It is the penultimate day of the first week of the Modus Icons of Darts on Friday as once again we have five men playing it out in their homes for the right to walk off with the daily crown and move themselves up the overall rankings.
We saw a real drop in the standard on Thursday. Whether that was down to people getting slack with the format or just a poor day at the office for many remains to be seen but it is something to monitor across the day.
The Format
Each day from Monday to Saturday five men will battle it out in a round robin group with the overall champion being determined on Saturday May 2. Matches will see the players compete over the best of 9 legs with each of them at home in front of a webcam throwing at their own individual dartboards. Scores can be found on Dart Connect and the tournament will be streamed on the bookmaker live streaming consoles and hopefully one of Modus’ social media sites.
Here’s how the overall league table shapes up after Day Four ?@reddragondarts #IconsofDarts pic.twitter.com/PXUAWXi3fC
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) April 9, 2020
Thursday Recap
For the second day in succession it was David Evans who waltzed off with the group win. He won all of his four matches to round out a pretty easy winner to take him joint top of the overall table. He will be looking to extend that on Friday. It was another poor day at the office for Mark Webster who lost all of his matches while Wessel Nijman continued on his merry way with three more wins.
It was a good day for us betting wise with both of our bets winning handsomely enough to deliver a 6.3pt profit on the afternoon to take us nicely towards double figures in terms of profit for the event so far. Hopefully we can continue that over the course of Friday and Saturday and round off the week nicely.
Friday Line Up
It is one Dutchman in for the other on Friday as Wessel Nijman has a day off and Raymond van Barneveld returns to the mix no doubt buoyed by his success over Phil Taylor in the classic showdown on Thursday evening. Before rushing in on the legend to do the business in this group it is worth remembering that their match was played on a soft tip board – very different to this.
The four men battling it out with Barney over the course of Friday’s action are David Evans, Paul Nicholson, Mark Webster and Andy Jenkins so although there isn’t a PDC Tour card holder in sight there is a competitive feel to proceedings, which will hopefully resort in a good day of darting action to begin the Easter weekend with.
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Outright Betting
It is actually the outright market which catches my interest over the course of Friday. David Evans is now the favourite to win the group and having done that over the last two days, that is very much right, especially when you remember that Wessel Nijman is having the day off. This is Evans’ last day of the tournament so he’ll want to maximise his wins in order to have a chance of landing the overall prize.
Evans averaged 97 twice in two of his wins on Thursday and there has been nothing like that from the four men he will face here. Mark Webster hasn’t been at the races all week while Barney has been ordinary. Nicholson has shown flashes while there was an inconsistent nature to the play of Andy Jenkins on Thursday. You can get 15/8 on David Evans to win this group and I think that is worth taking.
Match Betting
In terms of the match betting we are getting to the stage where the results of the week so far have had a major impact on the odds and those men I think will win their matches are getting pretty short to do so and those I think will win comfortably are having to cover bigger handicap lines, neither of which is ideal. I was hoping we would get a few 50:50 type calls on Raymond van Barneveld matches but that isn’t the case so I’m happy to leave the matches alone on Friday and see what Saturday brings.
Tips
Back D.Evans to win Group 5 for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with Coral
Back him here:
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