The European Championship begins in Dortmund on Thursday night when the top half of the draw play their first round matches in the latest TV tournament of what is shaping up to be a wonderful end to the year.
The opening night of the tournament will see the number one seed Dave Chisnall on show looking to justify his lofty position in the event. The likes of Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price and the world champion Michael Smith will also be on show.
First Four Matches
We get underway with one of the TV tournament winners from 2023 on show as the UK Open champion Andrew Gilding will look to make to the second round of the latest ITV event when he meets Danny Noppert. When they are done the World Matchplay winner Nathan Aspinall will be on show when he goes up against Ryan Searle. The number one seed Dave Chisnall then begins his quest for a maiden TV title when he takes on the man who began the year by winning his first in Chris Dobey. Two men not short of TV success take us to the halfway mark of the evening when Rob Cross faces off against Dimitri Van den Bergh.
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Later Four Matches
The second part of the evening begins with the former world champion Gerwyn Price taking to the stage as he attempts to win this tournament for the first time. Keane Barry will be the man looking to halt that bid in its tracks. Peter Wright will then take the stage when he takes on one of the two home men on show over the course of the evening in Gabriel Clemens. The pick of the matches on paper at least sees the current world champion taking on a former winner of that title when Michael Smith meets Raymond van Barneveld before the session concludes with Martin Schindler taking on Stephen Bunting.
Betting
I have to say there isn’t a huge amount that I like over the course of the night and I’m not a massive fan of betting in these best of 11s anyway but Dave Chisnall hasn’t been the number one seed for a TV tournament before and carrying the expectation that comes with that and I wonder if that will impact his performance. For all that Chisnall has gone well in the Players Championship and European Tour spheres, he has only won one match on TV in 2023 and that was in a deciding leg against Ryan Searle at The Masters back in January.
Chris Dobey certainly doesn’t have any of that on him. He has basically been freewheeling this season since he won The Masters back in January and has gone well in the majority of the TV events since. If that wasn’t enough he is the last man into the field this week and when he lost early in the last European Tour event probably felt he wasn’t going to be in this at all so there is absolutely zero pressure on him. That should make for a dangerous man and at the prices I think there is enough scope for a punt on ‘Hollywood’.
Tips
Back C.Dobey to beat D.Chisnall for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Spreadex
