The first televised ranking event of the darts season takes place this weekend when the 128 tour players are joined by 16 of the leading lights from the lower level tours for the UK Open which due to the pandemic will be staged behind closed doors in Milton Keynes rather than the usually raucous Minehead.
Michael van Gerwen won this tournament last year and he is back to defend the title but there are plenty of players who arrive here in excellent form who will be looking to walk off with a major title of their own.
Recent Winners
2020 – Michael van Gerwen
2019 – Nathan Aspinall
2018 – Gary Anderson
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Adrian Lewis
2013 – Phil Taylor
2012 – Robert Thornton
2011 – James Wade
The Format
The 128 players who have tour cards all enter the tournament this year. There have been no qualifying series for them. Usually there are qualifying events for amateurs to qualify for their shot at the big boys but the pandemic put paid to that so the top eight from the Challenge Tour last year and the Development Tour make up the field.
The non-tour players go into the first round against the pros ranked 97-128 on the order of merit with the winners going into the second round where players ranked 65-96 join the event. The 32 winners of that round are joined by players ranked 33-64. All these matches are the best of 11 legs and the 32 winners are joined by the top 32 in the world for round four which sees the format go up to the best of 19. The format stays the same for the last 16 and quarter finals before going up to the best of 21 for the semi-finals and final. From round four onwards there is a completely random draw like in the football equivalent of the FA Cup.
The Favourites
Michael van Gerwen isn’t just the defending champion this week but he is the favourite to win the tournament once again. He has only won it in one of the last four years so whether a 9/2 price would have been value anyway is open to debate but when you consider he didn’t win any of the Super Series events last weekend you’d have to think the price is a little on the skinny side, particularly given his disappointing World Championship by his standards and the randomness of the draw.
The world champion Gerwyn Price is the second favourite at 5/1. He missed the last two Super Series events which would be a concern here but he is clearly the best player in the world right now. If he is fit and in good working order then the beaten finalist of 12 months ago will be one of the players to beat. The random draw adds a quirk to this event which makes me sway from taking short prices but as the world champion it would be no surprise if the Welshman came out on top this weekend.
Peter Wright is the third favourite this week. He is a 10/1 shot but after a disappointing World Championship and a very ordinary Super Series last week by his standards I’m not sure I’d want to be on him right now. His performances were better than his results but this tournament is all about results. I don’t like the way that Wright constantly changes his darts and things so he is a little on the short side to me even allowing for his undoubted quality.
Jonny Clayton is one of the best players in the world right now. The Masters champion followed up his win in that tournament by dominating the Super Series last week, making a couple of finals and then finally getting over the line in one and he comes in here full of confidence as a result. Clayton is a 12/1 shot to win the tournament and if he has the form of last week with him then he could be a very tough nut to crack.
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Main Bets
I’ll go for a couple of main bets this weekend with the first of them being the fast improving Dutchman in Dirk van Duijvenbode. DvD has caught fire in recent times. He made the World Grand Prix final then went to the last eight of the European Championship, Players Championship Finals and then the PDC World Championship and kept up his impressive form in the Super Series last week where over the course of the week he came out with the third highest average of 98.68 which came over 15 matches so it was no small sample. Van Duijvenbode is a confident cat and with a smooth draw he can go very well here.
The other main bet I like is Damon Heta. He had a disappointing World Championship but it didn’t take him long to get back on the horse and go again as he won a Super Series event last week. He didn’t just win it but he beat Michael van Gerwen in the final so if you are doing that you are in decent touch. For the 15 matches he played last week he averaged over 97.50 and was hitting 180s for fun so he looks to be in a brilliant place right now. Heta was a quarter finalist in the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals at the end of last year and looks primed to go again here. With four places in the outright market Heta looks a good bet.
Outsiders
Daryl Gurney didn’t have the greatest second half of 2020 but he redeemed it with a run to the last eight of the World Championship and he enjoyed a decent enough time of it in the Super Series last week where he made a quarter final. At his best Gurney has twice been a semi-finalist in this tournament and he has won a couple of TV events too so if he is rounding into form then he could take a bit of stopping here. Gurney was just inside the top 20 for the overall averages at the Super Series and won 10 matches there so he’s in decent enough touch and can outrun his 66/1 price here.
Callan Rydz has a brilliant time of it at the Super Series last week where he took down his first PDC title on the second day and finished up with the tenth highest average of the week as a whole. That showed his win wasn’t a fluke because that was over the four days not just the one which he won. Rydz made it to the third round here last year and his win last week was no huge surprise because his talent has been known about for a while. He had Jeff Smith, Ian White, Nathan Aspinall and Jonny Clayton among his victims in that success and if you go back to the end of last year he went toe to toe with Peter Wright in the Players Championship Finals. That tells me he could go deep again this week.
Stephen Bunting had a decent World Championship and while he didn’t follow that up at the Super Series last week he showed me enough at Ally Pally to suggest he is worth a go at the prices on offer here. Bunting was a semi-finalist in this in 2015 and he made the last 16 last year when he was in a bit of a slump in his game. While it would have been nice if he had gone a bit better at the Super Series, Bunting has always been a big stage player and the return to that might well inspire his best once again.
The last bet for me is Danny Noppert. He made it to the semi-final of one of the Super Series events last week and then the last 16 the following day so he is in decent enough form. Noppert averaged 96.46 for the week and ranked 15 for overall average to highlight his form. Noppert is a TV event finalist and made the last four of the Players Championship Finals which isn’t too dissimilar an event to this. He doesn’t start until the fourth round so given how well he went last week I think he’s worth a punt in the hope the draw stays kind to him.
Tips
Back D.van Duijvenbode to win UK Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back D.Heta to win UK Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/4 1-4)
Back C.Rydz to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with William Hill (1/4 1-4)
Back them here:
Back D.Gurney to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Betfair (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back D.Noppert to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with 888sport (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back S.Bunting to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Betfred (1/4 1-4)
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