The European Tour season continues over the Easter weekend when the leading lights in the game head to Munich for the German Darts Grand Prix, the fourth of 13 events which all add up as qualification for the European Championship.
Luke Humphries took the title down last season and he is in the field looking to make a successful defence but a number of stars are in excellent form and will be out to take the crown from him this weekend.
Recent Winners
2022 – Luke Humphries
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
We have the same format that was in use for the European Tour last year so the 16 seeds are joined by the 16 qualifiers in the last 32 over two sessions of action on Sunday while the last 16 is played on Monday afternoon and the quarter finals on Monday evening. They are all the best of 11 legs while the semi-finals, also on Monday evening, are the best of 13 legs and the winner will be determined in the Monday evening final over the best of 15 legs.
Top Half
The draw is flipped this weekend with the highest ranked seed in the top half of it being the number two seed. That is Damon Heta and he will look to take advantage of his lofty position in the seed list. He is seeded to meet the third seed Rob Cross in the semi-finals but there are a number of big names out to stop that from happening. The world champion Michael Smith is a seed in this half of the draw, as is the man of the moment in Gerwyn Price who goes in search of a third straight European Tour title, Josh Rock is another while Dirk van Duijvenbode, Danny Noppert and Dimitri Van den Bergh complete the top half seeds.
The big names don’t end with the seeds though. There are some other big names among the qualifiers in this part of the draw and none bigger than Raymond van Barneveld. Premier League star Chris Dobey is another in the top half and then there is World Championship semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens and Callan Rydz too. The other four qualifiers are Adam Warner, Berry van Peer, Keane Barry and a new name on the scene in Liam Maendl-Lawrance.
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Bottom Half
This is where the top seed is housed this weekend. We would usually expect that to be Michael van Gerwen but it is Luke Humphries with the three-time champion having this weekend off. He is seeded to meet the winner of the first European Tour event of the year, Dave Chisnall, in the semi-final but once again six seeds will be out to stop that one from happening. They are Jose de Sousa, Joe Cullen, the former world champion Peter Wright, winner of the last two weeks of the Premier League, Jonny Clayton, home star Martin Schindler and Nathan Aspinall.
The qualifiers in this section of the draw aren’t as in form and as strong in depth as the top half but there are still some very capable players among them. Ross Smith is the European champion and he’ll be looking for a decent run here, as will Steve Beaton, who has made a good start to the year, and Jeffrey de Zwaan. The other qualifiers are Cameron Menzies, Jim Williams, Dragutin Horvat, the UK Open champion Andrew Gilding and Lee Evans.
Betting
Dave Chisnall was good to me in the opening event of the season and he looks to have a good draw to do some damage with this week. Chisnall has only made the last 16 of the two European Tour events since he won the first one but he went out to 100 averages on both occasions and if you run into monster performances you just have to hold your hands up and say you were unlucky. Importantly though, Chisnall is in the easier looking half of the draw this week.
That doesn’t mean it is simple because Jonny Clayton in the last 16 would be an issue, but he’s due to run out of steam soon after a couple of good weeks in the Premier League and a solid showing in Europe last week. Aside from that though there is nobody you wouldn’t think Chisnall can’t beat if he is on his game. The fact he knows he can win is a big thing and given all of that I’m surprised he is 25/1 this weekend. I’ll pay to see if he goes in again.
Tips
Back D.Chisnall to win German Darts Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
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