2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open Betting Preview – JP
2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open Betting Preview
It has been a quiet few weeks on the darting front since the World Cup but James Punt is back in action on the European Tour this weekend. James’ 2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open outright betting preview is below.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open
This the third running of the Baltic Sea Darts Open, played at the Wunderino Arena, Kiel, Germany. Dave Chisnall beat Luke Humphries in the 2023 final and last year it was Rob Cross’ turn to deny Luke Humphries the title.
Of the eight previous European Tour events in 2025, Nathan Aspinall is the only player to win two titles (and was runner up in another). The other winners are Luke Littler, Stephen Bunting, MVG, Martin Schindler, Gary Anderson and Jonny Clayton.
The European Championship OOM is led by Nathan Aspinall with Schindler in second place, Clayton third and Ross Smith fourth.
No Littler
This event being held in Germany means there is no Luke Littler, but otherwise we have a near full complement of the top players attending, looking to tune up their game ahead of next weekend’s kick off at the Matchplay. It is the strongest Euro Tour field for quite some time.
Having just completed the preview, confident that there would be no withdrawals this weekend, the draw has been made and we have five withdrawals. MVG and Peter Wright are the only seeds to pull out, but neither were of much interest. Of the unseeded players, we lose Michael Smith who lost out on his chance to qualify for the Matchplay in the mid-week events. He will be off to lick his wounds. Andrew Gilding is also out, along with Ryan Joyce.
Martin Schindler and Ryan Searle are promoted to seeded status and we have five players from the reserve list entering at the first-round stage: Willy O’Connor, Mickey Mansell, Kim Huybrechts, Richard Veenstra and Nico Springer.
The 2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open Seeds
1 Luke Humphries
Skipped the Polish Darts Masters and PC20 & PC21 earlier this week for family reasons. I have no idea what those reasons were, but hopefully nothing bad. Humphries won the Premier League, but the Premier League is a very different beast to actual tournament play. His only ranking title this season was the World Masters at the start of February. There have been plenty of deep runs in tournaments, but at the odds he is going off at, 4.50, he cannot be said to be a value bet.
2 Stephen Bunting
Arguably the form player of 2025 despite a horrible Premier League experience. He has won on the Pro Tour and the Euro Tour in 2025. He was runner up in PC20 on Tuesday and didn’t play on Wednesday. His last five events have produced form figures of W/1/RU/RU. He has won eight of his last ten matches and hit six 180s and allow average of 96.35. Consistency on a stick. His odds (15.00) are starting to get a bit tight but deservedly so.
3 Jonny Clayton
Has got back to something close to his best form. He won the Dutch Darts Masters in late May and was a semi-finalist in the last Euro Tour event, the European Darts Open. That win in the Netherlands ended a run of five consecutive second round losses for Clayton. It was played in the same venue as PC14, which he also won. His scoring may not quite be in the same class as Bunting’s, but he has hit ten 92+ averages and eight 95+. The Ferret was a semi-finalist here in 2023.
4 Nathan Aspinall
A player who is doing his fair share of winning titles. He is the only two-time winner on this year’s Euro Tour and a one-time runner up. He has reached the quarter finals of all three of this year’s ranking majors and is fully fit, which is a novelty. The Asp did not play in the midweek Players Championship events. He has skipped a lot of events on the Pro Tour. His recent form sees seven wins from his last ten matches, and he was runner up the US Darts Masters two weeks ago.
5 Chris Dobey
Still to pick up a European Tour title. He was a runner up back in 2019 and made two semi-finals in 2024, but so far in 2025 he has managed just two quarter finals and five second round defeats. He has won twice on the Pro Tour but it must be said that his stage form does not match his floor form. Hollywood has the game to win big titles, but he just hasn’t done it and that is frustrating him. His consistency of scoring leaves something to be desired.
6 Rob Cross
Working for the Taxman even more than the rest of us are. He has some £450K to find for HMRC, which must be an incentive of sorts. He has not progressed beyond the third round in his five Euro Tour events in 2025. Voltage has won on the World Series and on the Pro Tour in 2025, but both were back in January. He has won seven of his last ten matches, but has not been a model of consistency.
7 James Wade
Won his first title since 2022 when picking up PC19 last month. He was a bit hit or miss in this week’s events, hitting three sub 90 averages, but still reached the fourth round of PC21, losing 5-6 to the majestic tournament winner, Bradley Brooks. Wade hasn’t won a Euro Tour title since 2016 and reached no finals since 2018.
8 Damon Heta
Picked up his second Pro Tour title of the year on Tuesday and he was runner up in the last Euro Tour event, the European Darts Open. He has won ten of his last eleven matches and his seasonal win rate is up to 72%. Twelve consecutive 95+ averages underline his form and consistency.
9 Gerwyn Price
In terms of scoring, Price is right up there with the very best and he is having plenty of deep runs lately. His last four tournaments have seen form figures of SF/W/SF/RU. On the Euro Tour in 2025, he made the quarter final of ET1 and ET2 but not a lot since, but he did withdraw from three events. Price has won eight of his last ten matches and the only criticism might be that his conversion rate of good runs to titles has not been great in 2025, the Pro Tour excepted.
10 Dave Chisnall
It seemed like his return from injury was nearly complete when he was runner up in PC15 in mid-May, but since then he has won twelve of his last twenty matches. On the Euro Tour Chizzy made the quarter final of ET1 but since then has won just four matches and not progressed past the third round in the last eight events.
11 Gary Anderson
Another Euro Tour winner in 2025 and I am always surprised when he turns up. He has done enough to make the European Championships and as he hates travelling, he has no need to be here, other than to get in some match practice. Anderson played in the Pro Tour event earlier this week but won just one match and he has lost seven of his last ten.
12 Ross Smith
Has a seasonal win rate of 71%, has made two Euro Tour quarter finals, a semi-final and a final, but he finds winning titles harder than he should. He has won five Players Championship titles and the 2022 European Championship, but his game is better than that. He has won seven of his last ten matches and was a losing quarter finalist on Tuesday. A decent run is possible, but likely to come up short at some point.
13 Danny Noppert
Has won six of his last ten matches, is hitting some good averages but he has only won four matches on the Euro Tour in 2025.
14 Josh Rock
Rock was excellent when winning the World Cup of Darts alongside Daryl Gurney last month. It will have been well celebrated, and it will have taken a bit of time to come back down the mountain. He played in the midweek events, reaching two quarter finals. He lost 5-6 to Rob Cross on Tuesday, despite averaging 108, and lost 1-6 to eventual winner, Bradley Brooks on Wednesday. Rock continues to play very well, winning eight of his last ten matches and I will be surprised if he doesn’t pick up more titles in 2025.
15 Martin Schindler
Got promoted to seeded status which makes things a bit easier for him, but his form is not great at the moment. He has lost six of his last ten matches. He is a three-time Euro Tour winner and he is back on home soil, so that might switch him on, but he is hard to fancy given his recent form.
16 Ryan Searle
Hardly been sighted since winning PC4 early in the season. He has won just five matches on the Euro Tour, failing to get beyond the quarter final stage. Searle has lost five of his last ten matches. He has hit some big averages but is showing very little consistency.
Best Of The Rest
It is fair to say that the list of the unseeded players could make up a very strong tournament line up by themselves. There are not going to be many easy first round matches, and the seeded players are going to be facing stiff opposition from the off. Time prevents me from previewing them all but the more interesting players are listed below.
Gian Van Veen
Runner up in ET4, he has won just three Euro Tour matches since then. He is playing better on the floor winning seven of his last ten matches. Has the game to beat anyone and is one of the heaviest scorers in the game. A good run would be no surprise, but he is expensive to follow.
Wessel Nijman
In the same vein as Van Veen. Has the game but needs more consistency. Has won seven of his last ten matches and was a semi-finalist last time out on the Euro Tour.
Jermaine Wattimena
Runner up in PC18 and he has won seven of his last ten matches. There is maybe too much inconsistency to thinks that he could finally get his first PDC title.
Daryl Gurney
It will be interesting to see if the World Cup of Darts win will give Superchin a dose of added confidence. Since that big win he has played eighteen matches and won twelve, so steady rather than spectacular. He has only got beyond the third round once in his six Euro Tour starts in 2025.
Dirk van Duijvenbode
Runner up in PC17 but has won just three of his last eight matches since. He has been playing better than that sounds, but I worry that his head has dropped again.
The Draw
The simple thing to say here is that there is no easy quarter this weekend. As such the draw is not so important.
First Quarter
Humphries, Searle, Heta and Price are now the four seeds entering at the second-round stage. Heta is on my shortlist, but it is a very difficult quarter to win. Heta is just 1-10 against Humphries, but before he gets close to playing Humphries, Heta is likely to have to beat Nijman and Price.
Searle is easy to pass over but Gerwyn Price, who was my favourite to win the third quarter before the re-draw, is a threat. Heta beat Price earlier this week, on his way to winning PC20.
Of the unseeded players, Wessell Nijman is the only one that makes any appeal. He plays arguably Germany’s second-best golfer, Martin Kramer, in the first round with the winner playing the in-form Heta. Humphries or Heta, or Price? It is a very difficult quarter to unpick.
Second Quarter
Aspinall, Noppert, Dobey and Smith are the seeds in this quarter Aspinall is the form player and the Euro Tour specialist. The Asp gets the nod. It is hard to go back-to-back on the Euro Tour, but he followed up his win in ET2 with a runner up spot in ET3. Maybe the winner of ET8 can back it up in ET9.
Mike de Decker and Dirk van Duijvenbode come in at the first round, and are set to face Noppert and Dobey respectively. Two more reasons not to fancy those two seeds.
Third Quarter
Stephen Bunting is the top seed. He was my favourite to win the fourth quarter, but the redraw may have made his job easier. He now faces Schindler, Wade and Chisnall as the other three seeds.
Nico Springer looks likely to face Bunting in round two which will be a tough one for Bunting, but it will be even tougher for Springer. Wattimena will likely face Schindler which is a tough one for Schindy. Daryl Gurney plays Martin Lukeman for the right to play Chisnall and that is a decent draw for the two first rounders.
Fourth Quarter
Jonny Clayton is the top seed, joined by Rock, Cross and Anderson. This is another tough quarter. Rock is arguably the form player, winning eight of his last ten matches and playing with a great deal of consistency. If he keeps on playing the way he is, he has to win more titles.
Clayton is also in good form, winning seven of his last ten matches and also playing consistently. Cross lacks the consistency of Rock and Clayton, but his A-game remains very strong and while I don’t fancy him to win the title, he could ruin a few other’s weekend.
Gary Anderson is much the same, but with seven defeats in his last seven matches, it looks like he has come looking to find some form before next week’s Matchplay.
Clayton is likely to face the very dangerous Gian Van Veen in the second round which is a tough opener for The Ferret and if he wins that, very probably Josh Rock in the third. That is likely to be the key match of this quarter. Rock is 6-4 vs. Clayton and has won their last four matches. That swings it for me, and Josh Rock gets the pick.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open Selections
I am going to pass on any selection from the first quarter. Humphries is just a bit too short in the betting, but he has Heta’s number. Gerwyn Price is another possible winner, but it truly is the group of death. The first and second in the betting and with the form player, Damon Heta, thrown in to make it even more difficult.
In the second quarter, Nathan Aspinall is the pick. He can take his chances, is fit and in good form. He is well clear at the top of the European Championship OOM for a reason.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open Tip: 0.5 point e/w Nathan Aspinall to win @ 21.00 with Ladbrokes, Betvictor
The winner of the third quarter is rather obvious. Stephen Bunting won ET3, and since he escaped form the Premier League he has won a World Series event and been runner-up in another and won a Players Championship title and been runner up in another. His consistency is top class and his scoring equally as good. The difference between the old Bunting and Bunting 2.0, is that he is now comfortable winning titles. He can get it over the line.
2025 Baltic Sea Darts Open Tip: 1 point e/w Stephen Bunting to win @ 15.00 with SpreadEx
Not far off Bunting’s standard of scoring and consistency is Josh Rock. He is not yet totally comfortable in converting good runs into titles won, but he is getting there and winning the World Cup will have done him no harm at all. He has a tougher draw than Bunting, so a smaller stake goes on Rock.
