The European Tour continues this weekend with the International Darts Open, the third event of the season as we slowly begin to get a feel for the sort of players who will be making it through to the European Championship at the end of the campaign.
Martin Schindler thrilled the home crowds here last season when he took down the title and the German is back looking to make a successful defence of the crown but the way the European Tours are structured this term he faces a huge ask to keep the trophy.
Recent Winners
2024 – Martin Schindler
2023 – Gerwyn Price
2022 – Gerwyn Price
2020 – Joe Cullen
2019 – Gerwyn Price
2018 – Gerwyn Price
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Mensur Suljovic
2015 – Michael Smith
The Format
The format for these tournaments remains the same as before, which means that the unseeded players meet on Friday for a shot at a seeded player in the last 32 of the tournament which 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 draw is now seeded by the order of merit which means that Luke Humphries is the number one seed and he is the main man in the top half of the bracket as result of that. He is now seeded to go up against Stephen Bunting in the semi-final with Luke Littler not in the field meaning that the Bullet moves up a seeding. Six other seeds will be out to stop that from happening though. Jonny Clayton is the next highest followed by Damon Heta and then Chris Dobey. Danny Noppert, James Wade and Ross Smith are the other three seeds.
We now have eight players ranked 17-32 in the world rankings taking on a qualifier in the first round and those are the Dutch quartet of Jermaine Wattimena, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Raymond van Barneveld and Wessel Nijman while the home ace Ricardo Pietreczko is another. Callaz Rydz made it in as a 17-32 seed at the last minute with Ryan Searle and Cameron Menzies the other players. Niko Springer and Krzysztof Ratajski are the standouts among the qualifiers.
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Bottom Half
Michael van Gerwen was due to be the highest seed in the bottom half of the draw this week but he has withdrawn because of a shoulder issue which leaves us with seven seeds. The highest of them was going to be Rob Cross but he has also withdrawn which means that Gerwyn Price heads up the six remaining seeds in this half. Those other five seeds are Josh Rock, the winner of the latest European Tour event in Nathan Aspinall, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Dave Chisnall and Peter Wright.
The defending champion Martin Schindler heads up the 17-32 ranked players although World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker and the reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse will have something to say about that. Michael Smith will look to turn his fortunes around in this half of the draw with Andrew Gilding, Gian van Veen, Joe Cullen and Luke Woodhouse the other players. Matt Campbell, Rob Owen and William O’Connor are the pick of the qualifiers in this half.
Betting
The market for this tournament has kind of been destroyed with the two big names in the bottom half of the draw withdrawing before a dart was thrown and everyone who is in that part of the bracket is much shorter than they would have been any other weekend. I still think the outright bets have to come from there because if you take someone in the top half of the draw you’ve got to bump off Luke Humphries and a rejuvenated Stephen Bunting among others, whereas in reality Gerwyn Price is the only out and out danger in the bottom half.
I’ll go with the defending champion Martin Schindler. I’m not a massive fan of taking defending champions but Schindler is on home soil and he’ll have Saturday off because he was due to face Rob Cross but Voltage pulled out too late to be replaced so the champion is already through to Sunday. That has cut his odds down to 16/1 but 16/1 in a 16-man field by the time he plays again with his half of the draw decimated feels a solid price. Schindler averaged 102 on Friday and has already won a Players Championship tournament this term. That price wouldn’t normally reel me in but the tangibles around the draw does this weekend.
Tips
Back M.Schindler to win International Darts Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
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