Darts is back in front of a crowd this weekend when the World Series of Darts Finals takes place out in Austria, with the latest televised tournament getting underway inside the Salzburgarena on Friday evening and going through to Sunday night.
Michael van Gerwen won this tournament last year and he’ll be hoping to put his recent slump behind him to retain his title in a 24 player field which will all have seen his trials and tribulations and will look for the title themselves.
Recent Winners
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – James Wade
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
We have a bit of a different format this week. Given that there have been no qualifying events this year the top eight in the world rankings have become the seeds and various players of all walks of the game have been invited as the unseeded players in the best attempt to grow the game across the world that has been possible in Covid-19 times. The 16 unseeded players meet over the best of 11 on Friday evening with the winners going through to face a seed in the second round over the same format on Saturday evening. The tournament concludes on Sunday with the best of 19 quarter finals before the semi-finals and final over the best of 21 legs.
Seeds
The eight seeds are familiar to us because they have all been competing in the recent Premier League. Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed as he holds that position in the world rankings and is the defending champion. Peter Wright is the world champion and he is the number two seed this week one ahead of the twice Grand Slam champion Gerwyn Price. The other member of the top four seeds is the former world finalist Michael Smith who has a point to prove.
Rob Cross still sits in the top five in the world rankings and he holds that spot in the seedings ahead of former UK Open winner Nathan Aspinall who is seeded sixth in this tournament. Despite not qualifying for the semi-finals of the Premier League, Daryl Gurney has the chance to win this from a seeded position. The other seed is the only man other than Michael van Gerwen to win the tournament in the form of James Wade.
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Unseeded Players
There is a mixture of well-known and lesser known players among the unseeded players. The two biggest of them actually play each other in the first round in former BDO world champion Glen Durrant and the new World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh. Fallon Sherrock also gets a chance to strut her stuff in this. Krzysztof Ratajski and Mensur Suljovic are also unseeded players on show while recent Autumn Series tournament winner Damon Heta is in the field too.
Among the other players on show are the former world finalist Jeff Smith, PDC ace Joe Cullen as well as veterans Vincent van der Voort and Ian White. Dave Chisnall is another leading light who is in the field as are seasoned campaigners Simon Whitlock and Steve Beaton. From further afield Darius Labanauskas and Cody Harris represent Lithuania and New Zealand respectively in what should be a decent weekend of darts.
Betting
I’ll go with two for the weekend. The first pick is from the leading contenders and that is through Nathan Aspinall who I think has a nice enough second round draw in either Harry Ward, who is quitting the game at the end of the year, and Darius Labanauskas and then once he gets into the longer format he is more in his element. There ism’t much between him and Gerwyn Price should they meet in a quarter final and Aspinall can mix it with the likes of Wright too. It doesn’t feel as important to be in the other half to MVG at the minute but it still can’t be a bad thing so at 11/1 Aspinall is my main bet.
The other bet I’ll take is the man playing at home this weekend in Mensur Suljovic. It is a weird case but it might be that the toughest match before the semi-final for Suljovic is his first round match against Ratajski because if he wins that he has a Michael Smith who is missing doubles by the bucket load at present and then the worst case in the quarter finals is he plays Rob Cross who is nowhere near the top of his game. An issue might be that he plays MVG in the semi-final but there is absolutely no guarantee the Dutchman gets there. Suljovic made the final and a quarter final in two of the Autumn Series events last weekend and with the crowd behind him here I think he’s overpriced at 50s.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to win World Series of Darts Finals (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 12.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Suljovic to win World Series of Darts Finals (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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