The seeded players enter the fray at the European Darts Open on Saturday when the last 32 of the tournament takes place over a couple of juicy looking sessions of darts out in Leverkusen with places at finals day up for grabs.
That all means we get to see the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Dave Chisnall, the winner of the first European Tour event of the season, for the first time this weekend.
Afternoon Session
We get underway with the World Cup champion Damon Heta on show when he goes up against Andy Boulton before a good looking match follows them as Rob Cross takes on a Ryan Joyce who is looking to get back to where he was in the game a couple of years ago. Dave Chisnall begins his quest for successive European Tour titles in the third match of the afternoon when he takes on Jim Williams before we hit the halfway mark in the session with Dirk van Duijvenbode going up against Ted Evetts.
The second part of the afternoon begins with two TV tournament winners on show when Joe Cullen meets the reigning European champion Ross Smith before Jonny Clayton meets a Ryan Meikle who was impressive in coming through on Friday night. The former UK Open winner Danny Noppert meets the reigning The Masters champion Chris Dobey in the penultimate match of the afternoon before we conclude the action with Ryan Searle taking on Stephen Bunting.
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Evening Session
An absolutely stacked evening session gets underway with the former world champion Gerwyn Price on show when he meets the number one from Poland in Krzysztof Ratajski who made the final of a floor event earlier in the week. When they are done the top seed Luke Humphries will take to the stage to take on Brendan Dolan before the world champion Michael Smith starts his weekend against Rene Eidams. Peter Wright takes us through to the interval when he goes up against Ricardo Pietreczko.
We come out of the interval with the standout clash on the Saturday as Michael van Gerwen takes on his Dutch rival Raymond van Barneveld in what should be a special match. Dimitri Van den Bergh and James Wade follow them in what could be a sleeper for the best match on the day before the German number one Martin Schindler competes in the penultimate game of the evening when he takes on William O’Connor. We conclude proceedings with the talented Josh Rock meeting Ian White.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet in the last 32 while we assess the new runners and riders to the tournament. That bet comes in the afternoon session where Chris Dobey probably should be a bit of a clearer favourite against Danny Noppert than he is. Noppert had a wonderful year last year, winning his first TV tournament in the PDC and rising into the top 10 in the rankings but he has been a little quieter than we might have expected which could be crucial.
Another thing that could be crucial here is that Dobey has already been on the stage and won on Friday evening. He was solid enough with a 95 average and a bunch of 180s. That was actually even more impressive when you consider that he was playing in Newcastle in the Premier League the night before. Dobey is riding the wave of winning The Masters this season and has performed very well in good company in the Premier League. This one is winning momentum against a bit of a stalled career so I like Dobey here.
Tips
Back C.Dobey to beat D.Noppert for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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