Another weekend has arrived and that means we have another darts tournament on the horizon. This weekend sees the inaugural Champions League taking place with the top eight in the world going at it over two days of furious action inside Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena.
The Format
The top eight players are split up into two groups of four where everybody plays the other three men in their group over the best of 19 legs on Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The top two in each group progress to the semi-finals on Sunday evening where the tournament comes to a conclusion with the final later that night.
Group A
This is the really heavyweight group. Michael van Gerwen is the headline act in it from a seeding point of view and he goes in search of a fifth title in the space of eight days here and is very much the one to beat but he has three good tests to begin with.
Phil Taylor is the second seed in the group and their match should be a cracker most likely on Saturday evening. Peter Wright and Robert Thornton make up the four men in this section and they have their work cut out to make the knockout stages.
Group B
World champion Gary Anderson heads the players in this second group. He has had a largely disappointing time of it since he won on that famous night at Alexandra Palace so this is a good time to get back to his very best.
Adrian Lewis rates as the main threat for the Scot in this group although he hasn’t been in super fine form himself. Michael Smith and James Wade are the other two men in what is quite a competitive little section.
Betting
I’m not getting too involved in this tournament because it is nothing but a glorified exhibition and in truth these exhibitions with the same eight players is starting to get a little boring. I suspect the main aim of this event is to rub the BDOs noses in it after the BBC dropped them so it isn’t one for massive betting or indeed coverage. I prefer to keep my powder dry ahead of next week’s World Grand Prix but I will go with one for interest.
I don’t see past Michael van Gerwen this week. He is playing darts on a whole different level to anyone else at the minute and I don’t see anything changing that this week. That is reflected in the odds though and at 4/5 the value isn’t there in a round robin format.
Even if everything goes to plan he has to beat someone in the final and I suspect that man might be Phil Taylor. Taylor was well known to up his game for new events in his pomp wanting to be the first winner of them and I don’t expect that to have changed. It was interesting that he pulled out of the Players Championship events in midweek to prepare for this tournament so I am expecting an at it Power here.
If you think Taylor can beat van Gerwen over 21 legs then the 5/1 on him winning the tournament can’t be ruled out but I don’t see it so for me the safer play is the 11/10 on him making the final which would mean we can sit back and enjoy a final with the cash already banked.
Tips
WON – Back P.Taylor to make the final for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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