There is one tournament remaining on the PDC circuit prior to the World Championships and it takes place this weekend when the Players Championship Finals are played out in Minehead by the 64 leading players from the Players Championship Order of Merit.
Luke Humphries won this title for a second year in succession a year ago and he is in the field looking for the three-peat but there are loads of players who have gone well enough to think that they deserve a crack at this title.
Recent Winners
2024 – Luke Humphries
2023 – Luke Humphries
2022 – Michael van Gerwen
2021 – Peter Wright
2020 – Michael van Gerwen
2019 – Michael van Gerwen
2018 – Daryl Gurney
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
Unlike some events, the 64 man field is seeded by their final position on the Players Championship Order of Merit which gives us a completely different seed list to when the world rankings are used. Number 1 plays number 64 in the first round, 2 vs 63 and so on. The first round takes over the two sessions on Friday and is the best of 11, as is the second round on Saturday afternoon and we then move up to the best of 19 for the last 16 on Saturday evening and the quarter finals on Sunday afternoon. The remainder of the tournament takes place on Sunday evening over the best of 21 legs with the winner taking home a cool £120,000.
Top Quarter
Gerwyn Price won the most money on the floor this year and so he is the number one seed in the competition this weekend. That places him at the top of the bracket and therefore he is in the top quarter. If the weekend goes to the seedings for this evening when he will come up against Stephen Bunting in the quarter final but a number of players will be looking to stop that. The highest two seeded players trying to deny it is the Scottish ace Cameron Menzies and the German number one Martin Schindler.
There are plenty of other players in this quarter with the marquee name among them being the Grand Slam of Darts quarter finalist Michael Smith while Daryl Gurney is another player arriving here having had a big TV run earlier in the year. Elsewhere, it is a chance for the likes of Max Hopp, Ritchie Edhouse, Nick Kenny and Martin Lukeman to remind everyone that they can still perform at this level and have a good weekend in the process.
Second Quarter
The former European Championship winner Ross Smith is the top seed in the second quarter and he has already had a bit of a boost because his first round opponent Niko Springer has withdrawn and Ryan Meikle has replaced him. Smith is scheduled to face Chris Dobey in the quarter final although Dobey will need to bounce back from that horror loss at the Grand Slam. The other top 16 seeds in this quarter are Jonny Clayton and William O’Connor so you could argue that this quarter is open.
The problem with that is among the lower ranked seeds is a certain Luke Littler who is looking to get his hands on this title for the first time. Gary Anderson is another who is in this quarter and if he’s going to win on TV you suspect a quick three day gig is where it will happen. Mike De Decker, Ricardo Pietreczko, Luke Woodhouse, Cam Crabtree and Alan Soutar are some of the other players who will be looking for a pre-World Championship morale boost.
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Third Quarter
Moving into the third quarter, the top seed is the second seed Wessel Nijman. He was sent away with his tail between his legs at the Grand Slam last week but will want to show he can mix it with the best this weekend and he’ll get plenty of chances because this quarter is absolutely stacked. Nijman is seeded to meet his countryman Gian van Veen in the quarter final but the two other top 16 seeds in this quarter are the in form Josh Rock and Danny Noppert so this already looks tough.
When you then consider that the likes of Nathan Aspinall, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Luke Humphries are also in this quarter from outside the top 16 seeds and it is absolutely loaded. That is all bad enough but we also have the Grand Slam quarter finalist Ricky Evans in this quarter while Krzysztof Ratajski, Raymond van Barneveld, Gabriel Clemens, Scott Williams and Richard Veenstra are some of the others who could go well in the unlikely event that this section opens up.
Bottom Quarter
It is the third seed that is the highest seed in the bottom quarter this weekend and that player is Damon Heta. He’ll be looking for his first TV title from this section and is scheduled to run into the former European Championship finalist Jermaine Wattimena in the quarter final. Joe Cullen had a decent campaign on the floor and is one of the top 16 seeds in this quarter with the other one being the heavy scoring Ryan Searle.
You would have to say that this is the weaker of the four quarters but with the strength of the second and third one in particular there had to be one which wasn’t as strong. This one does have the likes of Dave Chisnall, Peter Wright and James Wade looking to add to their title haul while players such as Kevin Doets, Callan Rydz, Andrew Gilding and Wesley Plaisier are perfectly capable of taking advantage of a part of the draw which could easily open right up.
Betting
When you consider just how strong the second and third quarters are, I was considering dodging the outright market and focusing on the quarter offerings but there are a couple of firms who are paying four places on the tournament betting and that means we can get a payout before we encounter those two quarters which has tempted me in. In the bottom quarter I quite like the price of Jermaine Wattimena and he has had a run in a similar event to this in the European Championship last season. The Dutchman can be hit or miss but he is the sixth seed this weekend which shows how well he is going this year and in a section where there really isn’t anyone in standout top form he wouldn’t need to be fantastic to come through here. If he can build up a head of steam he could easily go very deep with this draw.
Moving up to the top quarter and maybe the time to strike while the iron is a bit hotter on Michael Smith is now. He did nothing wrong at the Grand Slam of Darts but going 31 legs with Luke Humphries given the year he had was never really likely to happen. In order for us to get a payout here he needs to win a couple of best of 11s and a pair of best of 19s which should be within his range. One issue might be that he could run into Gerwyn Price in the last 16 but the Welshman has a bit of a rough recent record here in Minehead. In this tournament he has won just three matches in the last four years and in the UK Open it is four wins in three years so just seven match wins in his last seven visits to this particular Butlins. One of the reasons for that is he throws a light dart but the other is the crowds who are sizeable in number here and don’t always root for him. Smith has a tougher draw than Wattimena but it isn’t insurmountable. That is reflected in the price but I still think he is worth a small punt.
Tips
Back J.Wattimena to win Players Championship Finals (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
Back M.Smith to win Players Championship Finals (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/4 1-4)
