huybrechts and Chris Dobey so he might not need to do much to be in a quarter final where the worst case scenario is that he’ll play Peter Wright. Wright isn’t pulling up any trees at the minute either. Noppert gets inspired by the stage. He had a good win over the conqueror of Michael van Gerwen at the UK Open in Jeffrey de Zwaan on Friday night so he’s playing well and at 100/1 is well worth chancing this weekend.
Tips
Back M.Suljovic to win European Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Betfair (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Back D.Noppert to win European Darts Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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