2024 Austrian Darts Open Betting Preview – JP
2024 Austrian Darts Open Betting Preview
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2024 Austrian Darts Open betting preview. We managed to find a 40/1 finalist at the last ET event, fingers crossed we can go one better this time.
2024 Austrian Darts Open
We hit the post with 41.00 selection Ross Smith last weekend, but the place part of the each way bet returned a handy 10 point profit.
This weekend it is the Austrian Darts Open from Steiermarkhalle, Premstätten, Austria. Jonny Clayton is the defending champion and a two time winner of this event. Michael van Gerwen has won this on four occasions. It was the scene of the first Euro Tour event title back in 2012, won by Justin Pipe. MVG won his first in 2013, Vincent van der Voort in 2014 and Phil Taylor in 2016.
Others with a good tournament record include two time runner up, Michael Smith. Joe Cullen and Daryl Gurney have both made two semi-finals.
Another New Winner?
There have been four different winners of the first four Euro Tour titles. Will we get another different winner this weekend?
There have been two withdrawals from the tournament. Gary Anderson, having secured his place in the European Championship, has no further need to travel to Europe, and Luke Humphries, who needs to save his energy for the remaining weeks of the Premier League.
Krzysztof Ratajski, and Joe Cullen are therefore elevated to seeded status. Ricky Evans and Richard Veenstra come in at the first round stage in their place.
The 2024 Austrian Darts Open Seeds
1 Dave Chisnall
Just five wins from his last ten matches and Chizzy is not in good form. He has played six Euro Tour matches in 2024 and lost four.
2 Damon Heta
Lost four of his last ten matches and there is a fair degree of inconsistency creeping into his game at the moment.
3 Gerwyn Price
It is the same old story for Price. Playing as well as anyone, but failing to take his chances, missing important doubles and losing too many matches. Price has lost four of his last ten matches.
4 Rob Cross
Cross had been getting better results in Europe than in the Premier League. Runner up in ET1 and a semi-finalist last weekend. Still too many weak performances to be able to back him with confidence. Cross made the final in last night’s PL, losing 2-6 to Luke Littler. He averaged 100 across his three matches, underlining his good scoring but not winning trend.
5 Jonny Clayton
The Ferret will be hoping to win his third Austrian Darts Open title, but his game does not look up to it. He can still put in good performances, but the consistency is still not there. Clayton has lost six of his last ten matches and he remains hard to fancy.
6 Michael van Gerwen
Too many indifferent performances to justify his odds. He has won this three times, but while I expect him to win one of these Euro Tour titles, it might well be after the Premier League has finished. MVG has won seven of his last ten matches, but his scoring has dropped off and he is far from his best.
7 Josh Rock
Returns to the scene of his only Euro Tour final. He famously beat MVG 7-0 in the semi-final last year but then lost 6-8 to Clayton in the final. Rock is coming back to form, he is still not quite at his best, but he is winning more matches again and another good run is possible.
8 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Dirk’s form has sadly deserted him. He has lost six of his last ten matches and he is looking massively frustrated. Very hard to fancy.
9 Ryan Searle
Heavy Metal is playing well enough to think he can have a good run. However he has never had any great success on the Euro Tour, nor indeed has he ever won a stage event. He has reached two quarter finals in this year’s Euro Tour and he lost in the quarter finals here last year.
10 Danny Noppert
Runner up here in 2022 and a quarter finalist last year. Noppert won a Players Championship title three weeks ago and he has reached two Euro Tour quarter finals in 2024. He has made two finals in the past, but he has lost nine quarter finals and five semi-finals. Noppert is in good form, winning eight of his last ten matches and he has to make the shortlist.
11 Peter Wright
Has now lost nine of his last ten matches and his form is getting worse. He will have some good matches, but he remains impossible to back for tournament betting.
12 Ricardo Pietreczko
Very inconsistent and mostly quite poor form, losing seven of his last ten matches.
13 Stephen Bunting
Has reached a semi-final and another quarter final in this event. He is a two time Euro Tour runner up and is in very good form. He is fresher than the Premier League players and he is shortlist material.
14 Ross Smith
It will be interesting to see how Smudger reacts to losing last week’s final. He rode his luck to make the decider but didn’t take his many chances in it. It was a match he should have won. Will he be down in the mouth, or can he take the positives? He reached his first Euro Tour final after all.
He is in good form, winning seven of his last ten matches and he has reached three Players Championship semi-finals. He has the game, but where will his head be?
15 Krzysztof Ratajski
Gets a leg up to the second round after the withdrawal of Luke Humphries and last weekend’s winner, Gary Anderson. The Polish Eagle has not been soaring in 2024. His win rate is just 39%. He has lost all four of his ET matches in 2024, has lost seven of his last ten matches. He has been playing better than that sounds, but his confidence will be low.
16 Joe Cullen
Two time Austrian Darts Open semi-finalist also benefits from the two withdrawals. Cullen used to be a Euro Tour specialist, winning three titles. He was here for the first Austrian Open back in 2012 when he made the quarter finals. He has made a total of four quarter finals in this event, along with his two semi-finals.
His recent form is not good, losing six of his last ten matches, and the last four in a row. Cullen reached the third round in ET1 & 2 but lost his first round matches in the last two Euro Tour events. Hard to fancy, but a return an event where he has gone well, may get him going.
Best of the Unseeded Players
Chris Dobey
I was very disappointed that Dobey was on the end of one of Clayton’s good performances last weekend. However, Dobey has been in great form lately. He won PC7 a couple of weeks ago and reached the semi-final of ET3.
His loss to Schindler in the quarter final was a poor performance, and that is still Dobey’s weak spot. He throws in a stinker just a little too often. That said he has won seven of his last ten, is scoring well and is playing with confidence.
Martin Schindler
Schindler picked up his first PDC title when winning ET3 a couple of weeks ago. He lost in the second round last weekend, but he averaged 106 in a 5-6 loss to Rob Cross.
Schindler’s Euro Tour form is very strong. He has played fourteen matches and won eleven. He has also hit eleven 96+ averages, not a single sub 90. No home advantage this weekend, but I don’t see that as a problem. Very much a contender.
Luke Littler
An automatic qualifier for the first time, but still has to enter at the first round phase. He is a Premier League player and will have had to leg it from Liverpool to Premstätten, which is not an easy journey. He will get a late slot on Friday night to accommodate his journey.
Premstätten is a suburb of Graz in Southern Austria. Graz Airport is nearby, but there are no direct flights from the UK. That means a two flight trip or one and a long car/train journey. It is not ideal, especially if there are any delays. Littler has won six of his last ten matches and picked up the nightly win in last night’s PL.
Karel Sedlacek
Evil Charlie was playing some good stuff in the last Players Championship events and Euro Tour qualifiers. He hit two ton plus averages in the qualifier for this event and in the Players Championships. He went out at the third round stage in PC7 & 8, but he was scoring plenty of high 90 averages.
Karel also reached the quarter final of PC6, his best result in Players Championship events. Sedlacek has reached a couple of Euro Tour quarter finals, and while I am not backing him to get to the final, he is going to be a dangerous opponent and could cause a surprise in the early rounds.
Gian Van Veen
Reached the semi-final of PC8 a couple of weeks ago. He has won six of his last ten matches. He reached a couple of Euro Tour quarter finals last year, and the semi-final of the European Championship. I wouldn’t rule out a good run.
Ritchie Edhouse
A quarter finalist in ET3, Edhouse knocked out James Wade and Dirk van Duijvenbode last weekend, and he has been good to us. He didn’t play well against Ross Smith in last week’s third round, throwing away a strong position in the match.
Madhouse has been riding a wave of good form, great form at times, but will that wave break, or has he elevated his game? He has won eight of his last ten matches and had been completely underrated by the market. That may not be the case now.
The Draw
1st Quarter
The four seeds are Dave Chisnall, Joe Cullen, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Ryan Searle. Of those four, only Searle is in any kind of decent form. He will face the winner of Gian van Veen vs. Jose de Sousa, and if it is Van Veen, Searle is 1-3 vs. the young Dutch star.
Ritchie Edhouse looks to have a good draw. Arron Monk in the first round, and if he wins that, the very out of form Van Duijvenbode. Van Veen and Edhouse would meet in the third round.
Van Veen is 2-0 with Edhouse. He would be the slight favourite to win that, and Van Veen does look to have a draw that could reward him, if he brings his A game. Only Madars Razma has a winning H2H record against him in this quarter.
2nd Quarter
An altogether harder quarter. The seeds are Cross, Bunting, Clayton and Pietreczko. Bunting makes some appeal amongst the seeds, but the unseeded players pose a lot of threats.
Martin Schindler, Chris Dobey and Daryl Gurney are all capable of going deep. Gurney may be facing the hardest task, as he would face Cross in the second round if he can beat Martin Lukeman. Cross is 7-1-2 vs. Gurney in their last ten meetings.
Cross is also 9-3 vs. Bunting, so the draw has been reasonable for Voltage. Dobey and Schindler are drawn to meet in the third round which is annoying. I fancied both for the outright betting.
3rd Quarter
The Boy Wonder, Luke Littler plays in the final match of the evening session. He comes on the back of winning in Liverpool last night and will be fancied to win his second Euro Tour title. He is due to meet Damon Heta in the second round and he lost a cracking match vs. Heta in the UK Open. A potential bananaskin? Perhaps.
Heta is in reasonable form, hitting plenty of ton plus averages, but he is not fantastically consistent and not on the shortlist. The other seeds are the out of form Ratajski, the in-form Danny Noppert and last weekend’s quarter finalist, Josh Rock.
Littler was an 8.50 shot last weekend but lost 5-6 to Luke Humphries in the second round. Littler is now a best priced 5.00. The value is getting thin. Noppert and/or Rock make more appeal at much bigger odds.
4th Quarter
Four former World Champions in this quarter. Raymond van Barneveld enters at the first round stage, but he is out of form, losing six of his last ten matches. He faces Mike de Decker in his opening match today, and he may not survive that.
The seeded players include Gerwyn Price, who lost another PL quarter final last night. He has lost four of his last six matches and has a confidence problem. Last week’s runner up, Ross Smith is now in this quarter, having originally been due to play in the first quarter. This is much harder.
Michael van Gerwen is not in the kind of form that makes you think he can win this, and I think we can draw a line through Peter Wright. I would say they Ross Smith makes the most sense to come through the quarter at decent odds.
Selections
One from each quarter and hoping to get one into the final.
Gian van Veen to win the 2024 Austrian Darts Open 0.5 point e/w @ 51.00 with Boylesports, Fitzdares
Martin Schindler 0.5 point e/w to win the 2024 Austrian Darts Open @ 51.00 with Boylesports, Fitzdares
Josh Rock 0.5 point e/w to win the 2024 Austrian Darts Open @ 41.00 with Boylesports, Fitzdares
Ross Smith 0.5 point e/w to win the 2024 Austrian Darts Open @ 34.00 with Ladbrokes, Boylesports, Fitzdares
First Round Matches – Afternoon Session
1 point Karel Sedlacek to beat Jeffrey de Zwaan @ 1.73, generally available
Sedlacek is playing well and in good form, winning seven of his last ten matches. De Zwaan has never recovered his form after a shoulder problem and subsequent surgery. Seven of his last ten matches have seen sub 90 averages and only one above 92.
Ricky Evan vs. Richard Veenstra
The two reserve players get drawn together, so one of them will be picking up a minimum of £2500. They are both in reasonable form and their H2H record is 2-2. Three of which required over 9.5 legs.
2024 Austrian Darts Open tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 1.91 with Ladbrokes, Boylesports
Madars Razma vs. Darius Labanauskas
The Battle of the Baltics. Lucky D no longer has a Tour Card and plays his darts at Nordic Baltic and Challenge Tour level. That can suppress his match averages, and he is a bit of an unknown quantity. He has lost five of his last ten Challenge Tour matches.
Razma has struggled a bit in 2024. His win rate is just 50% but he has won eight of his last ten, so he may be on the way back up.
Their H2H record is 8-7 to Labanauskas. They have played eleven best of eleven leg matches and eight were over 9.5 legs.
I suspect this could be close, but Razma should edge it.
