The big time darts continues this weekend when 24 men head to Amsterdam for the World Series of Darts Finals. The exhibition events have seen darts taken in across America, Germany, Australia and New Zealand and now Holland comes to the party.
James Wade won this tournament 12 months ago and he has qualified to attempt to defend his title. On the bare face of it this field looks weaker than last year which might encourage him when it comes to making a successful defence.
Recent Winners
2018 – James Wade
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
We have a bit of a quirky format this week. The leading eight men on the WSoD order of merit have been seeded for the tournament and bypass the first round. The other 16 men who have qualified for the event go into the first round which is the best of 11 legs on Friday night. The second round is over the same distance on Saturday night and sees the Friday winners taking on a seed each. The quarter finals on Sunday afternoon is the best of 19 before the semi-finals and the final is the best of 21 on Sunday evening.
The Seeds
Eight men are seeded for the weekend with Michael van Gerwen as always the number one seed. Peter Wright heads to the Dutch city as the number two seed with the recently crowned European champion Rob Cross the third seed. Daryl Gurney completes the top four seeds. Damon Heta won an event in Australia and he is the fifth seed this week with Raymond Barneveld seeded six, Gary Anderson seven and the defending champion James Wade at eight.
The Qualifiers
16 men have qualified for the tournament in the various ways of doing so and they are headed by the beaten finalist last week in Gerwyn Price. The World Championship runner up Michael Smith is also a qualifier and those two will meet in a horrible first round draw. Mensur Suljovic, Krzysztof Ratajski, Nathan Aspinall and Dave Chisnall are all in decent nick and who have qualified this week.
Kyle Anderson, Ian White, Danny Noppert, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Jermaine Wattimena, Gabriel Clemens, Simon Whitlock, Ricky Evans, Wayne Jones and Jonny Clayton make up a competitive set of qualifiers who will all be in action in the opening round of the tournament on Friday evening.
Betting
I’ve been waiting for a while for the right time to back Nathan Aspinall and I think this is the one even though he has Michael van Gerwen in his half of the draw. MVG will have to beat Michael Smith or Gerwyn Price just to make the quarter final and that is no guarantee, neither is beating James Wade should they both make the last eight. Aspinall doesn’t have the easiest draw but I do think he’ll beat Ratajski in the first round and Daryl Gurney can be hit or miss. Nothing in terms of a potential quarter final should worry Aspinall so I think the 33/1 on him should be taken here. The UK Open and Las Vegas champion is banging down the door of a Premier League spot. A win here could see him guaranteed a spot.
I can’t ignore a stake of some kind on Raymond van Barneveld in what will definitely be his final appearance on home soil and what could very well be the last TV tournament of his career unless he wins it to get into the Grand Slam and then does well enough there to qualify for the World Championship. The fact he is on home soil and will have the crowds right behind him is very much a positive. Gabriel Clemens or Jermaine Wattimena isn’t the hardest second round draw and while things could get tougher after that it isn’t like he’s running into van Gerwen before the final. I expect Barneveld to be up for this occasion so I have to play the 66/1 to see just how well he fares.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to win World Series of Darts Finals (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Sky Bet (1/3 1-2)
Back R.Barneveld to win World Series of Darts Finals (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
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