The first week of the wonderful Modus Icons of Darts event concludes on Saturday with the five men on show looking to make the most of their final day of action to bolster their position on an overall leaderboard which will grow over the coming weeks.
We know all about the players and the setup now and so it will be intriguing to see who comes out on top over the course of the afternoon, a day where once again we are being treated to rare live sport while remaining in lockdown.
Here’s how the overall table shapes up following Day Five ???@reddragondarts #IconsofDarts pic.twitter.com/JAi5M7sBcq
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) April 10, 2020
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.
Friday Recap
We haven’t had too many annoying days when betting on this competition but there is no doubt that Friday was one of them. It was Paul Nicholson who won the group courtesy of a 5-4 win over our pick for the day David Evans. Evans won his other three matches and averaged more than 90 all day but could not get the better of Nicholson. What made that result worse was our unrewarded faith in Nicholson in the early stages of the week.
It was another shocking day for Mark Webster who went winless while Andy Jenkins had his worst day thus far with just the one win from his four matches. With a couple of wins and a couple of defeats it was the best day of the week so far for Raymond van Barneveld and he’ll be looking to improve on that over the course of Saturday.
Saturday Line Up
David Evans is now done for the competition and he leaves the door open for the return of Wessel Nijman on Saturday. Nijman will actually reclaim the overall lead in the event if he can win all four of his matches. They will come against an Andy Jenkins who sits third going into the last day of the week, Paul Nicholson who will be out to build on his victory in Friday’s group, Mark Webster who will just want to win a game, and Raymond van Barneveld who will be out to show something like his best darts.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply Gamble Aware.
Outright Betting
I’ve not had a huge amount of success in this market this week, despite regularly hitting the crossbar in it and while I’ve got a feeling Raymond van Barneveld is going to end the week in style, I’m not really in a rush to get involved. Wessel Nijman is the favourite and that is probably right, not least because he has been so good this week, but because he is the only one playing for anything overall.
You hope from an entertainment point of view that there will be enough personal pride in the other three to offer up some competitive action but you would be betting blind in that sense if you were to take any of them to win the group. Ultimately, the market probably isn’t too far wrong here so I’ll leave betting on it well alone.
Match Betting
There isn’t a huge amount on the match betting front that I fancy either. As I eluded to on Friday, the match odds generally reflect what we’ve seen this week and I’m not really comfortable taking short odds in this event nor do I really have much faith in the stragglers suddenly finding their best form. That makes betting on the matches a little tricky but there is one I have found where there is enough value.
Andy Jenkins has played Mark Webster three times this week and he’s beaten him 5-1 on all three occasions. Webster has been so ordinary this week that he’s only won two of 16 matches so turning the tide on Jenkins looks unlikely. To Webster’s credit he did average 90+ a couple of times on Friday but lost both matches. The other two occasions he didn’t even average 80 and that inconsistency isn’t helping him. In Jenkins’ three wins over the Welshman this week he has led the averages by 14.5pts, 5.8pts and 9.4pts. That is the gap Webster has to make up. I don’t see it happening. I’ll take Jenkins to win no worse than 5-3 here.
Tips
WON – Back A.Jenkins (-1.5 legs) to beat M.Webster for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
