Less than a week after the high quality Grand Slam of Darts concluded the stars of the PDC are back in action this weekend when 24 of them head to Glasgow for the World Series of Darts finals.
The World Series began as a series of exhibitions involving eight of the best players in the world going to countries outside the mainstream darts nations to promote the sport but someone has come up with the idea of making a finals out of them so the top eight from the exhibitions have been joined by 16 players made up of qualifiers and invitees for a two day jamboree.
The important thing to note when approaching the outright market for the weekend is that those who had the opportunity to travel the globe promoting the game have been seeded 1-8 and are given byes from the first round on Saturday afternoon.
The other thing to note is the lottery like format of the opening day where the first and the second round are all played over the best of 11 legs so that combined with the big names having their eyes on bigger things to come could lead us to a few shocks before the longer formats arrive from the last eight onwards on Sunday.
If I’m honest this is a tournament I’m struggling to get excited over. It comes in between two of the better events of the year in the Grand Slam and the Players Championship finals and if you blink for long enough you’ll miss the tournament so how involved I’m going to get in it remains to be seen but a quick scour at the outright odds has yielded a couple of value picks and a more solid one.
Phil Taylor looked good in the Grand Slam last week but I’m not so sure this is his gig. The long second day requires plenty of energy and effort and there are bigger things around the corner. Add to that the crowd will most likely be against him and he has Dave Chisnall and Stephen Bunting in his quarter and he’s worth taking on.
I’m not going to take anyone in his quarter because I’m still wary of the beating Taylor curse but I’m certainly happy to play someone out of the other quarter which looks much less demanding.
I know we can’t be sure of anything over the best of 11 legs but even so it would be a major surprise if James Wade doesn’t take on Peter Wright in the quarter final and from there the winner would only be one match from at least a place payout.
With the crowd likely to be on his side and with him in good form and maybe more of a point to prove I’m going to plump for Wright. He’s in good form and seemed to take the exhibitions legs of the event more seriously than some so he’s likely to do the same this weekend especially with the tournament in Scotland. At 16/1 he’s a fair price for an outright punt.
Looking at the bottom half of the draw and a couple of quarter punts stand out. In the third quarter Gary Anderson will surely be inspired by the Scottish crowds and perhaps more importantly his opponents will be put off by the Glasgow people so he looks a pretty obvious choice even at 10/11.
The bottom quarter looks like a cracking contest. Michael van Gerwen is joined by some big names. Robert Thornton could be his second round opponent while Raymond Barneveld, Michael Smith and Mark Webster are all live dangers.
Michael Smith is in decent form and at a double figure price he looks very much overpriced to come through this section. He’ll have his work cut out against Mark Webster on Saturday afternoon but should he come through that he’ll play a Barneveld who he has beaten in their last three meetings.
Obviously Michael van Gerwen is a major obstacle to overcome but it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Robert Thornton takes care of him before then especially as the Scot will have the crowd with him so at 10/1 I’m happy to take the ever improving Smith as a spot of value there.
Back P.Wright to win World Series of Darts Finals (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Stan James (1/2 1-2)
Back G.Anderson to win 3rd Quarter for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Sportingbet
Back M.Smith to win 4th Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Boylesports
Blog darts YTD: -2.17pts
