We are at the stage of the year where there is a run of European Tour events coming pretty frequently and after one last weekend there is another which begins on Friday when the European Darts Grand Prix takes place.
Gerwyn Price was the winner of this tournament a year ago and he is in the field at the time of writing to attempt to make a successful defence of the title. As we saw last weekend, plenty of players in good form will be out to stop him.
Recent Winners
2023 – Gerwyn Price
2022 – Luke Humphries
2020 – Jose de Sousa
2019 – Ian White
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Kim Huybrechts
2014 – Mervyn King
The Format
The format for these tournaments remains the same as before, which means that the qualifiers meet each other over the course of the play on Friday before the last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Saturday, with the last 16 on Sunday afternoon and the quarter finals on Sunday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Sunday evening. They are the best-of-13 and then the final in the same session is the best-of-15 legs. The draw has been pre-determined and is played in a straight knockout format.
Top Half
The halves have been flipped from last week to try and make the action look a bit different in the latter stages. That means that the number two seed Luke Humphries is the highest on show in the top half. He bombed out early last week which will give his potential semi-final opponent, Gerwyn Price, even more belief that he can make a successful defence of his title. The other six seeds in the top half this week are Josh Rock, former world champions Michael Smith, Gary Anderson and Rob Cross, Danny Noppert and Ryan Searle.
We get getting used to there being a number of promising and eye catching qualifiers and that is certainly the case in the top half this week. The winner of the tournament last week is here in Martin Schindler whole Luke Littler, winner of one of the other European Tour events this year, is also in the field. Two other players who jump out are The Masters champion Stephen Bunting and Raymond van Barneveld. Jose de Sousa, Daryl Gurney, Andrew Gilding and Gian van Veen can all easily be dangerous.
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Bottom Half
This is the half of the draw where the number one seed Dave Chisnall will look to justify top billing after a good campaign on the European Tour last season. Things haven’t been quite as good for him this time around but he is scheduled to face Damon Heta in the semi-finals so the draw could open up. Six more seeds will be looking to stop that from happening and they include the twice former champion Michael van Gerwen. The other seeds in this half are Dirk van Duijvenbode, Ross Smith, Krzysztof Ratajski, Jonny Clayton and Ricardo Pietreczko.
There is an obvious standout qualifier in the bottom half this weekend. That is Peter Wright, who will probably be putting all of his focus into the European Tour with him just playing out time in the Premier League. Chris Dobey is another household name on show as is James Wade. There are some potential spoilers in this half too in the form of the World Championship semi-finalist Scott Williams, home star Gabriel Clemens, Luke Woodhouse and Martin Lukeman. Joe Cullen is probably more than a spoiler.
Betting
I took Damon Heta last week where he was knocked out in the last 16 when he went down in a deciding leg when he had a 100+ average against Ryan Searle. That was unfortunate but if he keeps on delivering performances of that level then he is going to progress eventually. That is the nature of the format that sometimes those displays aren’t good enough. I do think the draw is no harder for him though, albeit Peter Wright could be dangerous in the last 32 should he get there.
I definitely want someone in the bottom half of the draw though. You look at the second quarter with Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, Stephen Bunting, Martin Schindler, Danny Noppert and Rob Cross among others in it I want nothing to do with that and whoever comes through there might well run straight into Michael Smith, Gary Anderson or Gerwyn Price in the semi-final. Stay well away from predicting the outcome of that half and stick to Heta in the bottom half in the hope that he can maintain those 100+ averages and this time they take him deeper in the tournament.
Tips
Back D.Heta to win European Darts Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
