2024 German Darts Championship Preview – JP
2024 German Darts Championship Betting Preview
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2024 German Darts Championship outright betting preview. He’ll also be previewing a selection of matches throughout the weekend so make sure to keep an eye on our Twitter feed for updates.
2024 German Darts Championship
The 2024 German Darts Championship is a long standing tournament on the European Tour schedule. The last ten German Darts Championships have produced eight different winners and a few big priced ones, including Devon Petersen who won at 67.00 in 2020, and was tipped up by yours truly.
Ricardo Pietreczko beat Peter Wright last year and the other winners have been MVG (X3), Daryl Gurney, Peter Wright, Alan Norris, Gary Anderson and Dave Chisnall. There have been a few big priced runners up as well, such as Ricky Evans, James Wilson, Jelle Klassen and Justin Pipe, so it may pay to look at any in-form outsiders this weekend.
Seven ET Winners
There has been seven different winners of the eight Euro Tour events played so far in 2024 and Luke Littler has won two. Ross Smith is a two time runner up and Humphries and Cross have won one and been runner up in another. Luke Littler tops the Euro Tour OOM, followed closely by Martin Schindler.
We have had four withdrawals from the tournament. Gary Anderson, as usual, Josh Rock, Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall. I love a rewrite. The four players from the reserve list to make it are Mensur Suljovic, Stephen Burton, Dylan Slevin and Robert Owen. Luke Humphries had withdrawn in advance, like a proper player should do.
2024 German Darts Championship: The Seeds
1 Dave Chisnall
Picked up the last Euro Tour title before the summer break, beating Ross Smith 8-6 in the final of the European Darts Open. Chizzy also won this title way back in 2013. Chisnall has won seven of his last ten matches, but there have been some underwhelming performances. His last four matches in last week’s Players Championship events all saw sub 91 averages.
2 Gerwyn Price
Yet to pick up a Euro Tour title in 2024. He has won at least one title for the last six years and he now has this and a further four events if he is to continue that run.
Price has been away on World Series duties, winning the Australian Darts Masters three weeks ago, his second World Series title of 2024. It is fair to say that his form suffered during his Premier League campaign and he has complained of an unspecified medical problem which has been holding him back.
Will that World Series win kick start his season? He was another to skip the Players Championships last week.
3 Damon Heta
His current form shows eight wins from his last ten matches. He was able to shake off any jet lag after returning from the World Series events and won PC18 last week. His recent performances before that had been erratic.
In Europe, he reached the semi-final of the European Darts Open in June and has made one other quarter final. Heta has won two Players Championship events in 2024. He was runner up in a World series event earlier this month and he is having plenty of good runs. He just needs to start doing it on stage. The Heat has been an expensive player to follow, but I can’t knock his recent form.
4 Danny Noppert
Continues to have decent runs and he is picking up a lot of prize money. He has reached a semi-final and four other quarter finals on this year’s Euro Tour, but he has yet to win a title.
Noppert has won eight of his last ten matches but he is playing well. He could be on for another quarter final but is likely to find someone too good for him at some point. He made two quarter finals last week, a typical Noppert performance.
Noppert is still looking for his first Euro Tour title and has been another expensive player to follow.
5 Stephen Bunting
Continues to play good stuff, wins plenty of matches but also loses a lot of matches at the business end of tournaments. He has lost two quarter and two semi-finals in this season’s Euro Tour. Bunting has won seven of his last ten matches, but there is still a little too much inconsistency than what is ideal.
6 Ryan Searle
Has discovered a love for the Euro Tour having previously been something of an underachiever on the continent. Searle has reached five Euro Tour quarter finals in 2024, including the last three in a row. He has won seven of his last ten matches and is playing well enough to see him having another good run.
Heavy Metal won PC18 last week, his second Players Championship title of the season and his fourth final. There remains a question mark over his stage form, but he is playing well, and more confidently in Europe in 2024.
7 Ross Smith
Having his best ever Euro Tour season, reaching two finals and another semi-final and a quarter. Smudger has won seven of his last ten matches but there have been a few under par performances in his last ten. He even had a couple of sub 90 averages last week, and that ended a long run of 90+ ones. Has to be on the shortlist, but is his form coming off the boil a little?
8 Martin Schindler
Winner of the International Darts Open in April, Schindler has reached two other semi-finals and is second only to Littler in terms of prizemoney won on the Euro Tour in 2024. His most recent form is OK, winning six of his last ten matches, but he isn’t putting any great runs together recently.
9 Chris Dobey
He should be doing better given that he is one of the game’s heaviest scorers. He has reached one semi-final in Europe in 2024 and he has only ever made one Euro Tour final in his entire career.
His recent form is very good, winning nine of his last ten matches, and he won PC19 last week. Getting over the winning line is his weakness, but he is one of the form players coming into this. Maybe this is his time?
10 Ricardo Pietreczko
The defending champion has done very little since winning this title last October. His seasonal win rate is just 43% and he has lost twelve of his last thirteen matches.
11 Luke Littler
The only player to have won more than one title on the Euro Tour in 2024. He skipped last week’s Players Championships having returned from the World Series events. He has won seven of his last ten matches but suffered a heavy 1-8 defeat to Gerwyn Price in the final of World Series 6.
12 Gian van Veen
Has reached two Euro Tour quarter finals in 2024 and while he has been playing decent stuff, he has lost five of his last ten matches. Has the talent to go deep, but he has picked up a bit of a losing habit recently. His consistency is just not there right now, but he averaged 111 when losing to Cameron Menzies last week.
13 Michael van Gerwen
Being only the sixteenth seed (before the withdrawals) for a Euro Tour event is a worrying sign for MVG. He has won 37 Euro Tour titles but has yet to win one in 2024 and he has made just one final.
MVG was runner up to Luke Humphries at the World Matchplay and since then he has taken time off to have yet more dental surgery carried out. He returned to action last week and played well enough, winning six of his eight matches, but also losing to Steve Beaton and Nathan Rafferty.
14 Daryl Gurney
A semi-finalist in PC19 last week and followed that up by qualifying for the World Series Finals. That made it eight wins from his last ten matches, and he is starting to string more wins together. He is yet to get beyond the last sixteen stage in Europe this season, and he struggled on the Euro Tour last year. He is a past winner of this title, which is a positive, but his last tournament win was back in 2019.
15 Joe Cullen
Reached the final of PC17 four weeks ago, quite out of the blue, but won just won one match in last week’s events. I have no idea where his game is at the minute, but even with eight wins from his last ten, he isn’t on the shortlist.
16 Ryan Joyce
Not a keen traveller, but at least he has got a leg up into the seeds and an extra £1250 to take home, at least. He is not in great form, losing five of his last ten matches, but he just lacking consistency and I wouldn’t write him off winning a match or two.
Best of the Rest
James Wade
Very much in business mode as he tries to get his ranking back up. He is down to eighteen and wants to get back into the top 16 at least. He has still not qualified for the European Championships, so he will want to have a good run this weekend to get himself into the finals and pick up more ranking money. Wade has won eight of his last ten matches and a motivated Wade is a dangerous Wade.
Dirk van Duijvenbode
There are signs that Dirk is starting to fire on all cylinders again. He has won seven of his last ten matches and hit four ton plus averages, including a 115 a month ago. He hit two in the World Series Finals qualifier last week. The Aubergenius needs a few grand more before he can start thinking about the European Championships, so there is pressure to win a few games, but he is playing well enough to do just that.
Martin Lukeman
Smash has won eight of his last ten matches and while he hasn’t been at his best, he will be feeling more confident and could make a push for the finals. He is around £5k shy at the moment but has qualified for another three of the remaining events, so he will have other chances.
Niko Springer
Smashing up the Development tour, winning three titles and lying second on the order of merit. He has won twenty two of his last twenty four matches and while it is a much lower level, he has been hitting very respectable numbers and looks to be a real talent. Only Wessel Nijman is above him and I am looking forward to seeing him play again.
The Draw
First Quarter
Chisnall, Cullen, Schindler and Dobey are the four seeds. None of the first round players are on my radar, but Suljovic has shown a bit of form lately and he faces Dimitri van den Bergh in the first round. Both have won six of their last ten matches, with the winner facing Martin Schindler.
Dobey is the form player in this quarter, winning nine of his last ten matches and a Players Championship title. He isn’t a Euro Tour specialist but this looks a decent draw for him. The only downside are his odds, just 26.00.
Second Quarter
This should be called the Dutch quarter. The four seeds are Noppert, MVG, and Van Veen. The other being Stephen Bunting. All are in decent form, with the exception of Van Veen.
Noppert is playing with a good deal of consistency but is likely to face Dirk van Duijvenbode in the second round. A tough draw for both. The winner of that is due to meet either MVG or maybe James Wade.
Another tough match and it is a harsh draw for both Noppert, and dark horse Van Duijvenbode. Both players have poor records against MVG, but fairly good ones against Wade. Nico Springer faces Peter Wright in round 1, with the winner facing Bunting. I am very keen to see how Springer gets on.
Tough Quarter
This is tough quarter. I fancy MVG to be putting a shift in. He skipped the World Series events down under to have more dental work, but he was back in action last week to sharpen his game and played some good stuff. However, odds of 7.5 for the tournament are a bit short these days.
That said, his H2H record against the others in the quarter is very good and he is the pick to make the semi-final. If he was to meet Dobey in the semi-final, he is 18-6 against Hollywood. It is a good looking opportunity for MVG to make the final and the chance to extend his record as the only player to have won this title more than once.
Third Quarter
An interesting quarter. The four seeds are now Gerwyn Price, Daryl Gurney, Ross Smith and Riccardo Pietreczko. Having lost nine of his last ten matches, we can scratch Pikachu. Price, Gurney and Smith are all in decent nick. None of the first rounder players inspire much confidence form wise.
Price and Gurney meeting in round three would be no surprise. Those two rarely have a bad game, but it is Price who usually come out on top.
Ross Smith almost seems to be due a Euro Tour title and he is in decent form, a little inconsistent, but his A game is strong. He is 5-4 vs. Price and it must be said that Smith has a very good path to the quarter final, and very possibly a match vs. Price. That would be tasty and I’d just about give Smith the nod.
Fourth Quarter
The group of death? I think so. The four seeds are Heta. Searle, Littler and Joyce. Jonny Clayton is a first round entry, as are Edhouse, Woodhouse, Gilding and Lukeman. I do like Damon Heta’s path to the quarter finals, but that is where things usually get tricky for hm, and that maybe the case once more.
The bottom half of the quarter sees Littler, the only two time 2024 Euro Tour winner, the in-form Ryan Searle along with the winner of Clayton vs. Lukeman.
Lukeman has won eight of his last ten matches, and when he is firing, he can beat anyone. Clayton has shown some signs of a return to form but he has lost five of his last ten and Lukeman could get the better of The Ferret.
Lukeman has beaten Searle in both of their previous Euro Tour matches, so Smash could have another good run. His problem would be Littler. Littler is the favourite to win the tournament, never mind the quarter.
Searle In Form
Ryan Searle won PC19 last week and he has shown much better form on the Euro Tour this year. There are doubts about his stage form, however, and he is hard to back for that reason. Damon Heta also won a Players Championship title last week, and he has beaten Littler. However, Littler has given him a couple of spankings on the Euro Tour.
Before the draw, I was thinking I might give Searle and Heta a chance, even though they can be frustrating to back outright. The draw has not been kind on them and it is hard to see past Littler, which is why I will back Martin Lukeman. I like the cut of his gib (or should that be gut of his gib), and everyone likes an outsider.
