We are set up for a brilliant end to the fourth week of the Icons of Darts competition brought to us from the Modus Darts team on Saturday as four men go at it in a near enough straight shootout for the weekly title.
Five men in all will be on show in their homes to keep us entertained in our homes and we should be expecting an extremely competitive and hard fought day of darts, which would be in keeping with the majority of what we’ve seen this week so far.
The Format
Each day from Monday to Saturday five men will battle it out in a round robin group with the overall champion being determined on Saturday May 2. Matches will see the players compete over the best of 9 legs with each of them at home in front of a webcam throwing at their own individual dartboards. Scores can be found on Dart Connect and the tournament will be streamed on the bookmaker live streaming consoles and for free on Dartslive.tv.
Here’s how the overall Icons Live League table looks after Day Five ??? @reddragondarts #IconsofDarts pic.twitter.com/X1uDhCnJ9V
— MODUS Sports (@ModusDarts180) May 1, 2020
Friday Recap
It was a rare occasion this week that the group wasn’t decided on leg difference. That is because Ritchie Edhouse actually discovered where the outer ring of the board was and he combined that with his dominant scoring to win all four matches. That saw him top the table by one win from Arron Monk while Justin Smith registered a couple of victories. There was one win for Jose Justicia and Keelan Kay ended his debut week in the event without a single win on the day.
It was not the day we were after from a betting point of view as Keelan Kay was horrendous for much of it, including his match against Jose Justicia which we wanted him to win. It looked promising at 2-0 but it went downhill pretty quickly from there and he ended up losing 5-2 which was incredibly annoying. That leaves us needing to find something good to finish the week with on Saturday.
Saturday Line Up
We have the best line up of the week so far to conclude the event with Jarred Cole coming back into the mix and Keelan Kay, the weakest player on show over the course of the week the man having his day off. Cole will battle it out with Arron Monk, Justin Smith and Ritchie Edhouse for the weekly title while the role of being the spoiler over the course of the day goes to Jose Justicia, who is the fifth man in action on Saturday afternoon.
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Outright Betting
Given that everything is at stake on Saturday I wasn’t going to bet on the overall group for Saturday but bookmakers keep on chucking out 6/1 quotes on Jarred Cole winning the group and I just can’t resist that. I admit I would have more confidence in him had he not had his day off on Friday but he was playing so well prior to that, that I am prepared to overlook that at the prices. In the four days he has played this week he has won the group once and lost out on leg difference on two other occasions.
Arron Monk is a worthy favourite but he is the one to be shot at and I’m not convinced he does the pressure too well so I’m happy to overlook him. Justin Smith is a class act but he has faded the longer the week has gone on for me and I’m anything but convinced that Ritchie Edhouse can pin doubles under pressure two days in a row. If Cole hadn’t run into Keelan Kay this week he would be well clear by now. He won’t be facing him on Saturday so that 6/1 looks too big to ignore.
Match Betting
I get that it is a risky move backing the same player to win the group and in the matches because if he has a bad day the whole shebang comes crashing down but I have to bet on what we’ve seen so far this week which brings me to backing Jarred Cole twice more. The first of those occasions is against Ritchie Edhouse who just does not convince me on doubles enough to not oppose him. Cole has beaten him in their three meetings this week – 5-2 on Tuesday, 5-2 on Wednesday and 5-3 on Thursday. Cole had a 10pt advantage in the averages in the first two matches and 5.5 in the third one and to be fair Edhouse’s checkout rates were respectable in the latter two. Edhouse has a lot to find on the week so far so unless Cole drops off significantly he should be the favourite for me here. I think Cole has Edhouse’s numbers.
Jarred Cole has also beaten Jose Justicia three times this week and his wins over the Spaniard have been even easier. They have been 5-1, 5-1 and 5-2 and I’m expecting something similar on Saturday. Justicia has played 16 matches this week and he is still yet to throw a 90 average. That is the level Cole has largely dealt in all week having been in that range in 12 of his 16 outings. Cole looks much more at home in this format and his finishing has been much sharper. He is scoring better too and I would be very surprised if that doesn’t equate to at least a 5-3 win for the Englishman here.
Tips
Back J.Cole to win Group 6 for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with Bet365
Back J.Cole to beat R.Edhouse for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back J.Cole (-1.5 legs) to beat J.Justicia for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
Back him here:
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