The Easter weekend sees the fourth event of the European Tour season being played out when the German Darts Grand Prix takes place in Munich as the qualifying series for the European Championship later in the year continues.
The world number one Luke Humphries won this tournament a year ago but he has chosen not to defend the title so we are guaranteed a different champion this weekend with a host of big names in the mix looking to win it.
Recent Winners
2024 – Luke Humphries
2023 – Michael Smith
2022 – Luke Humphries
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – 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 Saturday before the last 32 of the tournament is played over two sessions of action on Sunday, with the last 16 on Monday afternoon and the quarter finals on Monday night. They are all the best-of-11 legs with the semi-finals also on Monday 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
When it is an event numbered event on the European Tour we have the halves flipped so that the number two seed is the top seed in the top half of proceedings and that means that Michael van Gerwen is the leading light in it this weekend. If everything goes to the numbers then he will clash with Rob Cross in the semi-final but as with any European Tour event six other seeds will be out to stop that match from happening. They are Premier Legue star Gerwyn Price, Josh Rock, the former world champion Michael Smith, Damon Heta, James Wade and Ryan Searle.
We now have two sets of unseeded players in each half of the draw for these things. The players ranked 17-32 in this half include the home player Ricardo Pietreczko while there is a Dutch pair in it too in Raymond van Barneveld and Wessel Nijman. Ryan Joyce, Daryl Gurney and Kim Huybrechts are some of the others while actual qualifiers include Scott Williams, Niels Zonneveld, Kevin Doets and the home player Michael Rosenauer.
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Bottom Half
With Luke Humphries not here this weekend, Luke Littler gets the chance to be the number one seed in the draw and he is in the bottom half of the bracket where he is scheduled to face off against Jonny Clayton in the semi-final. Once again a bunch of other seeds are out to stop that from happening in the form of Dave Chisnall, Ross Smith, Andrew Gilding, Peter Wright, Danny Noppert and Joe Cullen who gets the last seeded spot with a few players ranked above him in the standings not lining up this week.
The World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker and the home star Martin Schindler are the standout players in the 17-32 ranking range in the bottom half and they will be dangers to the seeds if they get through. Gian van Veen is another who would fit that billing while Jermaine Wattimena is in this half as is the reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse. Rene Eidams and Michael Unterbuchner are home qualifiers while Andy Boulton and Mario Vandenbogaerde are both here too.
Betting
Jonny Clayton has been showing decent form in recent times and I think he is worth backing this weekend. Admittedly he has a tough opening game against the home star Martin Schindler but if he can come through that then this draw could easily open up when you consider that just half of the Premier League players are in the field this week. In the last three Players Championship events, Clayton has gone QF-SF-Winner so he has been trending well recently. He made the final of the Winmau World Masters at the beginning of the season so when he is good he is more than capable of going all the way in tournaments. He looks in a good spot at the minute so I’ll back him this weekend.
The other outright bet that I like the look of this weekend is James Wade. He looks to have a great draw and is another who is going along pretty nicely at the minute. He made the final of the UK Open and the semi-final of the opening European Tour event of the season where Luke Littler denied him on both occasions. He will be in the final by the time that Littler can disposed of him here. Wade made the last eight of a Players Championship event in the week which should have boosted his confidence too. Wade is a past master at picking up titles when a number of the big guns don’t show up or go out early and I’ll pay to see if he adds this one to his list.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to win German Darts Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back J.Wade to win German Darts Grand Prix (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
