The second tournament on the European Tour in 2025 takes place this weekend when the European Darts Trophy returns to the schedule after seven years away as 48 of the leading players in the game head to Gottingen in Germany for the event.
Michael van Gerwen completed a hat trick of wins in this tournament back in 2018 when he overcame James Wade in the final and the Dutchman will be looking to revive those memories as he seeks to regain the crown.
Recent Winners
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael Smith
2014 – Michael Smith
2013 – Wes Newton
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
The halves have been flipped this week from the opening European Tour event of the year and with Luke Littler having the weekend off it means that Michael van Gerwen is the highest seed in the top half of the draw. He is on a collision course with Rob Cross in the semi-final but as always six other seeds will be looking to stop that from happening. Damon Heta is the next highest seed ahead of Gerwyn Price and then there is Danny Noppert, Peter Wright, Dimitri Van den Bergh and a Josh Rock who has begun 2025 fairly well.
Such is the new format of the qualifiers for this tournament we have eight players who were ranked between 17-32 in the world when the draw came out and in this half of the bracket we have the likes of Wessel Nijman, the World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker, Gian van Veen and Ryan Searle who have all got big reputations and have delivered big showings this season. Cameron Menzies, Daryl Gurney, Andrew Gilding and Ryan Joyce are the others in that bad. The pick of the qualifiers include Alan outar, Joe Cullen and the home star Niko Springer.
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Bottom Half
The world number one Luke Humphries will head up the bottom half of the draw where if everything goes to the numbers it will be Jonny Clayton that he will face off against in the semi-final. Six very good seeds are out to stop that from happening with Dave Chisnall, James Wade, Gary Anderson, Nathan Aspinall, Chris Dobey and Michael Smith all having star quality who are all capable of having a very deep run in this tournament themselves.
It feels like in name at least that the players ranked 17-32 in this half of the draw are weaker than those in the top half. Raymond van Barneveld is much the biggest based on past glories but the likes of Ross Smith and Ritchie Edhouse are both former and current European champions respectively. Martin Schindler goes into this event off the back of a win in a Players Championship tournament earlier in the week while Luke Woodhouse, Jermaine Wattimena, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Ricardo Pietreczko are all here. Of the qualifiers, Ricky Evans, Kevin Doets and Boris Krcmar stand out.
Betting
I’ll take a couple of players from the top half of the draw this weekend with the first one being Mike De Decker who has sprung back to form in a big way in the last few weeks. He reached the final of the opening European Tour event of the season where Luke Littler denied him the win on home soil but there won’t be a repeat of that this weekend with Littler opting out of the event. De Decker has also made a couple of semi-finals on the floor in recent times including one this week where he beat Peter Wright along the way, which could be significant with them both being scheduled to meet in the second round should De Decker get there. There is no weak quarter in this draw but he is in the weakest and at 33/1 he is my main pick this weekend.
At 80/1 my second pick is a home player who might well end up being the best player to come out of Germany in time so I’m hoping I can get him in the book before everyone catches up with the talent that Niko Springer possesses. He has climbed through the ranks in the PDC and having gone well at the lower levels he is now on the tour and if you look at his Players Championship results he is more than competitive. In the last four first rounds he has played in those events he has taken care of Michael van Gerwen (who he could meet in round two here), Michael Smith and Dave Chisnall and he took Luke Littler to a deciding leg in the other. Springer is a huge talent and with a home crowd behind him he could easily cause a few surprises this weekend.
Tips
Back M.De Decker to win European Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back N.Springer to win European Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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