2025 Belgian Darts Open Betting Preview

James Punt got a 2.30 winner on the board on Night 5 of the Premier League to keep things ticking over. Now, his focus switches to the opening Euro Tour event of the season. Check out his 2025 Belgian Darts Open outright betting preview below.

Summary

The Belgian Darts Open is the first of fourteen European Tour events (up from thirteen in 2024). The top thirty two on the Euro Tour OOM will qualify for The European Championship in Dortmund in late October. This was a great tournament last year, with a big and sporting crowd.

The qualifying regulations have been tweaked again, and not to everyone’s liking. The top 16 on the main two-year PDC Order of Merit ranking will now be seeded and enter the tournament in the second round. The 16 qualifiers from the one-year PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit ranking will enter in the first round.

The remaining 16 places will go to players from four qualifying events. Ten from the Tour Card Holder Qualifier, four from the Host Nation Qualifier, one from the Nordic & Baltic Associate Member Qualifier, and one from the East European Associate Member Qualifier.

Closed Shop

This makes it a bit of a closed shop for the top players. It headed in that direction in 2024 and, it must be said, that by including more of the top ranked players and fewer qualifiers, it did improve the show. I liked seeing the qualifiers getting a chance against the top players, but the fact was that they usually lost in round one, or two. For the paying punter in the venue, and the millions watching around the world, you got to see more competitive matches.

Obviously, those players who are a little further down the rankings will now have fewer places in the qualifiers. That means fewer chances to win ranking money and they get caught in a vicious circle. Not being able to play in as many ranking events, not winning ranking money and therefore not moving up the OOM.

More Chances

For the top players, they get more chances, making it easier for them to stay in the upper echelons of the rankings. It is going to create a bottleneck for good, young, new players to come through the ranks, and not getting enough ranking money to qualify for the Majors. Without a supply of new blood, the player line ups could get a bit stale.

The PDC would say that they are improving the show, and that there are still opportunities for new players to qualify. They are trying to find a balance between the two but many players, like Ryan Searle and Alan Soutar for example, have been quite blunt as to how they feel.

Premier League Clash

These early Euro Tour events are interesting as they are played at the same time as the Premier League is in full swing. The eight players in the PL will want to qualify for the European Championship in the latter part of the season, but they do not want to have to travel all over the UK, Ireland and Europe for Thursday PL events, and then jump on a plane or two, to get to a Euro Tour in a some remote town in Belgium, or East Germany, to play on Saturday.

We have had players like Littler and Dobey having to play in the first round on Friday, as they were ranked outside of the top 16 at the time. That was a nightmare travel wise, but it did open up a good betting opportunity from time to time, as the players arrived absolutely knackered.

Get On The Board Early

Players like Littler, Price, Humphries and Cross will want to win one of the early events, bank £30k and then be able to skip the bulk of the rest of the Euro Tour events. The players a bit further down the OOM might skip a few, but they still need to keep their rankings up, to get the best seedings in the Majors as they can.

Luke Littler is the defending champion this weekend, having beaten Rob Cross 8-9 in the final in 2024. He is the 3.50 favourite to defend it.

The PL players played in Brighton on Thursday night and will now be making their way to the Oktoberhallen in Wieze to join the action on Saturday. Wieze lies halfway between Ghent and Brussels. That is a five hour drive from Brighton, and much the same via train. The quickest way is a one and a quarter hour fight from Heathrow to Brussels and 40 minutes by car to venue. It is not the worst journey on the Euro Tour calendar.

2025 Belgian Darts Open – Top 16 Seeds

It is always a pain the arse preparing these previews early in the week, as I have to write up the players entered and then do a re-write if, and usually when, there are late withdrawals.

For a start, Gary Anderson is entered as the fifteenth seed and is drawn to meet Littler in round three. I would think that he will not bother going. He did turn up last year, losing in the third round to Gerwyn Price.

The draw was made on Thursday Afternoon, and as of then, there are no withdrawals.

1 Luke Humphries 

Was knocked out in the quarter final of the UK Open at the weekend, but he played very well, averaging over a ton in all four matches. His win rate in 2025 is 80% and he is very much in the frame. Humphries was on the wrong end of a rare outing for Rob Cross’s A+ game last night. He was beaten, rather than lost.

2 Luke Littler 

Won the UK open on Sunday night in a very one sided 11-2 win over James Wade. He followed that up by winning night five of the PL last night. Littler has won nine of his last ten matches, with a seasonal win rate of 76%. His seasonal average is 102.36. That is his average game, not his A game.

Very few players can live with that and if he is to fail to defend his title, he will need to have a rare off performance or lose to Humphries in the final. Littler played seven Euro Tour events last year, won two, including this one, and was runner up in another. He does not win everything, it just feels like he does.

3 Michael van Gerwen 

What is going on with MVG? His loss to Robert Owen in the UK Open was so poor. He ended up missing 26 doubles and just handed the match to Owen. He was tending to do his losing to the better players, but it seems he can lose to anyone right now.

Van Gerwen has lost six of his last ten matches, and has a 2025 win rate of just 47%. He took advantage of a doubling nightmare form Gerwyn Price last hight, before getting stuffed by Littler in the semi-final. His doubling is a problem. In six of his last ten his checkout rate has been 33% or worse, and that is the danger zone. Very hard to fancy. The way MVG is playing these days, he is just an ordinary player.

4 Rob Cross 

Was disappointing at the UK Open, going 4-0 up against Josh Rock at the last sixteen stage, but he just dried up and lost 6-10. In Brighton last night, we got to see his very best game, averaging 111.19 in a 6-4 win over Luke Humphries. Cross backed that up with a 106 average against Aspinall in the semi-final but lost that 5-6.

He has now lost five of his last ten matches, and all to top players. I just have to admit, I cannot call Rob Cross, I have no idea of how he will perform. Usually he plays to a high standard, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

5 Stephen Bunting 

Has lost seven of his last ten matches, and while his game hasn’t fallen off a cliff, he is finding a losing habit and his confidence is taking a knock. Bunting has never won a title on the Euro Tour in twelve years of trying. He lost 2-6 to Aspinall last night and again, he played well but lost easily. He will get a break eventually, but for now he remains hard to fancy.

6 Jonny Clayton 

The Ferret is starting to knock on the title winning door more often. Runner up in the World Masters a few weeks ago, he reached the semi-final of the UK Open at the weekend, losing 6-11 to Littler. Clayton’s win rate is an encouraging 73% and he has reached the quarter final stage here for its first two years. He has the feel of a potential winner sometime soon.

7 Dave Chisnall 

While there have been some signs of his form improving, Chizzy is still putting in some very poor performances. He has won at least one Euro Tour title in each of the last three years, and he can be considered as a Euro Tour specialist, but his recent form sees six wins from his last ten matches. In those ten he has hit two sub 80 averages and two sub 90s, so there is not enough consistency to think he is ready for a deep run.

8 Damon Heta 

Hasn’t hit a ton plus average in 2025 and has lost four of his last six matches. That is OK form, but his usual scoring is not there and his consistency leaves a lot to be desired. He finds winning titles hard at the best of times, and it is hard to fancy his chances right now.

9 Gerwyn Price 

Just as Ryan Searle can be backed to win one of the early Players Championship titles, Price has to be on the shortlist for the early Euro Tour events. He likes playing in Europe and gets a better wrap from the crowds.

Price won the opening Euro Tour event in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In 2023 Price won ET 2 and ET3, while last year he was a semi-finalist here, a semi-finalist in ET2 and runner up in ET3. Price has won five of his last ten matches.

Is his form still good enough to expect him to be a contender for the win come Sunday? Not if he misses as many doubles as he did against MVG last night. I was very confident Price would win that match, but Price had a checkout rate of just 17.6%.

He missed fourteen doubles and that was his worst performance on the outer ring since last October. I thought he was over his doubling demons, but maybe not.

10 Nathan Aspinall 

Another player who has yet to win a Euro Tour title. He does tend to make a lot of quarter finals, losing thirteen since 2019, and also losing five semi-finals and one final. He has won six of his last ten matches and is playing well.

His consistency is improving, as is his confidence. The Asp made the final in the PL last night, beating Bunting and Cross, before the usual defeat to Luke Littler. A good run is possible, but he is in the same quarter as Littler, and he just can’t lay a glove on him.

11 Chris Dobey 

Made two Euro Tour semi-finals in 2024, but his best result was being runner up in Denmark back in 2019. He was playing really well going into that event. His recent form in 2025 sees a win rate of 63% and he has won five of his last ten matches.

Hollywood is playing very well on the floor, but struggling in the PL. There not a lot wrong with his game, but he is losing close matches and that may be affecting his confidence. Rarely any great value in these events.

12 Danny Noppert 

Rarely plays a duff match these days but doesn’t win many titles either. A bit like Damon Heta, he farms money but doesn’t need a big mantlepiece. Noppert has lost five of his last ten matches, and he really shouldn’t have. Noppert has never won on the Euro Tour, but lost two finals, six semi-finals and eleven quarter finals.

13 Peter Wright

With a win rate around 50% for the last two years, it is no surprise to see it sit at exactly 50% for 2025. He very nearly knocked Luke Littler out of the UK Open last week, losing 9-10. He does that sort of thing, throwing in a reminder of how good he can be, but just not doing it on a regular basis.

Snakebite has lost five of his last ten, hit three ton plus averages, but four sub 90s. He has won a Euro Tour event in each of the last three years, and if he is to win a title in 2025, it seems most likely it will be one of these, maybe when the big guns have taken the weekend off.

14 James Wade 

The unexpected runner up at last week’s UK Open. He was thrashed by Littler in the final but beat Luke Humphries 10-9, and Josh Rock 11-2, so he played some good stuff. Wade last won on the Euro Tour in 2016 and he didn’t play in many events in 2022 or 2023, but he played all thirteen last year, reaching one quarter-final. Wade has a win rate of 73% in 2025, so he could have good run, although he has only won one match here in his two previous appearances.

15 Gary Anderson 

Will he turn up? Anderson has only played five matches in 2025 and lost four. You can only rely on natural talent for so long, and Anderson needs to get some match practice in.

16 Dimitri van den Bergh 

Averaged just 70.90 in his 3-10 loss to Michael Smith in the 6th round of the UK Open. He had beaten Chris Dobey 10-9 and Barney 10-6, so that collapse was a surprise. Van den Bergh has been out of form for quite some time, mentally not right and also carrying an injury.

He has won six of his last ten matches but has hit four sub 90 averages and that near sub 70. He remains on the oppose list. Van den Bergh has not gone beyond the third round in his last twenty three Euro Tour events.

Best of the Rest

Ryan Searle

Won PC4 a few weeks ago. Searle has 2025 win rate of 77% and he has won eight of his last ten matches. However, while he does tend to win early in the Players Championships, he hasn’t really cracked playing on stage.

He has played four stage matches in 2025 and lost two, the last being a 0-10 loss to Luke Humphries at the UK open. Searle did improve on what had been a poor Euro Tour record last year. He reached the final of the penultimate ET event of the year in Switzerland, the semi-final of the Hungarian Darts Open, and six other quarter finals, including here in Belgium. He is targeting these events in 2025 as a way to improve his stage game.

Josh Rock 

Reached his first ever Major semi-final last weekend. Rock won his first Euro Tour title in 2024 at the Dutch Darts Championship and he was a semi-finalist here in 2023. Rock has won eight of his last ten matches and is playing nicely. A good run is very possible.

Martin Schindler 

Won two Euro Tour titles in 2024 and had plenty of good runs. He is a bit of a Euro Tour specialist, but his recent form has seen a few too many flat performances.

Ross Smith 

A two time runner up on the Euro Tour in 2024 and he really should have crossed line in one of them. Smith lost a great match against Josh Rock at the weekend, in the deciding leg. He is looking in better form but his consistency is still not very convincing.

Gian van Veen 

Lost to Littler in the quarter final last weekend, but he is playing well, hitting six ton plus averages in his last ten matches. He has had just one duff performance in those last ten and he continues to improve. He was runner up in the Hungarian Darts Open last year and it would be no surprise to see him pick up one these titles in 2025. His 2025 average is 98.78 which is right up with the best.

Jermaine Wattimena 

I keep on backing Wattimena but haven’t had much coming back. He is a much better player these days and having many good runs but so far, titles have been elusive. Wattimena played seven Euro Tour events in 2024, and reached three quarter finals, including here. Another good run is possible, depending on his draw.

The Draw

First Quarter

Luke Humphries is the top seed and the other three are Dimitri van den Bergh, Damon Heta and Gerwyn Price. Interesting first rounders in this quarter are Mike De Decker, who will face Humphries if he beats Thomas Lovely. Gian van Veen will face Gerwyn Price if he beats James Hurrell. Michael Smith plays Ryan Joyce for the right to play Damon Heta. Martin Schindler plays Canada’s Jim Long, with the winner paying Dimitri van den Bergh.

That just about makes it The Group of Death. Humphries vs. Price for a place in the semi-final was my early assessment, but the draw has made things even tougher for Price. However, Price is 6-0 vs. Van Veen and this can still be a Humphries vs. Price quarter final.

Second Quarter

Rob Cross is the top seed here, joined by Peter Wright, Stephen Bunting and Danny Noppert. Players of interest coming into the first round include Ross Smith who will play Cross if he beats a local qualifier. Cameron Menzies plays Matt Campbell for the right to play Wright. Wattimena has to beat a local qualifier in order to face Bunting. Daryl Gurney will have to beat Tricole if he is to make the second round and to play Noppert.

Certainly a more open quarter, and maybe a chance for Wattimena and Ross Smith to have a run. Noppert likes a quarter final and he could get there. Rob Cross was in great form last night in Brighton, but I can’t call him at all.

Third Quarter 

Luke Littler is the top seed here. Need I go any further? Just for the record the other seeds are Gary Anderson, Dave Chisnall and Nathan Aspinall. Ryan Searle plays Daryl Pilgrim for the right to face Littler, so Littler could have had an easier task should Searle get through.

Outside of Searle, the first rounders here are nothing to get excited about. Aspinall actually has a nice draw, but if he does have to meet Littler in the quarter final, there is only one winner.

Fourth Quarter 

This is a cracking quarter, but hard to say who will make the semi-final. The top seed is Michael van Gerwen, who is likely to face Josh Rock in round two. That is a good opportunity for Rock. The other seeds are James Wade, who will face either Barney or the impressive young Cam Crabtree.

Wessell Nijman will face a local qualifier for the right to play Jonny Clayton, which is a tough one for both. Chris Dobey will play the winner of the Dirk van Duijvenbode vs. Darius Labanauskas tie. Probably a decent draw for Dobey, but he would than face Clayton or Nijman.

2025 Belgian Darts Open Selections

I want to back Gerwyn Price because his record in the early Euro Tour events is very good. Unfortunately, he has a tough draw, but not an impossible path to the quarter final. I expect he would then meet Luke Humphries. Cool Hand has been getting the better of Price lately. Price was a 10.00 shot before the draw was made and he moved out a little to 11.00. After last night’s doubling horror show, he is out to 12.00.

Humphries is a 5.50 shot and he makes some sense. He is great form, got a good path to the quarters and is one of the few, along with Price, who could realistically beat Littler in a final.

Josh Rock could go well, but it looks like he would have to play James Wade in the third round, and Wade beat him 11-2 last weekend. Wade has to be considered after his run to last week’s final but it is a long time since he won in Europe, and he can’t beat Littler if they did meet in the semi-finals. Rock thinks he and Littler will rule the darting world in the future, but right now, he has a way to go.

Cool Hand Looks Likely

It is hard to see past the defending champion, Luke Littler, but one player who can match him is Humphries. A couple of years ago we were getting 15.00 about Humphries on the Euro Tour, but he is a much better player now, so 5.50 is what you get.

I think for this event, and it may be the case in all the Euro Tours that Littler plays in, it will just be a matter of finding someone who could conceivably beat him. Backing fancy priced outsiders could just produce a lot of good value losers.

Of course Littler will miss events and will be off the boil now and then, but while he is running hot, outright betting may well just mean backing Humphries in the other half of the draw.

2025 Belgian Darts Open Tip: 1 point Luke Humphries to win the Belgian Darts Open @ 5.50 generally available

The good news is that there looks to be some interesting first and second round matches, and they can be more profitable. There will be a preview for the this afternoon’s first round shortly after this is posted, and then another later today for the evening session.

-JamesPunt