Michael van Gerwen Wins World Series of Darts
As expected, Michael van Gerwen claimed his third successive World Series of Darts title, this time after beating Gary Anderson 11-6 in Sunday’s final at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.
Andeson comes up short to MVG
MVG (Shanghai and Las Vegas) and Anderson, (Dubai and Perth) each won two World Series events each this year and followed the performance up with a final battle in Scotland’s second city over the weekend. Unfortunately for the Scot involved, the Dutch master had far too much class at the oche and the pre-tournament favourite duly won his third in a row.
Mighty Mike’s other victims of the weekend included German Max Hopp, Englishman Rob Cross and Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney before meeting up with The Flying Scotsman where two 11-darters and a 158-checkout helped to provide an 11-8 victory.
Anderson began the event poorly, missing three chances at double before MVG landed a 103 checkout that set him on an early path to victory, which soon found himself 4-1 up. The spirited Scotsman, fueled by a passionate home crowd, claimed three of the next four to shorten the difference momentarily before the World Champion banked four legs in a row to home in on yet another title victory.
Another brief surge from Anderson, one that this time included tops and double four, saw him pull back another two legs but in the end, it was all to prove futile. After missing his 132 target, the World number two could only watch on as his superior ranked rival took out 87 to retain the championship.
On his way to Sunday’s final, Anderson enjoyed victories over Chris Dobey, Gerwyn Price and James Wade. Anderson will now look to go one better in the weeks ahead, starting this Sunday at the Grand Slam of Darts.
Regarding the 2018 World Series of Darts schedule, the PDC confirmed on Sunday that Brisbane will host its first World Series next year alongside confirmed returns to Auckland, Shanghai and Las Vegas.
As for Van Gerwen, his win in Glasgow comes ahead of his attempt to win yet another event for the third time in a row when he starts his defense of the Grand Slam of Darts this Saturday.
Grand Slam of Darts Betting Tips
From November 11-19, at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, the best in the world from the PDC compete with the best in the world from the BDO. The very best player of them all, Mighty Mike will begin said defense of the title he picked up in both 2015 and 2016 against Group A rivals Rob Cross, Joe Murnan and Ross Montgomery in the group phase.
In all, there will 32 darters participating, from which eight will represent the BDO, while the remaining 24 are all-stars of the PDC. The players are divided into eight groups of four players (listed below), with the top two from each group qualifying for the latter stages. The winner of Group A plays the runner-up of Group B and vice versa, so on.
Six time champ, Phil Taylor will make a return to action this weekend in one of his preselected winter tourneys that are worth his time. The Power goes in Group C, where James Wade represents his biggest threat. Another returning veteran will be Raymond van Barneveld, the seed from Group B hoping to top Gerwyn Price. I expect Price will make the cut, but Barney, a former winner here, will fancy his chances of claiming top spot, as do I.
Peter Wright and Gary Anderson can be found in groups E and H respectively. For Snakebite, Group E probably represents the fabled Group of Death where he comes up against Alan Norris, Corey Cadby and Glen Durrant but should prevail. In H, Anderson’s only threat will come from Simon Whitlock making it a much easier task for the second seed than his countryman faces.
Elsewhere, Mensur Suljovic is rightly the favourite in a tricky Group G that includes the highest ranked BDO representative, world number one Mark McGeeney, plus Michael Smith and James Wilson.
In a busy weekend, the recommended darts betting tips would be to do the obvious thing and back MVG to win the tournament at 5/6 but if you do for some reason favour the BDO then look into Glen Durrant (80/1) or Mark McGeeney (250/1) as each way bets at a half of the odds for a top two finish. Betway are also paying out 22/1 on ANY BDO player to win which would handsomely cover the both and others.
World number two Gary Anderson is 11/2 for the tourney, a few points shorter than Peter Wright at 15/2 while romantics will be hoping for Phil Taylor at 9/1 to win the event one last time.
Oh, and backing MVG, Taylor, Barney and Anderson to win their groups at Betway pays 4.29 to the £1 which should represent easy money, but throwing in world number three Peter Wright in the toughest group bumps that price up past 7s so I’ll leave that one with you.
Grand Slam of Darts Groups (Live on Sky Sports)
Group A
- Michael van Gerwen
- Rob Cross
- Joe Murnan
- Ross Montgomery
Group B
- Raymond van Barneveld
- Gerwyn Price
- Steve Lennon
- Jamie Hughes
Group C
- Phil Taylor
- James Wade
- Robbie Green
- Peter Machin
Group D
- Daryl Gurney
- Darren Webster
- Mark Webster
- Danny Noppert
Group E
- Peter Wright
- Alan Norris
- Corey Cadby
- Glen Durrant
Group F
- Dave Chisnall
- Stephen Bunting
- Jeffrey de Zwaan
- Scott Mitchell
Group G
- Mensur Suljovic
- Michael Smith
- James Wilson
- Mark McGeeney
Group H
- Gary Anderson
- Simon Whitlock
- Berry van Peer
- Cameron Menzies
