The darts world head to Somerset this weekend for the UK Open, the popular tournament dubbed the ‘FA Cup of Darts’ because of its random draw and wide open element in which everyone who toes the oche will feel they can have a deep run.
Dimitri Van den Bergh had the deepest run of them all a year ago when he outlasted Luke Humphries in the final and the Belgian will be in Minehead looking to make a successful defence of the trophy but a raft of players are out to stop him.
Recent Winners
2024 – Dimitri Van den Bergh
2023 – Andrew Gilding
2022 – Danny Noppert
2021 – James Wade
2020 – Michael van Gerwen
2019 – Nathan Aspinall
2018 – Gary Anderson
2017 – Peter Wright
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
The Format
The 128 players who have tour cards all enter the tournament this year. There have been no qualifying series for them. There have however been 16 pub qualifying events for those who are chasing the dream. Challenge Tour and Development Tour stars also get their chance to mix it with the professionals this week.
The non-tour players go into the first round against the pros ranked 97-128 on the order of merit with the winners going into the second round where players ranked 65-96 join the event. The 32 winners of that round are joined by players ranked 33-64. All these matches are the best of 11 legs and the 32 winners are joined by the top 32 in the world for round four which sees the format go up to the best of 19. The format stays the same for the last 16 and quarter finals before going up to the best of 21 for the semi-finals and final. From round four onwards there is a completely random draw like in the football equivalent of the FA Cup.
Market Leaders
The world champion Luke Littler looked in excellent form in the Premier League on Thursday night and he will begin the tournament as the 4/1 favourite. He has only played in this tournament twice and the quarter final is the best that he has finished. He is definitely the man to beat but as good as he is the big question is whether you want to be on someone at 4/1 when the draw can be really unkind, especially when there was talk that he was feeling unwell during the Premier League on Thursday evening. I’ll pass him over.
Luke Humphries won the Premier League night in Exeter on Thursday and he will start out on his quest to win a maiden UK Open title as a 13/2 second favourite. The world number one has been in excellent touch in the Premier League this term and has an excellent record in Minehead having won the last two Players Championship Finals tournaments here, the World Youth Championship and twice making the final of this tournament. That price is more acceptable given the potential perils of the draw but it is still too short for me.
Michael van Gerwen is one of two players who are 12/1 to win the tournament this weekend. He has won this tournament on three previous occasions but hasn’t got his hands on the trophy since 2020 and bombed out in the quarter-finals in the Premier League on Thursday night. There are more people who you would fancy to take him out of this event than there has been in previous years without the potential to win into either of the two Luke’s so he isn’t for me here.
Gerwyn Price is the only other player in the field who is shorter than 25/1 in the betting. Price is another who has won a night in the Premier League and he is a confident cookie right now but he has never won this tournament and I suspect a drunk crowd after three days probably won’t give him the fairest crack of the whip which isn’t ideal. He can beat anyone in this field on his day but despite twice losing in the final of this competition in the past he isn’t for me.
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Main Bets
Jonny Clayton was a leg away from winning the Winmau World Masters at the beginning of the month but that showed that he is coming back to the form which has seen him win TV tournaments and if the draw can be kind to him initially and some big names can bite the dust early doors then there is no reason why he can’t do some damage. In beating Luke Littler in the last eight in Milton Keynes, Clayton showed that he can beat anyone in this game and he has had a solid enough season on the floor so far too. He feels a big price at 40/1.
I’m not the biggest fan of Damon Heta on the big stage but there is no doubt that he has a good record here. He has made the quarter final and semi-final of the UK Open, the latter being here last year, and he has twice made the last eight in the Players Championship Finals here. Heta is very good on the floor and has been delivering the goods more on the European Tour stages over the last couple of seasons. He has moved up to 10 in the world rankings so there aren’t many better than him so I’m happy to invest in him this weekend.
Outsiders
Ross Smith has won a big tournament in the past and he has started this season off fairly well. He made the semi-final of the second floor event of the campaign but in the four tournaments there has been, he has lost to a 100 average in three of them and he has lost with a 99.38 and a 99.71 average of his own so he really has been unlucky not to have won more matches and gone deeper in events. Clearly we are going to need luck with the draw in this tournament but Smith was a semi-finalist here in the Players Championship Finals at the back end of the year and if he can stay away from the two Lukes until the latter stages we might have a payout secured by then.
We saw at the World Championship that Joe Cullen thinks that he has a point to prove and while he didn’t quite prove it to the level he would have wanted there, he has already made the final of a tournament on the floor this term and if he can hide away in the background and avoid the big names and get a nice route through to the latter part of Saturday, he has shown that he can hold his own against those outside the top end of the game. In his run to the final of the opening PC event of the year, Cullen beat both Luke Littler and Luke Humphries so he is in much better nick than before and at a three figure price I’ll pay to see how close to his best this weekend.
We all know about the controversy of Dom Taylor but with that behind him there is no doubt that he is a decent player and even though he comes into the tournament in the second round I think he is worth supporting. Taylor reached the semi-final of the last Players Championship event and on the floor six of his last nine matches have seen him average 100 or more and he has averaged 99.31 in another and that is top class darts whoever you are. His stock has risen alarmingly over the last 12 months and I’ll pay to see how he fares here.
Tips
Back J.Clayton to win UK Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfair (1/4 1-4)
Back R.Smith to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Betfair (1/4 1-4)
Back D.Heta to win UK Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back J.Cullen to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)
Back D.Taylor to win UK Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-4)
Back them here:
