The European season concludes in the darts world this weekend when the 32 leading lights from the European Tour campaign head to Dortmund to compete in the European Championship, an event which is gaining in importance all the time.
Ritchie Edhouse won this tournament a year ago but he has become the first champion in the history of the event not to qualify to defend the title so we are guaranteed a different winner this time around. A number of players are playing well enough to be that player.
Recent Winners
2024 – Ritchie Edhouse
2023 – Peter Wright
2022 – Ross Smith
2021 – Rob Cross
2020 – Peter Wright
2019 – Rob Cross
2018 – James Wade
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
The four day tournament sees the action coming thick and fast with the first round played across the opening two nights of action on Thursday and Friday evening. They are over the best of 11 legs before we move into the second round across the best of 19 legs on Saturday afternoon and evening. The quarter finals are also the best of 19 on Sunday afternoon before the two semi-finals and the final is played out in a big Sunday evening session with all three matches being the best of 21 legs. The tournament can be watched in full on ITV4.
Top Half
The draw this weekend is done based on the ranking on the European Tour Order of Merit and Nathan Aspinall won the most money therefore he is the number one seed and at the top of the bracket. He is seeded to clash with the world champion Luke Littler in the semi-final but six other leading seeds will be looking to stop that match happening. They are Dirk van Duijvenbode, Josh Rock, Niko Springer, James Wade, Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson.
Everyone in this tournament has had some good results on the European Tour and the qualifiers are of a high level. The standout one is Raymond van Barneveld who has another shot at European glory. Former World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker is here while Krzysztof Ratajski, Jermaine Wattimena and Danny Noppert have all shown good form in recent times. Ricardo Pietreczko will hope to use the home crowd to his advantage while Cameron Menzies is the other player in the top half.
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Bottom Half
The home star Martin Schindler had such a good campaign that he is the number two seed this week and therefore the leading player in the bottom half of the draw. Should the weekend go to the European rankings then he will collide with Stephen Bunting in the semi-final. In terms of standout names this isn’t the strongest half but Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price both won European Tour events this term and are seeded in this section, as are Ryan Joyce, Gian van Veen, Wessel Nijman and the former champion Ross Smith.
We have eight seasoned outsiders in the bottom half of the draw too. Michael van Gerwen won a European Tour event and also won the last ITV4 tournament when he landed the World Series of Darts Finals. He is in this half of the draw as are recognisable players in Dave Chisnall, Chris Dobey and the former world champion Peter Wright who defends a lot of money this week. Luke Woodhouse, Ryan Searle, Damon Heta and Daryl Gurney complete the draw.
Betting
This draw feels a bit lopsided with so many of the form horses or leading names in the top half of it. That focuses my attention on the bottom half where players won’t face the likes of Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, Gary Anderson, James Wade or Josh Rock until the final and at around 16/1 Michael van Gerwen has to be the main bet here. He landed the full money for me on European soil when he took down the World Series of Darts Finals last month and given that he hasn’t yet qualified for the Players Championship Finals, this tournament carries extra meaning for the Dutch star. He showed both in winning the World Series Finals and the German Darts Grand Prix that on the right weekend he can still deliver the goods and he has a cracking draw if he can overcome Wessel Nijman in the first round. He’s my main bet.
As more of an outsider punt I can’t ignore Martin Schindler here. He will have the home crowd on his side and if you didn’t think that would be a factor there is a reason that Luke Littler only comes to Germany for this tournament now. Schindler is playing well enough having taken down the Austrian Darts Open this season and making the final day of all but one European Tour event. He has also won a Players Championship event and while his record in this tournament is the best, having lost in the first round in all five times he has qualified, he lost with a 101.78 average last year 95.87 average in 2023 and 101.15 in 2022 so he has run into some monster performances. In a kinder looking initial draw I fancy Schindler to get on more of a roll here and be a challenger come Sunday.
Tips
Back M.van Gerwen to win European Championship (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 17.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Schindler to win European Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 41.00 with Wililam Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
