Hot on the heels of the first European Tour event of the year, the second one begins when the leading players in the game head to Hildesheim for the German Darts Championship with another £25,000 first prize up for grabs on the road to the European Championship.
As he often seems to be in these European events, Michael van Gerwen is the defending champion and he does appear to attempt to make a defence of the title but some decent names are in good form and looking to oust him from the throne.
Recent Winners
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Alan Norris
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Gary Anderson
2013 – Dave Chisnall
2012 – Phil Taylor
2009 – Phil Taylor
2008 – Co Stompe
2007 – Phil Taylor
The Format
We are using the same format as last season for these tournaments which means that the last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Saturday, with the last 16 on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Sunday evening. They are the best-of-13 and then the final in the same session is the best-of-15 legs. The draw has been pre-determined and is played in a straight knockout format.
Top Half
The draw has been flipped from last week to ensure things are a bit different which means that Ian White heads the action in the top half this week as the number two seed in the tournament. He is in a tough part of the draw though with a number of leading players opposing him from both seeded and qualifying sections. Stephen Bunting, Daryl Gurney, Rob Cross, Joe Cullen, Adrian Lewis, Peter Wright and Jermaine Wattimena are the seeded players.
Andrew Gilding, Steffen Siepmann, Kevin Knopf, Ron Meulenkamp and Andy Boulton are some of the qualifiers in this section but the three real danger men without a seeding are the UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall. World Youth champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and the former BDO star Jamie Hughes who is playing some wonderful darts.
Bottom Half
Michael van Gerwen is housed in the bottom half this week and will look to defend his title from this position. James Wade, Mensur Suljovic and Gerwyn Price are the men who are slated to give him his toughest earlier tests in the event while Darren Webster, Dave Chisnall, Jonny Clayton and James Wilson will be looking to take advantage of their seeding over the course of the weekend if possible.
Keegan Brown is one of the qualifiers from this part of the draw with Mervyn King being a leading name in among them too. Simon Stevenson made a name for himself in the UK Open and will be looking to do likewise here with Mark Dudbridge, Ricky Evans, Luke Humphries, Boris Koltsov and Mario Robbe making up the players on show here.
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Betting
There isn’t too much in the way of value doing the rounds this week so it is a case of trying to pick out a soft part of the draw and take advantage of it. With Michael van Gerwen suddenly looking back to the man we know he is I’m leaving the bottom half well alone but with Rob Cross, Jamie Hughes, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Daryl Gurney and Ian White all in one quarter I’m heading towards the top of the draw for a bet.
Nathan Aspinall was good to us in the UK Open earlier in the month and I see no reason why we should desert him this weekend, especially when he took care of business with a 104+ average in his match on Friday. That stands up to anyone that sort of form and we saw in Minehead that he can sustain that level too. Adrian Lewis and Peter Wright are the main seeds in his section but Lewis didn’t offer a great deal last week and Wright continues to look vulnerable. At 40/1 Aspinall is worth a punt.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to win German Darts Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfred (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
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