The PDC circuit rolls on this week with the European Championship taking place over four tasty looking days of action inside the Konig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen as the latest televised event gets played out in front of a crowd.
Rob Cross is the man who pocketed the title and everything that comes with it last year and he will be looking to make a successful defence of his crown but with all the qualifying events crammed into the last few weeks everyone here is in decent form so he has it tough.
Recent Winners
2019 – Rob Cross
2018 – James Wade
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Michael van Gerwen
2013 – Adrian Lewis
2012 – Simon Whitlock
2011 – Phil Taylor
2010 – Phil Taylor
The Format
The four day tournament sees the action coming thick and fast with the first round played out in a bumper session on Thursday over the best of 11 legs before the last 16 takes place across two sessions on Friday over the best of 19 legs. The quarter finals are the same distance on Saturday evening before the two semi-finals and the final is played out in a big Sunday evening session with all three matches being the best of 21 legs. The tournament can be watched in full on ITV4.
Top Half
The seedings this week are based on the European Tour Order of Merit which means that it is Joe Cullen who is the number one seed this week and the top man in the top half of the draw. Although he isn’t the number one seed this week Michael van Gerwen is among the top eight seeds in this half with Devon Petersen and Nathan Aspinall the others in what is very much a changed list of order among the bigger names.
As you would expect in a 32 man field like this there are plenty of other decent players in this section of the draw. Dave Chisnall is one of those while the former champion James Wade is another who will be looking for a big week from here. Rob Cross will also look to make the defence of his title from here too while Mervyn King, Ian White, Martijn Kleermaker and Jamie Hughes are all capable of returning big weeks.
Bottom Half
This bottom half of the draw looks extremely tasty with the beaten finalist from last year the highest seed in the form of Gerwyn Price. As with the top half of the draw there are three other top eight seeds in this section and they are the European Darts Grand Prix winner Jose de Sousa, Michael Smith and a man who has done everything but win a European Tour title this season in the popular Mensur Suljovic.
Plenty of other good players sit in this bottom half of the draw as well though. World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode is among them as is the current world champion Peter Wright. Krzysztof Ratajski is a tournament winner in waiting on the big stage and he’ll be looking for that to be the case from here this week. Daryl Gurney will be targeting a third win while the home stars Max Hopp and Gabriel Clemens will want to go well from here too.
Special Offer
Opt in and place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image below to bet. ALL CUSTOMERS! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Outright Betting
Usually I like to cover a few bases in the outright betting but we know that everyone in the tournament is in decent nick this week and there are a couple of particularly tough quarters to work out so I’m only going to take one bet over the course of the weekend from an outright standpoint. That comes in the bottom half of the draw where things look really strong, but with the way the draw has worked out it could easily open up quite quickly.
The player I like is Jonny Clayton who might need to get the better of the crowd as well as Max Hopp in the opening round but if he can do that there is definitely something for him in the longer formats later in the weekend. Jose de Sousa is the main seed in the Clayton quarter and while I’m a massive fan of the Portuguese ace, he hasn’t yet done it on TV and comes in here with more expectation on him than usual. Nothing else in the quarter looks to be a particularly tough obstacle so there is a good run on offer for Clayton who certainly doesn’t lack for activity having been involved in the Home Tour and things recently. At 50/1 he looks the best value to me this week.
Quarter Betting
As I mentioned above there are two particularly tasty quarters in this draw which are the second and third ones. They look like tournaments in their own right so I’m not rushing to get too involved in them although were Devon Petersen to be a little bigger than 7/2 to win the second one I might have been a little quicker to get going. In the end though I’ve decided to target the top quarter where I’m following the form.
That means taking the number one seed Joe Cullen. Cullen must be bouncing right now having made the final of one of the Autumn Series events last month and then following that up with a run to the quarter final of the World Grand Prix when he should have beaten Dave Chisnall before winning the last of the European Tour events last weekend when he took care of Michael van Gerwen in the final having previously knocked off Michael Smith and Dave Chisnall in fine style. Cullen averaged high 90s in both the semi-final and final of that event and that is decent stuff. Nathan Aspinall will be a danger in this quarter but I like the form of Cullen at 9/2.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to win European Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back J.Cullen to win 1st Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 5.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
