Singles action is replaced by pairs on the darting scene this week when 40 nations head to Frankfurt for the World Cup of Darts, a tournament which has grown in stature in recent years and could offer its best renewal yet in 2023.
Australia won the title last year and they have made it back to look to make a successful defence of the crown but they will face an extended field and a very different format as they look to retain the honour of being top dogs.
Recent Winners
2022 – Australia
2021 – Scotland
2020 – Wales
2019 – Scotland
2018 – Netherlands
2017 – Netherlands
2016 – England
2015 – England
2014 – Netherlands
2013 – England
The Format
Finally after years of the most nonsense format known to man we have change for this year! Gone are the singles matches which made this event ridiculous and in its place is full on doubles from start to finish so this is now officially a pairs tournament. The four top seeded nations enter the tournament in the last 16 with the other 36 pairs being split into 12 groups, the winners of which progress to join them in the knockout stages. The three matches in each group are the best of seven legs with the format expanding up to the best of 15 legs up to the semi-finals. The final will be the best of 19 legs. The groups are played out over Thursday and Friday with the last 16 on the Saturday ahead of the quarter finals, semi-final and the final on Sunday.
The Field
We have some of the best players in the world on show this week with former winners of the tournament alongside potential title champions. The reigning champions Australia are back to look to win the crown for a second time. Simon Whitlock and Damon Heta will once again represent them. 2021 winners Scotland have Peter Wright and Gary Anderson going into battle for them while 2020 champions Wales have their winning pair of Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price throwing on their behalf.
England and the Netherlands are the only other winners of the title in the past. They are represented by world champion Michael Smith and Rob Cross and Danny Noppert and Dirk van Duijvenbode respectively. The home crowds will be hoping that Germany have a good run this year. Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler once again represent them while former finalists Belgium have Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh going for them, Republic of Ireland will hope Willie O’Connor and Keane Barry gel well and Austria are looking at Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez to go one better than they did in 2021.
Market Leaders
Wales won this title in 2020 and reached the final a year ago and are 6/4 favourites to land the crown again this year. If you tally up the world ranking of their pairing they come out second in the field but experience of playing in the tournament might give them the edge. Wales averaged over 90 in two of their three doubles matches last year, twice more in 2021 and four more times in their title winning success in 2020. Doubles can be a quirky format but statistically Wales are very much the ones to beat this week.
England will go into the tournament as the 10/3 second favourites. They last made the final in 2020 when the pairing of Michael Smith and Rob Cross, who are in Frankfurt this week, represented them. Smith is the world champion but he is a rhythm player and that is one thing you don’t get in the pairs formats so it will be interesting to see how he copes. Certainly he and Cross are a good pairing and cumulatively the highest ranked in the field so they shouldn’t be ruled out.
The Netherlands saw their chances take a blow on the eve of the tournament when Michael van Gerwen pulled out of the event. That leaves Danny Noppert and Dirk van Duijvenbode representing the 6/1 third favourites. That pairing were the Dutch team in this tournament last year where they reached the semi-finals but in their only doubles match that weekend they only averaged 87.38 and you would imagine they’ll need more than that to win this thing. Van Duijvenbode being a rhythm player is another concern.
Scotland will go into the tournament as 15/2 shots to get their hands back on the title. The positive for them is both Peter Wright and Gary Anderson have played in this event before and together as well but the obvious negative is the form of Wright which isn’t particularly good to say the least. It might be welcomed that Anderson made the final of a Players Championship event earlier in the week but as a rhythm player it remains to be seen how comfortable he will be in the format. It is 20/1 bar those named.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Main Bet
I’ll go with one main bet this week and that comes in the form of the Belgium side. I think a lot of this tournament won’t necessarily be about who your number one player is but more how strong or weak your number two player is. From a ranking point of view Kim Huybrechts is seventh among the second players but we’ve seen in the past that he raises his game when representing his country and Dimitri Van den Bergh is an elite partner. These two paired up last year and averaged over 90 in the first round before an 87 average in bowing out in the quarter final but back in 2020 they averaged 93.53 in a first round win over Czech Republic and 88.75 in a quarter final pairs win over Canada.
Van den Bergh has spent the last few months being smacked up in the Premier League so he might feel that he has a point to prove this week. His strength at the minute is the insane number of 100+ checkouts he registers and with Huybrechts a very solid and sustained scorer there is a lot to like about the Belgians. They are in a group they should cruise through and then if the knockout draw can be kind to them they are capable of going deep at 22/1.
Outsiders
I’ll chance a pair of outsiders this weekend with the first of those being Canada. They are represented by a pair of competent players in Jeff Smith and Matt Campbell, neither of whom are particularly weak in the finishing department which is certainly no bad thing. Pairs is played a lot in North America so these two will be used to that format which might be a bit of an advantage too. These two have paired up a few times now and should be familiar enough for a deep run.
At a much bigger price I’ll take my chance on the Czech Republic. I wouldn’t say they are near certainties for their group in the way that Belgium and Canada are but they are the top seeds in their group. Adam Gawlas won a tournament on the Development Tour at the weekend so he’ll be heading here in confident touch while Karel Sedlacek is capable of magic himself. This pairing have had some rough draws in the three years they have been a pair but initially that isn’t the case this week and I think there is a good partnership in them and I’ll pay to see how far a couple of early wins to boost confidence can take them.
Tips
Back Belgium to win World Cup of Darts (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 23.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back Canada to win World Cup of Darts (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back Czech Republic to win World Cup of Darts (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
