Michael Van Gerwen Wins Again

Another week, another title for Michael van Gerwen!

This time, it was a European Tour title – his second of 2017. He beat Mensur Suljovic in the final of the European Darts Matchplay in Hamburg.

Van Gerwen’s Hamburg heroics

Opening with a 136 checkout to capitalise on Suljovic’s missed double 10 in the first leg, Mighty Mike never looked like faltering from there on.

In fairness, Suljovic started well enough himself, holding his throws until the fourth leg when the Dutch world champion broke by way of a 180 (his second) and a 25 checkout to move 3-1 ahead.

A third 180 allowed the Dutchman to further pull away a set later before Suljovic clawed a leg back. This proved futile. A 75 checkout in the final leg gave MVG his 16th European Tour title and the £25,000 top prize.

Earlier in the run, van Gerwen had dismissed Mervyn King in a 6-3 victory, landed a 5-0 win over Peter Hudson and eliminated Michael Smith to make it to the final.

The European Tour continues in a fortnight with the Austrian Darts Open in Vienna.

World Championship betting tips

As we reach the halfway point of the year and with no event this week, now seems as good as a time as any to take a quick look at the ante-post betting for December’s World Championship.

Michael Van Gerwen the obvious favourite

Unsurprisingly, MVG is the man to beat, something nobody has managed to do for a while now as he has racked up a pair of World Championship wins.

Since then he has remained pretty much invincible landing the Darts Premier League and, in partnership with Raymond van Barneveld, the Darts World Cup.

At 4/6 with both SkyBet and Betway and 8/15 at Bet365, even at this early stage there is no value on the Dutch master.

Is Anderson made of the Wright stuff?

Gary Anderson is a best price of 6/1 with SkyBet but it has been awhile now since he looked MVG’s closest challenger.

For our money, that title has gone to Anderson’s countryman Peter “Snakebite” Wright. As frustrating a player as he can be, has at least maintained some momentum in being this season’s bridesmaid. He finally landed his first televised PDC win back in March, when he claimed the UK Open.

Snakebite can be backed at 6/1 with both Betway and SkyBet and with each way bets paying a quarter of the odds, looks as good a bet as any to make money on, paying out at just over even money.

He’s got The Power

What about one last shot at glory for Phil “The Power” Taylor?

The legend will bow out from the game that he has served so well in January, when the Championships are over and will likely move onto the veteran’s tour or Sky punditry.

A win for The Power is an unlikely shot, but one which will appeal to arrow romantics and worth 18/1 with Betway.

Other World Championship contenders

The same sportsbook is offering 22/1 for Adrian Lewis – quite unlikely at first glance, but he has won twice at the Ally Pally before so shouldn’t be dismissed for nothing, however horrible his 2017 form has been.

Bet365’s 33/1 on Dave Chisnall has been matched by SkyBet for those interested, while Betway are laying 40 on James Wade.

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Place Your Bets For The European Darts Open 2016

Gary Anderson
The PDC European Tour action resumed in Dusseldorf yesterday and, although some of the earlier first round matches will have started by the time you read this, the real action gets underway tomorrow when the big boys enter play.

The tournament runs from July 29 – 31 at the Maritim Hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.

Absent from the sixth event of the series will be Phil “The Power” Taylor, beaten finalist in last weekend’s Matchplay final, and fellow Stoke thrower Adrian Lewis, leaving a clear straight shot for the likes of Michael Van Gerwen, Peter Wright and Gary Anderson, pictured above after his win in Tokyo. These all feature in a field of 48 players, including last year’s winner Robert Thornton (100/1), competing over three days of action for the £115,000 in prize money.

Darts man of the moment (indeed the past few years) Michael Van Gerwen is aiming to follow up last Sunday’s World Matchplay victory with his fourth European Tour triumph of the year, having also claimed the glory in Venray in the Netherlands, Munich and Gibraltar. Bet365, who incidentally will be streaming live coverage of the event, are laying evens for him to do exactly that.

World Champion Gary Anderson, himself having a storming 2016, is naturally the second seed and can be backed at 4/1, while fellow Scot Peter Wright is the next in the betting at 9/1, also at bet365. James Wade and Dave Chisnall are also in attendance and both are 25/1, although in the absence of England’s top two players it is hard to look beyond the first three, so we’ll go with Gary Anderson on this one as the only likely threat and challenger to the big Dutchman.

Save for Thursday’s qualifiers, the internet-streamed tournament begins for real on Friday with the first round where 32 qualifiers all face off, before the top 16 seeds enter play on Saturday in the second round, with the tournament concluding on Sunday.

The European Darts Open will be streamed worldwide through www.LIVEPDC.TV and bet365 for all subscribers.

European Open 2016 tournament schedule

All times BST

Friday July 29

First Round, Afternoon Session (12pm-4pm)

  • John Henderson v Jan Dekker
  • Ritchie Edhouse v Harry Ward
  • Wes Newton v Shaun Griffiths
  • Kim Viljanen v Martin Schindler
  • James Richardson v Daniele Petri
  • Robbie Green v Daryl Gurney
  • John Michael v Fabian Herz
  • Jonny Clayton v Andy Hamilton

First Round, Evening Session (6pm-10pm)

  • Mark Frost v Stefan Stoyke
  • Dimitri Van den Bergh v Jeffrey de Graaf
  • Holger Rettig v Steve West
  • Jamie Caven v Christian Kist
  • Andy Jenkins v Devon Petersen
  • Max Hopp v Andy Boulton
  • Cristo Reyes v Kyle Anderson
  • Gerwyn Price v Tony Newell

Saturday July 30

Second Round, Afternoon Session (12pm-4pm)

  • Terry Jenkins v Clayton/Hamilton
  • Stephen Bunting v Frost/Stoyke
  • Robert Thornton v Newton/Griffiths
  • Jelle Klaasen v Edhouse/Ward
  • Benito van de Pas v Green/Gurney
  • Mensur Suljovic v Michael/Herz
  • Ian White v A Jenkins/Petersen
  • Michael Smith v Richardson/Petri

Second Round, Evening Session (6pm-10pm)

  • Simon Whitlock v Price/Newell
  • Kim Huybrechts v Van den Bergh/de Graaf
  • Dave Chisnall v Henderson/Dekker
  • Peter Wright v Rettig/West
  • Gary Anderson v Viljanen/Schindler
  • James Wade v Hopp/Boulton
  • Michael van Gerwen v Caven/Kist
  • Alan Norris v Reyes/Anderson

Prize fund:

  • Winner: £25,000
  • Runner-up: £10,000
  • Semi-final losers: £5,000
  • Quarter-Final losers: £3,500
  • Third round losers: £2,000
  • Second round losers: £1,500
  • First round losers: £1,000

Van Gerwen Bests Taylor In World Matchplay

Michael Van Gerwen made it back-to-back Blackpool wins last weekend when he saw off the challenge of Phil Taylor to win this year’s World Matchplay title, his 12th victory of 2016.

World Matchplay
It was a brutal performance by the Dutchman who closed the game over fifteen-time Blackpool winner Taylor with an 18-10 victory at the Winter Gardens on Sunday evening, hitting two-thirds of his darts at doubles as well as 12 maximums.

Van Gerwen lost to Taylor on the Winter Gardens stage two years ago, but there never looked like there would be a repeat of the defeat even after a maximum helped Taylor take the opening leg. Van Gerwen responded immediately and closed at 70 to level and 77 to break Taylor’s throw in the third leg. Soon after, a brilliant 11-dart finish, which included two 180s, saw the Dutchman move 3-1 ahead.

Taylor struck back in the fifth leg and finished 70 on the bull, only for MVG to respond with a two-dart 93 checkout which was followed by finishes of 65, 110, tops, 63 and 76 over the next six legs to move 11-4 clear of Taylor.

Taylor won two out of the next three, and also claimed legs 11 and 12 to pull things back to 13-8 but a 13-dart finish from the Dutchman was followed by a checkout of 112 as the match swung firmly in the Van Gerwen’s favour. For what is was worth, Taylor rallied once more with a 130 finish and then took out 81 for a 12 darter to stay within touching distance at 15-10, but, with the end in sight, Van Gerwen landed double 16 to complete a brilliant triumph.

The win here means that van Gerwen becomes only the third player in history to retain the prestigious World Matchplay title, a feat shared only by the vanquished Taylor and Rod Harrington back in 1998 and 99.

Van Gerwen said: “It feels amazing to win this title again. I think I played well all through the tournament and I dominated the final – against Phil you always need to step up a bit and I did. To beat Phil is always nice because he’s a legend and I’ve got so much respect for him. He knows that and that makes it even better to win this trophy by beating him.”

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