The opening night of the World Series of Darts Finals sees the first round getting underway with the top half of the draw being played out on an evening where we have some of the leading names in the game on show.
It is a night where the top seed Luke Littler, World Championship winner Luke Humphries and the defending champion Michael van Gerwen are all on show on what should be a brilliant night to get the tournament underway.
First Four Matches
We get the tournament underway with The Masters champion Stephen Bunting looking to make it into the second round of proceedings. He has a date with the Croatian star Boris Krcmar. When they are done Gabriel Clemens will be looking to make the second round when he takes on Damon Heta in what should be a good match before the UK Open winner Dimitri Van den Bergh faces Chris Dobey. We reach the halfway point of the evening with the home legend Raymond van Barneveld looking to make it through when he meets Johan Engstrom.
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Later Four Matches
The four seeds in the top half of the draw are all on show in the latter part of the evening and the first of those is the number one seed Luke Littler. He has a tricky little test with Ross Smith to overcome to make it through to the second round. The defending champion Michael van Gerwen then gets his title defence underway when he meets the former winner Jonny Clayton. The World Championship winner Luke Humphries will take to the stage for the penultimate match of the night to take on Haupai Puha before two home players round off the show when Danny Noppert goes up against the young star Gian van Veen.
Betting
We have to wait until the final match of the night for my bet to come along and when it does I’ll be backing Gian van Veen to get the better of Danny Noppert. The head to head between these two is 2-2 with their last three meetings being on a stage and in two of those van Veen has averaged over 100 and in the other he was into the high 90s so there is something about playing Noppert that seems to agree with van Veen.
I suspect it is the insane scoring bursts that the youngster can produce and that has the match in his hands. Noppert is a class act who has stood the test of time at the top level and he has a consistency to his game but that truly elite scoring power isn’t really his strength. He is more solid in every department which in the bigger tournaments and longer formats works well but it can leave him vulnerable over these best of 11 matches. I think the even money on van Veen is worth taking.
Tips
Back G.van Veen to beat D.Noppert for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
