The European Tour campaign continues this weekend when the eighth event of the season takes place out in Leverkusen when the European Darts Open offers up another chance for those involved to push for places in the European Championship.
Dave Chisnall boosted his chances of qualifying for that tournament when he won this one a year ago and he will make his way to Germany to attempt to make a successful defence of the title. A real good field will be out to stop him though.
Recent Winners
2024 – Dave Chisnall
2023 – Gerwyn Price
2022 – Michael van Gerwen
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Robert Thornton
2014 – Peter Wright
2013 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
We have a slightly new format this season which means that the players ranked 17-32 on the order of merit and 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
We’ve had the halves of the draw flipped again this weekend with the highest seed in the top half being the number two seed which this week is the winner last weekend in Jonny Clayton. If everything goes to the seedings then it will be a Clayton vs Damon Heta semi-final on Sunday evening but as always six seeds will be out to stop that from happening. They are the World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker, Danny Noppert, the defending champion Dave Chisnall, former world champion Michael Smith, James Wade and the past European Championship winner Ross Smith.
As we know now there are a bunch of players who form those ranked 17-32 in the tournament in this half and they are joined by some qualifiers. The names to note in this half include Raymond van Barneveld, Ryan Joyce, Cameron Menzies and the two men who competed in the European Championship final a year ago in Jermaine Wattimena and the champion Ritchie Edhouse. The qualifiers include Kim Huybrechts, Alan Soutar and the ever popular Ricky Evans.
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Bottom Half
That all means that the number one seed is in the bottom half of the draw and this weekend that is Stephen Bunting who will look to take advantage of some big absentees to deliver a strong showing here. Should the weekend play to the seedings then Bunting will meet Chris Dobey in the semi-final but among the seeds looking to stop that from happening is the Premier League semi-finalist Nathan Aspinall, the home star Martin Schindler, Ryan Searle, the Scottish pair of Peter Wright and Gary Anderson and Gian van Veen.
There are some quality players among the unseeded fraternity in this half of the draw as well with the runner-up from last weekend in Niko Springer who will be looking to go one better in front of his home crowd. Dirk van Duijvenbode, another home player in Ricardo Pietreczko, Wessel Nijman and Luke Woodhouse are others who could go well, along with Joe Cullen, Daryl Gurney and Richard Veenstra. Andrew Gilding and Madars Razma will hope for a big weekend too.
Betting
This looks like an open betting heat with so many of the big names missing the tournament and the man I have landed on is Ross Smith, who is a big event winner in waiting for me. He has had an excellent last month or so. He was a finalist on the European Tour three events ago and he recently won that Players Championship tournament without dropping a single leg from the quarter final onwards and slamming in a couple of nine darters along the way.
Smith has won European Tour events before and the culminating tournament as well and someone who scores as heavily as he does, which he has reminded us of in recent times, has to be a leading light in this company. He only went down to the eventual winner Jonny Clayton in a deciding leg in Rosmalen last weekend so it isn’t like he put in a bad effort there. He averaged a nudge under 95 in that match so he is playing as well as anyone at the minute and I think he’s the value play this weekend.
Tips
Back R.Smith to win European Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
