2025 GSOD Wednesday Preview & Tips – JP
2025 GSOD Wednesday Preview
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2025 GSOD Wednesday preview. James fired in two winners from three bets last night and was a solitary leg away from a full house. Fingers crossed for more of the same tonight.
Scores On The Doors
It has been a tournament of swings and roundabouts betting wise so far. We have had 21 match bets, 11 winners and a 2.68 point profit. We also had six group bets, 3 won and overall there was a small 1.01 point profit. Hitting the post with Noppert and Nijman were two kicks in the nads.
From our three outright bets, Wade and Gian Van Veen are eliminated for a 2 point loss, and we have 2 points on Littler at 3.00 which is still a runner.
We now move on to the tournament proper. No more best of nine leg sprints, and now the matches for the second round are best of nineteen legs. We have sixteen players left, and I would say half of them might be a bit surprised to still be here. Half of the players came out of the unfancied pools C and D, and we have lost half of the top 8 seeds.
Luke Woodhouse vs. Ricky Evans
Two players who came out of Pool C, but both came into the tournament in good form. Woodhouse came in on the back of winning nine from ten matches and he won all three of his group matches, so he is continuing that good form. His tournament average is a very healthy 97.53 and he has been pretty much at the top of his game.
Ricky Evans had won eight from ten before this event started. He had wins over Gerwyn Price and Steffan Bellmont, both 5-4 but lost his final group match 2-5 to James Wade. Evans tournament average is 94.70 and he too is playing well above his season average, but not as well as Woodhouse.
H2H Close
Their H2H record is 5-4 to Ricky Evans and in 2025 he is 2-1. They have played once on TV, in last year’s UK Open, which Evans won 10-6 on his way to the semi-final. That was Evans’ best ever run in a major. That was also their only previous long format TV match.
Woodhouse is the better player in the majority of the statistical metrics and he has played better so far. Evans is on a bit of a roll and enjoying himself. He can play well when he is enjoying it, but at some point, he might start to think about the money, rankings and so on.
The same can be said for Woody, but he has had a few good runs in 2025, enough to get him into the top 25 of the PDC OOM, and he will be feeling good about his game.
Woodhouse is the 1.62 favourite, Evans 2.50 and that looks spot on to me. I will go for a fairly close match. Both are in good form, confident and both will think they can win it.
2025 GSOD Wednesday Tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 1.83 with Betfred
Gerwyn Price vs. Martin Schindler
Schindler finally made the knockout stage at the sixth attempt. He lost his opening match 2-5 against Woodhouse but beat Bunting 5-4 and Toylo 5-2. His tournament average is 96.44, a couple of points up on his seasonal average. Schindler wasn’t in great form coming into this event and he has lost five of his last ten matches.
The slimline Price lost his opening match 4-5 to Ricky Evans but shifted up a gear or two to beat Wade 5-0 and Bellmont 5-1. His tournament average is 98.13 and he has won six of his last ten matches. Price is a tournament specialist having won the title three times.
Their H2H record is 13-6 to Price and on TV, 5-2. Schindler did manage to beat Price in the Grand Slam in a group match back in 2021. They have played two best of 19 leg matches, Price won one 10-8 and Schindler the other 10-9.
Gerwyn is the 1.33 favourite and Schindler 3.50. It is fair to expect Price to win, but by what kind of margin, He has played seven second round matches in the Slam and four were over 16.5 legs. Three of his last four saw 10-8 results and given that their two previous long format matches have been close, we could see a relatively close match.
2025 GSOD Wednesday Tip: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 2.05 with Betfred, Hills
2025 GSOD Wednesday Tip: 0.5 point Price to win 10-8 @ 9.00 with Skybet, Betfair
Luke Humphries vs. Jurjen van der Velde
It is no surprise to see Humphries in the knockout stage, but I doubt many had young Van der Velde on their bingo card. The bookies don’t expect him to go much further as he is a 13.00 shot to win, Humphries a 1.06 shot.
Humphries’ tournament average is 96.71, and he was moving up the gears in his final group match. The Dutch youngster is averaging just 86.85 and he has just been lucky to come up against a very out of form Lukeman and an underperforming Damon Heta.
These two have met four times and Humphries has won three. Jurjen got a 6-5 win in a Players Championship match last year. Humphries averaged 96.23 and was 45% on his doubles, so he didn’t play badly. This is a longer format and the punchers’ chance is not so potent in lengthy games.
The fact is that Humphries has never played much more than his B game against Van der Velde, and he can win with that. If he engages his A game, it is a matter of how big the margin of victory will be.
It is not really a betting match in my opinion.
2025 GSOD Wednesday Tip: No Bet
Chris Dobey vs. Michael Smith
Michael Smith is just very relieved and happy to have made it this far. He isn’t fit enough to play for more than 20 minutes before his throwing wrist starts getting painful, so the short and sweet, best of nine leg format was just about in his comfort zone. A longer format is going to be a real physical test.
Smith has won five of his last six matches, but all of those were best of nine legs. Previous to that he had lost seven of his last ten, slightly longer best of eleven leg matches.
Smith’s tournament average is just 88.88, but he did average a 105 and a 98 in two of the qualifiers, so we can’t rule out that he finds some better form, but I doubt he is going to find this an enjoyable experience.
Dobey Average A Worry
Chris Dobey did a good job in his group, winning all three matches, and he has won fifteen of his last sixteen matches overall. His tournament average is just 90.77, which is a bit of a worry. He did win all his group matches 5-1 so he didn’t need to get out of first gear to win, but he will need to at some point. Is he too nice to just put the boot in against a struggling opponent?
If Smith was fully fit, we could have had a cracking match, but I expect he will find it tough to play well for any great length of time. Dobey is a match winning machine at the moment and he has a great chance to make the quarter finals, but I would like to see him be aggressive rather than just do the bare minimum to win.
Even Steven
Their H2H record is 7-7 but they have not played since July 2024 and Smith’s form has collapsed since then.
Dobey is the 1.33 favourite, Smith 3.60. So long as Dobey puts the blinkers on, ignores his opponent’s woes and gets on with it, he should be able to wrap this up fairly quickly. Smith was a player whose head could drop too easily when he was fully fit and I feel that if he is not able to compete, that might happen again.
