National pride comes to the fore in the darts world in Frankfurt this week when 40 pairs combine for the World Cup of Darts, an event which is gaining in popularity now that the PDC have found a format that seems to work well.
England came out on top in a very interesting tournament a year ago and they have the marquee pairing of Luke Humphries and Luke Littler representing them in their title defence. Some strong pairs will look to dethrone them though.
Recent Winners
2024 – England
2023 – Wales
2022 – Australia
2021 – Scotland
2020 – Wales
2019 – Scotland
2018 – Netherlands
2017 – Netherlands
2016 – England
2015 – England
The Format
We have what seems to be the format that has been decided upon, 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
All eyes will be on the marquee pairing from England as the world champion and Premier League winner combine when Luke Humphries and Luke Littler get together for what many are calling a cheat code team. They set the standard but there are other teams who will be looking to show they aren’t here for the Luke and Luke parade. Wales will be represented by their former winning pair of Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price while the Scotland pair of Gary Anderson and Peter Wright know how to get their hands on this trophy having done it before too.
There are four seeded pairs this year with the other team being Northern Ireland, who will be represented by Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney. There are plenty of other pairs to like the look of this year with Holland a dangerous unseeded team with Danny Noppert and Gian Van Veen representing them while the Australian duo of Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock are no strangers to going well in this event. Belgium have the World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker alongside Dimitri Van den Bergh and the home nation Germany will see Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko toeing the oche for them for the first time.
Market Leaders
As you would expect given the two players who are representing them, England are emphatic favourites to win the tournament this year. They are no bigger than 1/2 to retain the title that Luke Humphries won alongside Michael Smith a year ago. It is near enough impossible to pick holes in the form of either man but if there is a cause for concern it is that both are rhythm players and you don’t get that in this tournament, and also they both like different doubles to the other which feels like it could be significant.
Wales are the second favourites to win the tournament this year. Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton have won the competition before so it is nothing new for them to be contending and both are showing signs of coming back to their best in the last six months or so. They are both passionate Welshmen with national pride and comments have already been made by them about this not being a procession for England. The English dominance of the market means we can get 11/2 on a Wales win which will be popular.
The Scotland pair of Peter Wright and Gary Anderson aren’t getting any younger but they are 14/1 to win the tournament and that might be popular because punters know that they can’t face England until the final when each way money will be secured. Anderson is capable of big things and if Wright is on a going week there is enough to like about the Scots. The question mark is how they will cope with little rhythm but they are experienced enough to deal with that.
That leaves us with one team shorter than 20/1 in the betting and that is the Netherlands team of Danny Noppert and Gian van Veen. They are 16/1 to win the tournament this week but the first thing to note is that they are not seeded so they will have to navigate the awkward group stage where the format very much sets up for shocks. They will probably then want to draw the other side of the bracket to England but we don’t know where they land until the middle of the tournament. That said, both are class players so a deep run wouldn’t be unexpected.
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Outright Betting
I’ll go with a couple of outright bets this weekend. It is going to be hard to get England beat so I am definitely taking my main bet in the other half of the draw in the hope that someone like the Netherlands, Germany or Belgium rock up in the English half and pull off the ultimate upset. While England look certainties to make the final, I’m not sure Wales are too far behind in the other half of the draw and unlike with Luke Humphries and Like Littler we don’t need to guess whether Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton will gel, we know they will as they have won this twice. Both men are in decent form this season too. We can ignore Wales losing to Croatia last year as Price was a late withdrawal and Jim Williams played in his place. The last time these two were together they won the crown and at 5/1 with half the odds as the place terms even 5/2 about them making the final feels like a solid punt.
One team I like at a bigger price are Australia. Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock have won this thing before and probably carry less expectation into the event now that the better days of Whitlock are behind him. That said, if the Australians play like they can Whitlock will only be having one real scoring visit and setting the finishing shot up so he won’t need to be in his prime. Heta has been in decent enough form and comes into the week off the back of a run to the final of the latest European Tour event where Jonny Clayton was among his victims. Since Australia won this title in 2022, they have been downed in a deciding leg in 2023 and 2024 and with a bit more luck could have gone much deeper. Hopefully that comes their way here.
Group Betting
I’m not a massive fan of betting on the groups in this tournament. Two matches over the best of seven isn’t exactly a format where form and history have much of a sway on proceedings so there has to be something extremely eye catching in terms of a price and I think we have that in Group B where Belgium are the overwhelming favourites. To be fair to them, if they are on it they should walk this section but it doesn’t take much to lose a best of seven and then they are right on the ropes.
That is before we think that Belgium might not be at their best. Mike De Decker had the week of his life at the World Grand Prix but he is capable of missing plenty of doubles and in a best of seven that isn’t good. We’ve absolutely no idea what level Dimitri Van den Bergh is at but if takes a game to get going then Belgium could be done. You can get 6/1 on the Philippines to win this group and that just feels too big. Lourence Ilagan is a regular in this tournament and Paolo Nebrida had an excellent World Championship. He also beat Rob Cross at the Bahrain Masters earlier in the season and they have a much better chance to win this group than the odds suggest. This could very well come down to the match between Philippines and Belgium and the Asians won’t be 6/1 in that scenario.
Tips
Back Wales to win World Cup of Darts (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
Back Australia to win World Cup of Darts (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
Back Philippines to win Group B for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Coral
