2025 International Darts Open Preview

It is a packed schedule for James Punt this weekend so he is posting his Euro Tour outright preview earlier than usual. Check out his 2025 International Darts Open preview and tips below.

2025 International Darts Open

The International Darts Open is the third of the fourteen European Tour events in 2025. It will take place in the SACHSEN Arena in Riesa, Germany from 4–6 April. This is in the old East Germany and a couple of hours by train from Berlin, where the Premier League players will have been playing on Thursday night. So, it is a relatively easy journey for them this week.

That has not been enough to tempt Luke Littler to play. There is no Gary Anderson this weekend either.

Due to time constraints in a busy weekend, this has been written before Thursday night’s Premier League Matches.

The Seeds

Luke Humphries 

The number 1 seed once again this weekend. His form sees five wins from his last ten matches before the PL matches on Thursday. He didn’t play earlier in the week as he had been complaining of feeling tried.

Michael Van Gerwen 

This a Euro Tour title that MVG has never won. He is a two time runner up, but he has had to withdraw twice and elected not to come on another three occasions. MVG has lost five of his last ten matches (before the PL on Thursday) and is not in top form. He is the 7.50 second favourite, which is a bit short.

Rob Cross 

Runner up back in 2019 but otherwise a poor record in the event. He has lost five of his last ten matches (before Thursday’s PL) and was pretty poor earlier this week.

Stephen Bunting 

A semi-finalist last year and he would welcome a run like that again this year. He made the quarter final of the Belgian Darts Open but declined to play in ET2. His form away from the PL is better. Bunting made the quarter final at PC10 on Tuesday and played some good stuff to get there. If he can bring that form to the Euro Tour stage, he could go well, but he has a PL night to endure first, and odds of 17.00 are not great.

Jonny Clayton 

Struggling for consistency, losing six of his last ten matches. A 2022 semi-finalist and a quarter finalist in 2023. He may struggle to match those efforts.

Dave Chisnall 

Has never really done much in this event and his current form sees just five wins from his last ten, which reflects his level of consistency.

Gerwyn Price 

At last a player who has a good tournament record, nay an excellent tournament record. Price won this in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and was runner up last year. I dare say this event is one of the first to go in his diary every year. If you like your horses for courses bets, Price is your man. That he won PC9 on Monday makes him an even more attractive proposition.

Damon Heta 

Played some nice stuff earlier in the week but failed to make any great impression. That is the story of his career really. He is a great bet to make quarter finals but he has failed to do so in the first two events. Has won six of his last ten matches.

Chris Dobey 

Reached the semi-final last year but lost both his Euro Tour matches so far in 2025.

Nathan Aspinall 

Finally won a Euro Tour title in Germany a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t see that coming as his form has been very hit or miss. He has been a quarter and semi-finalist here before. He wasn’t great at this week’s Players Championship events and maybe going back to back on the Euro Tour is asking a bit much.

Peter Wright 

Runner up in 2022 and semi-finalist in 2019, but he is not the same player any more. Wright has won five of his last ten matches and has played some good stuff, but just not with any great consistency. Has lost both his Euro Tour matches in 2025.

Danny Noppert 

A steady performer in this event with form figures of SF/2/QF/QF/3/QF, but a Euro Tour win still looks some way off. He has lost five of his last ten matches and is not playing with any great consistency.

James Wade 

A two time quarter finalist and he is in OK form, winning six of his last ten. Just looks too grumpy to win.

Dimitri van den Bergh 

A 40% win rate in 2025. Has lost eight of his last ten matches and both Euro Tour matches in 2025. Very hard to fancy.

Josh Rock 

Winner of PC10 on Tuesday. He averaged 98.53 across his seven matches. He was a quarter finalist on Monday, so he will be feeling confident coming here. He has lost both his Euro Tour matches in 2025, but didn’t play badly in either. Rock has not got beyond the third round here in his previous two visits, but you have to pay attention to the form players.

Ross Smith 

A two time quarter finalist in this tournament and he has started his 2025 Euro Tour campaign well with a semi-final in Belgium and a quarter final in Germany a couple of weeks ago. He is very keen to win one of these titles and was a two time finalist last year. Smith reached the quarter finals on Monday but lost in a deciding leg to Scott Williams in Tuesday’s first round. One to watch.

2025 International Darts Open – Best of the Rest

Martin Schindler 

The crowd favourite. Was a quarter finalist on Tuesday, hit a 108 average when beating Gary Anderson 6-5 in the fourth round, his fourth ton plus average of the day. Schindy has won seven of his last ten matches and he is the defending champion. That win was his first senior PDC title and he was a semi-finalist in 2023. The diminutive German won his first Players Championship title last month and he has to be on the short list, no pun intended.

Gian van Veen 

Runner up in PC5 and winner of PC6 last month. He is in good form and will win one of these sooner or later.

Mike de Decker 

Runner up in ET1, a semi-finalist in PC5 and PC7, De Decker has won six of his last ten matches and another deep run is possible.

Cameron Menzies 

Runner up in PC10 on Tuesday and a semi-finalist on Monday. If he could hit a few more doubles, he would have picked up another title. He was a quarter finalist in ET2 and while he does make extremely hard work of winning matches, you can’t knock his form.

Krzysztof Ratajski 

Has lost five of his last ten and his last four in a row, but the Polish Eagle is playing some great stuff and he is due a break. He lost 5-6 to Anderson on Monday but averaged 103.95, which sort of sums his recent form up.

William O’Connor 

The Magpie has a career high win rate of 68% in 2025. He has won six of his last ten matches, but he might have come off the boil a little.

Niko Springer 

Still learning the ropes at the top level but Springer is putting in some good performances. He may not have a deep run, but nobody will fancy playing him.

The 2025 International Darts Open Draw

First Quarter 

Luke Humphries will be the favourite to make the semi-final, but he has failed to do so in the first two Euro Tour events of the season. He will face the winner of the Dirk van Duijvenbode vs. Nico Springer first round match, and that means he will have a tough opener.

Ross Smith is likely to face Ratajski in his opening match, and that is a tough test for Smudger. Smith is due to meet Humphries in the third round if all goes to form, and Humphries has won their last six matches.

I would fancy Heta to make the third round where he is scheduled to meet Chris Dobey. Wessel Nijman may well face Dobey in that second round match, but the young Dutchman has been far from consistent recently and nowhere near his best. Dobey would not relish meeting Heta as their H2H record is 7-0 to the Aussie.

If Humphries can win what will be a hard first round match, he has a very good H2H record against his likely opponents. He looks the most likely to make the semi-final but is priced accordingly at 5.00. His form has not been great lately and while I can see him going all the way, odds of 5.00 are a bit short.

Second Quarter 

Bunting, Wade, Noppert and Clayton are the four seeds in the quarter, and all are hard to fancy form-wise. There is a chance for a first round entrant to make progress here.

Ryan Searle became a bit of a Euro Tour specialist in 2024, but he has lost three of his last four matches and went home after losing 5-6 to Lukas Wenig in the first round of PC9 on Monday. He only averages 90.83, so he may not have been feeling well. If he is back up to speed, he could be a handful for Bunting in round two.

The bang in-form Cameron Menzies faces a local qualifier in round 1 and would play Wade should he win. He has beaten Wade in five of their last seven matches.

Menzies is the form player in the quarter but Ryan Searle has comfortably beaten Menzies in their previous two meetings. Heavy Metal looks the more capable of taking his chances, but his form has a question mark over it. Can Menzies be trusted to keep it all together and go deep?

Third Quarter 

The group of death. The seeds are MVG, Rock, Price and Aspinall. All of those have claims for a semi-final place. MVG is not at his best but he can never be dismissed. Josh Rock is in great form and comes here on the back of a win on Tuesday. Gerwyn Price is the tournament specialist and impossible to ignore. Nathan Aspinall was the winner of ET2, but winning back-to-back titles is rare.

Of the unseeded players entering at the first round stage we have Gian Van Veen, who should face Rock, and Van Veen is 7-1 against the Northern Irishman. Mike de Decker is likely to face Gerwyn Price, but Price is 5-2 vs. the Belgian.

Looking at the various H2H records, a Price vs. MVG quarter final would be no surprise. It is MVG who has been getting the better of Price in recent meetings, but this is Price’s winning most venue. I’ll take Price to win the hardest quarter of the draw.

Fourth Quarter 

The four seeds here are all opposable. Rob Cross can be anything, Van den Bergh and Chisnall are out of form, as is Peter Wright. The first round entrants could have a chance to have a deep run. They include the defending champion Martin Schindler, who should face Rob Cross in round two. Cross is 9-3 vs. Schindler, but on the Euro Tour, 1-1.

Michael Smith has picked up a nice draw. He faces Tricole in the first round and then the very out of form Van den Bergh. That may give him a shot at Schindler, and Bully boy is 11-1 with Schindler, but it was the German who picked up his first win against Smith on the Euro Tour last year.

Ritchie Edhouse saves his best for the Euro Tour and he should make the second round to face Wright, but he is 1-4 against Snakebite and 0-3 on the Euro Tour.

This is a wide open quarter, but the Cross vs, Schindler match might be the key to finding the winning quarter finalist. Michael Smith has got a favourable draw, but is his form good enough? A seasonal win rate of 41% suggests not, but he did reach the semi-final of PC10 on Tuesday. Interesting.

2025 International Darts Open Selections

With Littler away, the mice can play!

I am pulling the trigger early this week. It is a busy one and it helps to free up some time for looking at the match bets on Friday. Littler and Anderson have already pulled out, and hopefully that will be all the withdrawals done. The PL players do not have far to travel to get here as they are already in Germany. Fingers crossed that the current draw is indeed the final draw.

Menzies and Searle make the most appeal to come through the second quarter, and I’ll have a minimum bet on the Scotsman who is in good form.

Gerwyn Price has an irresistible tournament record and is playing well.

Martin Schindler was a two time winner on the Euro Tour last year, of which the first was here in this tournament. He has been playing some good darts and while his path is strewn with big hurdles, he knows he can win it.

1 pt Gerwyn Price to win the 2025 International Darts Open @ 8.00 with Betfred

0.5 pt e/w Cameron Menzies to win the 2025 International Darts Open @ 51.00 with Ladbrokes, Betfred, Betfair

0.25 pts e/w Martin Schindler to win the 2025 International Darts Open @ 51.00 generally available

-JamesPunt