With no signs of crowds being allowed into UK darts events and all the restrictions stopping the full tour from taking place, the third season of the PDC Home Tour begins on Monday with a more quirky format as some of the stars of the PDC mix it with the lesser lights in their own homes.
The change in format means that every match matters in this staging of the Home Tour and that is immediately a positive and it will be interesting to see what that does to the action over the 19 days of play that are scheduled.
The Format
42 players will compete in PDC Home Tour III and they will all compete in three of the 18 groups in the first round where their results will be accumulated on one overall league table where the top seven at the end of the initial 18 days of action will form a Championship Group from which the overall champion will be crowned. All matches are the best of seven legs and the tournament will be broadcast on PDC.tv or the bookmaker streaming sites.
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Group 1 Line Up
The Favourites
The defending champion Luke Humphries gets the honour of opening up the third season of the PDC Home Tour and given how well he won last season you’ve got to think he will be looking to claim an early lead in the overall table because he appears to have drawn a kind initial section. James Wilson is the next higher ranked player on show but he has been very hit or miss in recent times. Andy Boulton has had some good times in the two Home Tours so far and will be looking for another here.
The Outsiders
Four other players would ordinarily have had a tough chance to qualify but the beauty of this tournament is that each player will play the same amount of matches so if they can beat the weaker players that day and sneak a surprise against a bigger name they could be in the mix. Adam Hunt is one of those players and he could have a decent day. Jonathan Worsley missed Home Tour II so he’ll be looking to get off to a good start this season. William Borland and Barrie Bates will need to be at their best to pick up numerous wins.
Group Betting
Only one bookmaker is offering odds on the group which will hopefully increase as we go along. As you would expect Luke Humphries is a very warm favourite and almost unbackable at odds on given that the format has shifted down to the best of seven legs. That opens the door to a lot of upsets and surprise results so one thing I’m not doing in this running of the Home Tour is taking a short price on anyone. This one looks even more unpredictable than the ones which have gone before it.
Of those outside of Humphries I’ve a feeling that Adam Hunt could have a decent day. He has the scoring power to win legs in bursts and I think that could be important over the course of this competition. Andy Boulton and James Wilson are solid players but I’m not sure solid is going to get the job done over this event. Of the others a word should be said for William Borland who has plenty of quality but it would still be a major surprise if any of these are good enough to get the better of Humphries on the day.
Match Betting
I’ll go with one bet on Monday while I assess how everything is played out but I suspect a couple of things for this tournament – firstly that every match in the day is going to count unlike in previous runnings of the Home Tour where the group or qualifying places have been determined before the last few games and secondly with it only being the best of seven having the advantage of the throw is going to count even more than it has so far in a Home Tour.
With that in mind I’m happy to take Adam Hunt to beat James Wilson. Hunt has been in decent enough form in recent times and only a couple of weeks ago he was hitting 100 averages on the European Tour which highlights what he is capable of. Wilson is also capable of that but the fact that he hasn’t been on the European Tour at all this season and hasn’t done much on the pro tours is a concern. He’s gone well enough in the Home Tours but Hunt has the throw on him here and I fancy that advantage will count.
Tips
Back A.Hunt to beat J.Wilson for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betway
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