2026 European Darts GP Betting Preview – JP
2026 European Darts GP Betting Preview
James Punt was a shade unlucky not to get more winners at the PL last night. Check out his 2026 European Darts GP outright betting preview and tips below.
2026 European Darts GP
This will be the 12th European Darts Grand Prix and will played once again at the Glaspalast in Sindelfingen, Germany.
Gary Anderson is the double defending champion having won this in 2024 and 2025. MVG is the only other player to have won it twice and we have had nine different winners here. All the winners have been from the top 16 ranked players, as have nine of the runners up.
As we are in Germany there is no Luke Littler. Luke Humphries is another who has dropped out, but the other six PL players are entered, as is Gary Anderson. You would expect him to turn up to try and make it a three timer, but you just never know until Friday morning. And now, as of Friday morning, we have had only one withdrawal. Ryan Joyce, unseeded, is out and is replaced by Ian White, a former semi-finalist back in 2022.
We have had four different winners from the first four Euro Tour events in 2026, and four different runners up. Can anyone double up?
The Seeds
1 Gian van Veen
Had ‘Home’ advantage on Thursday night at the PL and doesn’t have too far to travel between the PL and the Euro Tour venues. It is just an hour’s flight from Amsterdam to Stuttgart, and then a 15km hop to Sindelfingen.
Van Veen has only played in two previous European Darts Grand Prix and won just one match. His recent form is not good, winning just three from his last ten and losing his last four. Perhaps his gallstone surgery took more out of him than expected.
2 Michael van Gerwen
Another player who had home advantage on Thursday night, and like Van Veen, he is not in the best of form. MVG’s tournament record sees two titles and two runners up spots, but his last final here was in 2020. Everything is a bit of a struggle for him. Like Van Veen, MVG didn’t play in this week’s Players Championship events and his recent form sees six defeats from his last ten matches
3 Jonny Clayton
The Ferret did play in Monday’s and Tuesday’s Players Championships, winning three of his five matches. It was a mixed bag of performances, losing to Beau Greaves and Brendan Dolan, both with sub 90 averages. He is a bit inconsistent, but has to be respected.
He has never gone well here however, failing to get past the third round in his eight previous visits. Clayton will have been given a boost by winning Night 11 of the Premier League on Thursday night and he has won eight of his last ten matches.
That sounds a bit better than it actually is. He has hit three sub 90 averages in those last ten and maybe some of his opponents have let him off the hook.
4 James Wade
Has yet to win a Euro Tour match in 2026. He was runner up here in 2018 and has made another semi-final and two more quarter finals, including last year. His recent form sees five wins from his last ten matches and there is a lack of consistency, enough to suggests he is not a contender for the title.
5 Josh Rock
His seasonal win rate of 47% suggests that he is some way off winning any sort of title. He has started winning matches in the PL but he is far from his best. He played in the Players Championships earlier this weekend and had a run to the fourth round on Tuesday, but he didn’t beat much. Hard to fancy.
6 Gerwyn Price
Making a rare Euro Tour appearance, but as he was already in the Netherlands, I suppose it makes sense. He went down to Luke Littler last night, again. He played really poorly, as he tends to do against Littler.
Price has won six of his last ten matches, losing two to Littler, so he will be glad that that his nemesis is not here. If he plays his best stuff, he can win this, but last night’s display was not encouraging.
7 Stephen Bunting
Reached the semi-final here in 2014 but since then only a handful of messages. Bunting has lost his last two Euro Tour second round matches. He played earlier this week and won a couple of matches against weak opposition and he doesn’t look anywhere near his best form. He may have averaged 104 last night, but lost 1-6 against Josh Rock, his sixth loss from his last ten matches.
8. Danny Noppert
Runner up in the German Darts Grand Prix two weeks ago. That was his fourth losing Euro Tour final and he remains without a title. Still, it was better than losing in the quarter or semi-finals. He was a semi-finalist here in 2018 and a quarter finalist in 2022, but not a lot else.
Noppert played earlier this week, losing in both first rounds, but he did hit a ton average on Monday. Will the run to the final in Munich inspire him, or frustrate him? Whatever it does, Noppert is rarely a value bet.
9 Gary Anderson
I am loathe to do a write up for Anderson, as he very rarely turns up, but having won this for the last two years, you might think he would have this one firmly in the diary. He has prepared for it by playing ten matches in the last month.
The Flying Scotsman hasn’t played for the last eighteen days. He didn’t bother playing in this week’s Players Championships, but he did make the semi-final of PC7, nineteen days ago. What kind of form he is in is anybody’s guess, but before his little break, he had won seven of his last ten matches.
10 Ryan Searle
Beat Anderson in the semi-final of PC7 last month and went on to win the title. He then travelled to Munich and lost his opening match to Ratajski, averaging 89.46. On his floor form, he is worth following, but on his Euro Tour form? In his last nineteen events he has made just two quarter finals. Searle has never made it past the third round here. He is not a good traveller.
11 Chris Dobey
What can you do with Dobey? He won his tenth Players Championship title on Monday and made the quarter final on Tuesday, but he wasn’t so sharp in PC10. Dobey withdrew from the German Darts Grand Prix as he is getting fed up with the rigours of post Brexit travel in Europe. He has reached a quarter final and a semi-final on the Euro Tour this season, and he really should be trying to strike while the iron is hot.
Some of the big name PL players are not on their A-game right now, and we have seen four different winners and runners up from the first four events, so these titles do seem up for grabs for an in-form player. But backing Dobey outright on the Euro Tour has been like throwing cash down the drain.
Dobey has won eleven of his last twelve matches, and has a season win rate of 77%, so he ticks a lot of boxes, but does he believe that he can win it? His record here is very poor, having never made it past the second round, so maybe not.
12 Ross Smith
Has lost six of his last ten matches and he is a very frustrated player. He can play great stuff and lose, like a 103 average on Monday, but a 4-6 loss to Tom Sykes. Smudger has lost at the third-round stage in all four Euro Tour events in 2026 and hasn’t got past that stage in his last twelve Euro Tour events. He did reach the final of this in 2024 and the semi-final in 2023, but he is hard to fancy given his recent form.
13 Nathan Aspinall
Won the German Darts Grand Prix two weeks ago, his fourth Euro Tour title from his last fourteen played. It was hard to see it coming. The Asp had lost six of his last ten matches going into ET4, but he comes here having won seven of his last ten.
Aspinall didn’t play in the Players Championships earlier this week, but he will fancy his chances this weekend and has reached three quarter finals here from five visits. Could he be the first two-time winner on the 2026 Euro Tour?
14 Martin Schindler
A three-time Euro Tour winner, but since his last title win last April, Schindler has made it past the third round just once. He has reached two quarter finals here in 2023 and 2022, but his recent form sees six defeats from his last ten matches and a seasonal win rate of just 39%.
15 Jermaine Wattimena
Has never got beyond the quarter final stage of any Euro Tour event, and never beyond the third round here. His recent form sees six defeats from his last ten matches and there is no consistency in his game.
16 Mike de Decker
Has been talking about problems on and off the oche which have ruined his game, but that he is working hard to put them right. On the oche, his problem has been changing equipment and he says that he finally settled on a set of darts with which he is happy with. Sadly, his results remain poor. His seasonal win rate is just 38% and most recently he has lost eight of his last ten matches.
Best of the Rest
Wessel Nijman
The only unseeded player to win a Euro Tour title in 2026 so far, Nijman picked up his third Players Championship title on Tuesday. He went out in the second round on Monday. Guess which day I backed him?
Nijman has also won the European Darts Trophy on the Euro Tour in 2026 but has lost both his first round matches since. He hit three averages of 109.98, 109.71 and 108.46 on Tuesday and has won eight of his last ten matches.
Losing his last two first round matches on the Euro Tour is a concern, but he has won a title, and he is very hard to ignore. Another strong candidate to be the first double winner on the Euro Tour in 2026. If he can win this title, it would move him into the top 16 in the world rankings, of which he is very aware.
Niels Zonneveld
Now 5th in the European Championship rankings thanks to making two semi-finals and a quarter final from his four starts in 2026. Zonneveld has played in this event four times, making it his most played Euro Tour event. He has only won two matches, but at least he knows where the toilets are.
Zonneveld has won seven of his last ten matches and was playing more good stuff in the Players Championships earlier this week. We have to expect another decent run.
Krzysztof Ratajski
Reached the semi-finals in Munich two weeks ago, and The Polish Eagle is playing well. He has won seven of his last ten matches and rarely puts in a duff performance. If you beat Ratajski, you will have played well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another good run.
Andrew Gilding
Captain Weird is a player to follow when he is in good form, and he has been getting some good results recently. Earlier this week he reached the semi-final of PC9, the quarter final of ET4 two weeks ago and the final of PC6 at the end of February.
He doesn’t blow people away and his scoring hasn’t been great on the whole, but he averaged 97.99 in a 6-4 win over Luke Humphries on Monday, as well as two more big averages when beating Van den Bergh and Beau Greaves. He probably has too many weak matches to think he can go all the way.
Karel Sedlacek
Evil Charlie reached the semi-final of PC10 on Tuesday and won seven of his nine matches across the two days. He played some very good stuff and he is often a good value bet in the early stages of these events.
He is on the provisional qualifier list for the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix, and he needs to take advantage of these opportunities on the Euro Tour. It would be no surprise to see him winning a few matches.
Kevin Doets
Won seven of his nine matches in the Players Championships earlier in the week and is in good form. Doets reached the semi-final in Munich two weeks ago and his confidence is building. That was his best Euro Tour result ever, but he needs to win something soon.
On the floor he lost a final back in 2023, has lost three semi-finals and thirteen quarter finals. He doesn’t want to be another Danny Noppert and play great but gets a mental block at the business end of events.
Kim Huybrechts
Yes, Kim Huybrechts is on the radar. He has been working with a coach to improve his game and it is paying dividends. His 2026-win rate is 72%, he has won seven of his last ten matches and hit five ton plus averages. That is good form and his confidence is high.
Huybrechts won this title in 2015 and was a semi-finalist the next year. It may be fanciful to think he can go that deep again, but he reached a Euro Tour final late in 2024, and that was the only one he had qualified for that year, so he can do surprises.
The 2026 European Darts GP Draw
First Quarter
Van Veen and De Decker make no appeal, but the other two seeds, Anderson and Noppert have claims. Noppert has many good runs but just doesn’t win things and is passed over.
Anderson comes here, well rested, but may be rusty. He is going for the hattrick of wins and fits the bill for a horses for courses bet. Of the unseeded players coming in at the first-round stage, Ratajski is the one that could have a good run.
Second Quarter
Of the seeded players in this quarter, Nathan Aspinall stands out and he is going for back-to-back titles in 2026. Wade isn’t in great form and doesn’t win Euro Tour titles anymore. Josh Rock got his quarter final win last night but lost another semi-final in the PL. Ross Smith can’t make it past the third round these days.
Of the unseeded players Kim Huybrechts is a real dark horse. Niels Zonneveld is in great form and easy to fancy. A tough group.
Third Quarter
The seeds in this quarter, MVG, Searle, Bunting and Wattimena make little appeal. The form player, Wessel Nijman looks the best bet to come through this quarter, if he can win his first round match this time, and he faces Ian White, so he should.
Kevin Doets is another form horse in the first round and if they should meet in the quarter final, Nijman would be a strong favourite, and he gets the nod.
Fourth Quarter
Jonny Clayton is likely to face Karel Sedlacek in his opening match, which could be tricky, but he is in good, if not totally convincing form. Schindler can be dismissed.
Gerwyn Price is an obvious contender and Chris Dobey is an obvious form choice but is a serial loser on the Euro Tour. Clayton has that tricky match with Sedlacek and could very well meet Price in the quarter final and Price has the whip hand in that match up.
2026 European Darts GP Selections
The long history of this event, in this venue has produced a full house of seeded wins and runners up. Many of the top seeds come here not in great form, while there are some very hot unseeded players.
The unseeded players have to play one more match than the seeds and that is a disadvantage, but they can win. I am going to have a mix of seeds and non-seeds, sticking to players in form.
