The European Tour is back this weekend as 48 of the leading players in the game head to Kiel in Germany for the Baltic Sea Darts Open, the latest leg of the qualifying series for the European Championship later in the season.
Dave Chisnall won this tournament last year and he is in the field looking to make a successful defence of the title but we have seen some brilliant darts thrown on the European Tour this season so he’ll have to be on top of his game to keep the crown.
Recent Winners
2023 – Dave Chisnall
The Format
We have the same format that was in use for the European Tour last year so the 32 unseeded players meet in the opening round on Friday with the winners progressing to take on a seeded star in the second round which is played over two sessions on Monday. The last 16 is played on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday evening. They are all the best of 11 legs while the semi-finals, also on Sunday evening, are the best of 13 legs and the winner will be determined in the Sunday evening final over the best of 15 legs.
Top Half
We have flipped over halves of the draw this weekend so the top half contains the second seed who once again is Damon Heta. If all goes to the rankings then he is going to face Luke Humphries in the semi-final but Humphries has already declared that he is only interested in the Premier League finals for the next few weeks. That will be music to the ears of the other seeds in this half. They are Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Ross Smith, Josh Rock, Danny Noppert and Krzysztof Ratajski.
The one thing we have seen in the five European Tour events so far is the standard of qualifiers have gone through the roof and in this half of the draw this weekend we have Luke Littler keeping up that standard. Martin Schindler is another eye catching unseeded player having already landed a European Tour event this season while the name of Raymond van Barneveld always jumps out too. Gian van Veen, Wessel Nijman, Andrew Gilding, Jose de Sousa, Ryan Joyce and Mike De Decker are others who can be expected to have a good weekend.
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Bottom Half
The defending champion Dave Chisnall is the number one seed this week and as such is the highest ranked player in the bottom half of the draw. If this half goes to the seeding then he will face Rob Cross in the semi-final but there are very much six other seeds who will be looking to stop that match from happening. They are Jonny Clayton, Ricardo Pietreczko, Stephen Bunting, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Ryan Searle and Joe Cullen.
There are some standout unseeded players in this half of the draw as well. They include the UK Open champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and the current World Matchplay winner Nathan Aspinall. The latter might have his eye on the Premier League knockout match next week though. Brendan Dolan won a Players Championship tournament earlier in the week and he is in this half of the draw while Daryl Gurney, Chris Dobey and James Wade are capable of going deep in any tournament that they enter.
Betting
I’ve been on Stephen Bunting a few times this season and I’m going to be on him again here. I’m convinced he has got one of these European Tour events in him and in terms of seeds in his half of the draw he might never get a better chance than this week. Dave Chisnall is the top seed in his half but he isn’t in the greatest form and then comes Rob Cross who has been doing plenty of miles in the Premier League in recent times which puts me off him too.
Bunting has won The Masters this year and is clearly playing some of the best darts he has played in a while. He made the quarter final of both Players Championship tournaments earlier in the week and he has reached the semi-final of two of the last three European Tour events. I think he is knocking on the door of a huge ranking event breakthrough and he couldn’t ask for a much better draw this week so at 25/1 he’s my pick for this weekend.
Tips
Back S.Bunting to win Baltic Sea Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
