2025 European Darts Open Friday Evening Preview

It was a tough start for James in Leverkusen but he’s aiming to bounce back immediately. You can check out his 2025 European Darts Open Friday evening preview and tips below.

Afternoon Thoughts

The afternoon session was a bit of a bloodbath betting wise and one of the worst sessions of darts you will see on the Euro Tour. Tonight’s matches are very short on value and I can only find two bets of interest.

Ricardo Pietreczko vs. Mortiz Bohrmann

An all-German affair with the winner to face Schindler in the second round. Pikachu’s form has been improving and this should be a nice warm up match for him against a local qualifier. Bohrmann plays on the Development Tour, but not often. He played quite well in his five qualifiers to get here, certainly better than his 78.81 seasonal average.

Pietreczko is the 1.15 favourite, Bohrmann 6.75. No bet.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: No bet

Cameron Menzies vs. Kim Huybrechts

Menzies may have come off the boil a little bit, but he has won six of his last ten matches and it is just a lack of consistency that is holding him back. On the Euro Tour he has won five of his six first round matches.

Huybrechts has won eight of his last ten matches but that flatters him as he was winning qualifiers with mid 80s averages. In fact, in his last ten matches, Huybrechts has hit six sub 90 averages and had four 6-5 wins. In his last six matches, five went to a deciding leg. He is hard to beat, but he is beatable.

Their H2H record is 3-1 to Menzies and none of their matches has required more than nine legs. That is in contrast to Huybrechts’ recent record of long matches, but if Huybrechts puts in another sub-90 average, he could get a beating.

Menzies is the 1.57 favourite, Huybrechts 2.63.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: Cameron Menzies to win -1.5 legs @ 1.91 with Betfred

Ryan Joyce vs. Ricky Evans

Joyce has won five of his last ten matches and has lost the consistency that took him to a Euro Tour final in March, and a semi-final in April. His doubling is his greatest strength but that was missing last weekend. He did win his first round match 6-5 last weekend, but he missed six darts to win 6-4 and cover the handicap, but I am not bitter about it. Not at all.

In the next round he missed ten match darts and lost 5-6 to Michael Smith. I was quite bitter about that. Luckily, Joyce has won me a lot of money in the last couple of years, so I’ll forgive him, but it is a big warning as to his form right now.

We have not seen much of Evans recently. His last Euro Tour was ET2 back in March and he beat Barney 6-4 in round 1. Most recently, Evans has won seven of his last ten matches and he made the quarter final of PC16 a couple of weeks ago. Six of his last ten matches have seen sub 90 averages.

Joyce is the 1.61 favourite, which would be fine if he was hitting his doubles well, but it looks a bit short to me. Evans is 2.55 which isn’t very attractive either.

Their H2H record is 5-3 to Joyce but this match is easy to pass by. No bet.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: No bet

Raymond van Barneveld vs. Andreas Harrysson

We have seen Dirty Harry do some good things on the Euro stage, including a great match against Gary Andersen which he lost 5-6 averaging 97. That was the day after he destroyed Gian van Veen 6-1 and averaged 107.

Harrysson has won all three of his Euro Tour first round matches. He has a great A game, obviously, but he plays on the Nordic Baltic Tour, as well as the Challenge Tour, and his form is very unpredictable. If he is in the mood and has his eye in, he can be very good.

Raymond van Barneveld just sort of exists in the darting world, dining out on his past and doing enough to keep his card, but not really doing anything. He averages 92.60 for 2025 and he is just a journeyman pro these days, but with a big reputation. I wonder if that reputation will motivate Harrysson?

Barney has won six of his last ten matches. Four of his last seven have seen sub 90 averages, but while he can still hit the odd ton plus average, there is not a great deal of consistency.

RVB is the 1.53 favourite with Harrysson 2.75. Can Harrysson keep his Euro Tour first round record going? Can he play the Boris Krčmar role and take a big first round scalp? Hopefully.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point Andreas Harrysson to win @ 2.75 with SpreadEx

Joe Cullen vs. Bradely Brooks

Cullen cut a forlorn figure when losing 1-6 to Ryan Meikle in last weekend’s first round match. He has won six of his last ten matches but his performance last weekend was disappointing.

Bradley Brooks has his moments but he has lost six of his last ten matches and has been blowing hot and very cold. His A game is very good but he showed us his C game in ET 6, averaging 75.58 in a 1-6 loss to Wessel Nijman.

He has played in eleven Euro Tour events over the last six years and won six of his first round matches. However, as his career has failed to take off, he has found it harder and he has lost four of his last five.

They have never played in the flesh before, just a Home Tour match during lock down and they don’t count.

Cullen is the 1.73 favourite, Brooks 2.30. I was tempted by opposing Cullen, but Brooks just isn’t a player to do it with, especially at just 2.30. No bet.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet

Dirk van Duijvenbode vs. Niko Springer

A matchup that is wasted on a first round match. Last week’s runner up, Niko Springer, is a player on the up, rising fast. Dirk van Duijvenbode is a top player who struggles to make the most of his talent, but he is playing some very good darts.

Dirk has won seven of his last matches and he was a semi-finalist in ET6. He does tend to get tighter the deeper he goes but he has only lost one of his seven first round matches. He plays his best darts in his first round matches and the only player to beat him was Boris Krčmar. Dirk played Springer in the first round of ET3 and Dirk won that 6-3, averaging 101.76.

Confident Springer

Springer has won twelve of his last thirteen matches so he will not be lacking for confidence. He has been banging in the sort of numbers that Dirk has been doing and if they both turn up with their A game tonight, this could be immense.

We are on Springer outright and he is looking for his first win against Dirk having lost their previous two. I was looking at the total 180s market. Their two matches have produced thirteen 180s at 0.68 per leg. 5-6 looks likely but over 5.5 is just 1.50. No bet.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet

Luke Woodhouse vs. Dragutin Horvat

Woodhouse was under the weather in last weekend’s 3-6 loss to Max Hopp. He has won six of his last ten matches and on the Euro Tour, he has won five of his seven first round matches and won nine matches overall, reaching the semi-final of ET6. If he is back to full health, he should win this one.

Horvat has played plenty of Euro Tour matches, twenty seven in total, and lost nineteen. He has played nineteen first round matches and lost thirteen.

Woodhouse is the 1.36 favourite, Horvat 3.65. There will be better opportunities. No bet.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet

Daryl Gurney vs. Richard Veenstra

Superchin returned to action last weekend having taken time off, apparently unaware how precarious his position was in the qualifying positions for the Majors. He responded by beating Kuivenhoven and Dobey before blowing his chance against Pietreczko. That sort of sums his form up. Two steps forward and one back and it is hard to make any real progress that way.

Gurney has won two of his four first round matches and that reflects a win rate of 50% for the season.

Veenstra pops up on the Euro Tour now and then and his last visit saw him get a bye into the second round where he got thumped 0-6 by Andrew Gilding. Since 2021, Veenstra has played eleven first round matches and lost just four, so not a bad record.

Gurney is 4-1 in their H2H record but Veenstra won their most recent match 6-4 last September. Gurney is the 1.57 favourite, Veenstra 2.63 and I won’t argue with those odds. No bet.

2025 European Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet

Hopefully I can cover some of the matches tomorrow, but the Spanish GP is clashing this weekend which means time is very tight.

-JamesPunt