2023 Belgian Darts Open Betting Preview

James had an excellent night at the Premier League of Darts, firing in a 7.00 (and 2.00) winner. He is on a great run at the moment, long may it continue. Check out his 2023 Belgian Darts Open outright betting preview and tips below.

2023 Belgian Darts Open

The European Tour events are coming thick and fast (a little too thick and too fast perhaps), and this weekend we have the second Belgian Darts Open from the Oktoberhallen, Wieze. It is all a bit groundhog day.

The top 16 seeds are the same as last weekend, all in the same quarters and it is only the supporting cast, the unseeded players who are a little different. So far this season, no unseeded player has won a Euro Tour event, the closest that one has got was Daryl Gurney’s semi-final in ET5.

Dave Chisnall picked up his second title of 2023 at the Dutch Darts Open, beating Luke Humphries in the final. Chisnall is the second multiple title winner on the Euro Tour after Gerwyn Price won ET2 & 3. Humphries is a two time runner up. Chizzy and Price are 1 & 2 in the European Championship O.O.M., Dirk van Duijvenbode is the highest ranked non-winner and Daryl Gurney the highest ranked player yet to be seeded.

The defending champion is Dave Chisnall, the two time 2023 Euro Tour winner.

The Seeds

1 Luke Humphries

Last weekend’s runner up and his second loss to Dave Chisnall in a final this season. His seasonal average is a very strong 97.7 and he has won seven of his last ten matches. He will be hoping to reach his third final of the year, and not to face Dave Chisnall when he gets there. Obvious chances.

2 Dave Chisnall

Man of the moment, Dave Chisnall, is attempting to win his third Euro Tour title of the season, and defend his tournament win from last year. He is averaging 96.9 in 2023 and has won seven of his last ten. He went into last week’s event on the back of three straight defeats but hit good enough form to win the title.

3 Michael van Gerwen

Continues to struggle to get his hands on the cigar. He has won six of his last ten matches and four have seen averages of 92 or less. His confidence is not what it once was, there are more players out there capable of beating him, more that believe they can, and he isn’t playing as well as he was last year, never mind when at his peak. His win rate in 2023 is a very good 69%, but that is his lowest since 2011.

4 Damon Heta

Heta’s seasonal average has taken a dive. It was 97.5 at the end of 2022, but is just 94.1 in 2023. That is quite the fall, but the good news for The Heat is that the damage was done earlier in the season. His most recent form sees seven wins from ten matches, and his last four Euro Tour events have seen him reach the quarter final of ET3 & 4, and the semi-final of ET 5 & 6.

His problem is that he is still having too many flat spots. Last weekend it was an 86.4 average in his semi-final loss to Luke Humphries. It was an 89.7 average in the quarter final of ET3 and a 90.2 in the quarter final of ET2.

These titles are hard to win, even good players playing well can and will lose to someone playing better. You can’t afford to throw in poor performances and hope to win. You can get away with a few, but rarely at the business end.

5 Dirk van Duijvenbode

I am going slowly broke backing Dirk to win his first Euro title. Last week he found a new way to screw up. An over exuberant jump when energising the home crowd in his opening match saw him crash to the floor with a suspected bust tendon in his knee. He won the match but lost the following day, in pain, and I did not expect him to play this weekend, and he will go unbacked this time.

6 Rob Cross

His season of frustration continues. His annual win rate has fallen from 68% to 57% and he has lost six of his last ten matches. If he plays well he gets beaten, like his 104 average against Keane Barry in last week’s second round match.

Damon Heta lets himself down, Cross lets himself down much less often, but keeps on losing. His last four losing matches have seen averages of 104, 99, 96 and 100. You’d feel sick after that sort of run. He has won six of his twelve Euro Tour matches and he is hard to fancy.

7 Michael Smith

Wasn’t able to go back to back after winning the German Darts Grand Prix two weeks ago. He lost 4-6 to Peter Wright in last week’s third round, and was unlucky to face Wright on a rare good day for Snakebite.

He remains one of the most consistent players out there and is a possible winner of anything he enters. His 110 average when beating Jonny Clayton in the final of last night’s PL was his A game and if he can bring that to Belgium, he is in with a real shout.

8 Nathan Aspinall

I am beginning to worry about Aspinall, but I may be wrong to do so. His regripping of the dart before he throws is becoming much more frequent and it looks like it is starting to annoy him. What is remarkable is that he is still hitting the target most time after a re-grip.

However, it is allowing the crowd to get on his back. It is slowing the pace of play and The Asp is a quick player himself. He has won six of his last ten matches but lost three 5-6. It all looks very hard work and it is painful to watch. Would his throw hold up in a final?

9 Danny Noppert

Noppert is one of the players to have beaten Aspinall recently, both 6-5 wins in back to back Euro Tour third round matches. He too has won six of his last ten matches and he has developed a habit of losing in the quarter finals. His 5-6 loss to Luke Humphries last weekend was his third ET quarter-final loss in a row. Four sub 90 averages in his last ten matches is too inconsistent.

10 Peter Wright

Has lost six of his last ten matches, but he is showing flashes of form. However, flashes of form don’t win tournaments, it just makes him a player to avoid betting wise.

11 Ryan Searle

Searle is a bit of a head scratcher at the moment. He has won six of his last ten matches, seen four sub 90 averages but hit a couple of eye catching averages in the last couple of Euro Tour events. He averaged 109 when beating Van den Bergh 6-1 last weekend and 103 when beating Rob Cross the week before but followed both up with a defeat. As his practice partner Gary Anderson would say, he is getting there. But is he there yet? I remain unconvinced by his Euro Tour pedigree.

12 Joe Cullen

Has won five of his last ten matches and has played better than that sounds. There have been a few duff matches but he has reached a recent semi-final and quarter final on the Euro Tour and he could have another good run, but he is hard to predict.

13 Jonny Clayton

The Austrian Darts Open champion of two weeks ago, but he went out in his opening match last week despite playing well in a 5-6 loss to the in-form Berry van Peer. The Ferret was runner up to Michael Smith in last night’s PL and he has won seven of his last ten matches. Another good run is possible, but he is likely to find someone too good for him.

14 Martin Schindler

Showed good form three weeks ago to reach the quarter finals of PC9 & 10, but since then he has played three Euro Tour matches and won just one against Roman Benecky. He looks to have gone off the boil.

15 Josh Rock

Runner up in ET5 a couple of weeks ago. He just didn’t fire last weekend, winning an easy second round match before losing 3-6 to Dave Chisnall, averaging 92. He remains shortlist material.

16 Andrew Gilding

Has played ten matches on the Euro Tour this year and won six. His recent form sees six wins from ten but he seems to have become very inconsistent. Last weekend he averaged 108 in a 6-4 win over Ian White, but then lost 4-6 to Luke Humphries and averaged 91.2. This kind of inconsistency makes him hard to fancy in the outright market.

Best of the Un-Seeded Players

Jose De Sousa

showing signs of a return to form, winning nine of his last ten matches. He was runner up in PC10 and followed that up by winning four Euro Tour qualifying matches. He has played in five ET matches in 2023 and won just two, but if he is regaining his confidence, he could have a better run this weekend. De Sousa is not back to his best however, there is still quite a bit of inconsistency, but he is a player to watch and see if his mojo is returning.

Daryl Gurney

Is the only un-seeded player to have reached a semi-final on the Euro Tour this year. That was two weeks ago in Austria and he carried on that return to form with a 101 average and a 6-2 win over Riccardo Pietreczko in last weekend’s first round.

That was followed up by a 4-6 loss to Nathan Aspinall and an 89 average. From the sublime to the ridiculous in 24 hours. He is hard to pin down right now. I wouldn’t write him off on the back one poor performance, but it is not a positive either.

Ross Smith

Is the European Champion but is yet to win a regular Euro Tour event, in much the same way as Rob Cross is a two time European Champion but has never won a regular event. Smith is playing well enough to think he could go deep, but he has lost five of his last ten matches.

Gary Anderson

Was an outright selection last week, on the back of good recent form, but his return to the Euro Tour was the dampest of damp squibs. He had a run of 15 straight wins but has since lost his last four in a row. His 87.6 average was his lowest of the year as he went down 2-6 to Roman Benecky and you have to wonder if his heart is really in this return to the Euro Tour.

James Wade

Has only played in two Euro Tour events in 2023, losing two of his four matches. We haven’t seen much of him but he has won seven of his last ten matches and he is not a player anyone will want to draw. He hasn’t won on the Euro Tour since 2016, however.

Keane Barry

Has played in two Euro Tour events in 2023 and reached the quarter final on both occasions. Six wins from eight matches is a decent strike rate and his recent form sees seven wins from ten.

Ian White

Is showing a return to form in 2023 but his Euro Tour form is not good. He has played seven matches and won just two. He averaged 100.8 in a 4-6 defeat by Andrew Gilding last weekend. White is not easily written off but equally, it is hard to expect a really deep run.

Dimitri van den Bergh

Hit back to back 105 averages last weekend but was put out in the second round by Ryan Searle in a 1-6 defeat. Searle was just unplayable. Dimitri was a semi-finalist in PC10 three weeks ago and he is simmering rather than on the boil.

The 2023 belgian darts open Draw

Of the six Euro Tour events played this year so far, five tournaments have been won from the bottom half of the draw. Two for Chizzy, two for Price and one for Michael Smith. Only Jonny Cayton has won from the top half. This will be the third week in a row where the seeds are exactly the same and in the same place in the draw.

1st Quarter

The only quarter of the draw yet to produce a tournament winner, although Humphries has been a two time runner up and Aspinall once. Clearly, Humphries is most likely to get through the quarter, as he has done twice from two of his four Euro Tour events played so far. The other seeds are Gilding, Aspinall and Danny Noppert. Ross Smith is the only unseeded player of interest coming in at the first round stage.

2nd Quarter

Jonny Clayton and Joe Cullen make the most appeal here. Both are proven Euro Tour winners and playing well. Cullen hasn’t won anything since last September, while The Ferret won the Austrian Darts Open two weeks ago.

3rd Quarter

The toughest looking group with the winners of half of the Euro Tour events so far in 2023 and a runner up. Chizzy has now won two titles, Smith won one and Rock was runner up two weeks ago. Any of those three could pick up the title.

Unseeded players of note drawn in this quarter include Keane Barry, who should provide Jonny Clayton with his second round opponent. James Wade will face Raymond van Barneveld, with the winner playing Hop-a-long Dirk.

4th Quarter

This is the winning most quarter of the draw so far in 2023, but two were won by Gerwyn Price who is absent again this weekend, and Dave Chisnall who is in a different quarter this time. The four seeds here are Van Gerwen, Schindler, Cross and Searle.

The only one that stands out is MVG. He is the only Euro Tour title winner amongst them but he has only made the one final this year and lost it to Gerwyn Price. He has won his quarter of the draw for the last three Euro Tour events, this very one for the last two weeks. However, he has lost that winning habit and as a result looks a bit short at odds of 5.00.

Unseeded Players

This is the quarter where most of the notable unseeded players have washed up. Gary Anderson has his second trip to Europe in a week to see if he can get over his travel woes. Daryl Gurney faces management stable mate Dylan Slevin with the winner facing Martin Schindler, which is a decent draw.

Jose de Sousa is likely to face MVG in the second round. A bad draw for The Special One as his record vs. MVG is 3-10. Gary Anderson faces Krzysztof Ratajski in the first round, with the winner to play Anderson’s practice partner, Ryan Searle.

2023 Belgian Darts Open: Ante Post Selections

Luke Humphries is back knocking on the door after his bout of food poisoning held him back for two or three weeks. I like his draw and he can have another good run. His odds are good for a four time Euro Tour winner and a two time finalist from his four events in 2023.

2023 Belgian Darts Open Tip: 1 point e/w Luke Humphries to win @ 17.00 with Betfred

Jonny Clayton has only won two Euro Tour titles in the last six years and both were the Austrian Darts Open. Can he do it again somewhere other than Austria? At least he has a decent draw. He is likely to Face Keane Barry in round two, and he is 6-0 against the young Irishman.

Damon Heta is the big threat for the Ferret in a likely third round clash. His odds of 10.00 are a bit short given his Euro Tour strike rate, however. Heta? The draw could open up for him, but can he string five good performances together? His odds are 29.00 and tempting but I’ll let this quarter go unbacked.

Sublime Smith

The third quarter is packed with players who can be fancied to have a good run. Dave Chisnall, Josh Rock, but he would face Chizzy in round three and we saw how that went last week. He has won his last five against Rock and that is enough to cross off the young Ulsterman. Michael Smith has already picked up a Euro Tour title and his form in last night’s final was sublime. It could be a case of recency bias, but he makes the most sense, despite shortish odds.

2023 Belgian Darts Open Tip: 1 point Michael Smith to win @ 7.00 with Hills, Betfred

The fourth quarter looks like MVG should come through, but he makes no appeal at 5.00 to win the tournament. Anderson at 41.00 makes some appeal, but he was so poor last week that I’ll pass with some reluctance.

Just the two outright selections this week but hopefully we can pick up some more match wins as the weekend proceeds. Due to the clash with the Miami GP full coverage of the tournament will not be possible but I’ll be looking out for any good value matches and will post when possible.

-JamesPunt