The second week of the Modus Online Live League begins on Monday as 12 new players have a crack at glory which was achieved by Scott Marsh in the first week of what is actually a decent looking competition now we know how it all works!
The beauty of some household names no longer having their tour cards means that we get to see them in action here and over the course of the play on Monday we will see a former world champion, a world master and four other solid players.
The Format
We now know the format for the competition! There are three groups which make up the event each week. Group A has the same six players on the first three days. The winner goes through to the Saturday final while second and third are joined by three new players in Group B to be played on the Thursday and Friday evenings. The top two from that group move into the Saturday final group. The bottom three from Group A meet three new players in Group C on Thursday and Friday morning where the top two move into the Saturday final group where the weekly winner is crowned. Each group sees each player play the others once in each session. All matches in all groups are the best of seven legs and the bookmaker live streaming consoles and the Online Darts YouTube channel has all the coverage.
Monday Preview
I think overall for the first three days of the week we have a better quality of player than we had to start out last week. The headline act has to be the former world champion Richie Burnett who should be great to watch once again. Keeping him close company in the profile stakes though will be Robert Thornton, the former UK Open champion and World Masters winner. Darryl Fitton is the third of the household names on show in Group A.
Jamie Caven has been off the tour and with it our screens for a while now but we get to see him for the first three days this week and completing the former PDC regulars is the once Wales World Cup team member Barrie Bates, who will be looking to use this competition to revive his confidence and his career. The other member of the sextet will be the World Youth Championship finalist Joe Davis who gets to pit his wits against esteemed competition here.
Fixtures
Darryl Fitton v Barrie Bates
Richie Burnett v Robert Thornton
Joe Davis v Jamie Caven
Barrie Bates v Richie Burnett
Jamie Caven v Darryl Fitton
Robert Thornton v Joe Davis
Barrie Bates v Jamie Caven
Richie Burnett v Joe Davis
Darryl Fitton v Robert Thornton
Jamie Caven v Richie Burnett
Robert Thornton v Barrie Bates
Joe Davis v Darryl Fitton
Robert Thornton v Jamie Caven
Darryl Fitton v Richie Burnett
Barrie Bates v Joe Davis
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Group Betting
This feels like a group which as the week goes on we can get stuck into but I’m going to give them all a day to get up to speed and everything. Darryl Fitton is the only player who has played in the Modus leagues before. Whether that gives him an advantage remains to be seen but I’d rather see that is or isn’t the case rather than speculate on it. There are a couple of players who I think might be being underrated in the outright market but that can wait until later in the week in the hope that they don’t peak too soon.
Match Betting
I will take one from the match betting though which comes in the form of Robert Thornton covering a handicap against Barrie Bates midway through the day. I expect Bates to be a little outclassed here I have to say. His effort at Q-School was pretty ordinary where he played five matches and only won one of them. In three of those matches he was averaging less than 73 so he is going to need a marked improvement to see off Thornton here.
I’ve always thought that Thornton fell off the tour because of the injury that he had that he never really recovered from but he gave Q-School a good go winning six matches over the four days with a couple of averages into the 90s and plenty more in the 80s. Importantly here he scored very well at Q-School so he hasn’t lost his scoring and I expect that scoring power to earn him more than enough darts at a double to win this no worse than 4-2 particularly when you consider he has the throw.
Tips
WON – Back R.Thornton (-1.5 legs) to beat B.Bates for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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