2026 European Darts Open Betting Preview – JP
2026 European Darts Open Betting Preview
Check out James Punt’s 2026 European Darts Open outright betting preview below. His R1 tips will be posted shortly too.
2026 European Darts Open
The 10th European Tour event of the season is the European Darts Open, taking place at the Ostermann-Arena in Leverkusen, Germany.
This will be the thirteenth European Darts Open and the defending champion is Nathan Aspinall, who beat Damon Heta in last year’s final. There have been five different champions. In addition to Aspinall it has been won by Dave Chisnall, Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen (x5), Peter Wright (x2), Robert Thornton and Raymond van Barneveld.
Mix Of Winners
Of this season’s Euro Tour events, we have had eight different winners, with Wessel Nijman becoming the first player to win two titles this season when he beat Rob Cross in the final of the Slovak Darts Open. The last four Euro Tour events have seen three non-seeded players reaching the final.
The top sixteen ranked players are seeded and enter at the second-round stage. Absent this weekend are the two Lukes (both have already won an ET title and are safely through to the European Championship). Josh Rock is also not playing.
In the early entry list we had the likes of Gary Anderson and Gerwyn Price, who are regular no shows, and they didn’t disappoint, withdrawing before the draw was made. Price has already won a title, while Anderson just can’t be arsed. Nathan Aspinall has no need to play having already won a title, but he will be playing this weekend, and he needs the practice. More surprisingly, Ryan Searle has withdrawn.
Promoted to seeded status are Luke Woodhouse, Damon Heta and Krzysztof Ratajski. From the reserve list, in come Max Hopp, Dominic Grullich and Robert Owen.
2026 European Darts Open: The Seeds
1 Gian van Veen
He has struggled on the Euro Tour since making the final of ET1. Since that final, Van Veen has played eleven ET matches and won just four. His overall form has been off since he had to have surgery on his gallbladder.
His most recent form has been inconsistent and he is not yet back in top form. Van Veen reached the semi-final of PC24 on Wednesday, and he has won seven of his last ten matches, but six of those ten saw sub 92 averages and he needs to be better, more often.
2 Michael van Gerwen
Like Van Veen, MVG is lacking any great consistency. He won another World Series event a month ago, but in proper tournaments, he won a Players Championship in May but that didn’t kick start his season. His best run on the Euro Tour was making the semi-final of the Belgian Darts Open back in March. He may have won this title five times (the last in 2022), but he isn’t the player was.
3 Jonny Clayton
Has only played in five Euro Tour events in 2026 and made the final of the Belgian Darts Open in March. He skipped this week’s Players Championships and has last four of his last ten matches. He is playing some decent darts, but half of his last ten saw averages of 92 or under.
4 James Wade
Is having a few decent runs, but his best result in Europe was a quarter final in May, not great for a seeded player who has played seven events. He has become player who wins a couple of matches and moves on, rarely threatening to win a title.
Wade has lost five of his last ten matches but hit four tons and a 99 in his last six matches, so there are hints that his game is coming to the boil. However, his Euro Tour record is poor, with his last final back in 2018. He has also had four sub 91 averages in his last ten matches.
5 Danny Noppert
Had a good run on the Euro Tour in late March to April, reached two quarter finals and semi-final, but since then he has played in four events and won just two matches. He has been out of form since the middle of May and is very hard to fancy. Noppert did reach the quarter final of PC24 on Tuesday but lost that 0-6 to Luke Woodhouse.
6 Stephen Bunting
Playing a lot of good darts but it just isn’t happening for him. On the Euro Tour he has won just two matches from his last five events. Frustration is a danger, but it could click at any time for him. He maybe just needs a bit of luck.
Bunting has lost five of his last ten matches and I do suspect that he is getting frustrated by a lack of results.
7 Chris Dobey
We all known how good a player Dobey is, but also that he struggles on stage. Dobey has the fifth best 12-month 3 dart average, right up there with the elite players, but his Euro Tour record sees just one final, back in 2019.
He has won two Players Championships in 2026, made another final and a further six quarter finals. On the Euro Tour, he has won just one match from his last four events. Dobey reached the quarter final of PC24 on Tuesday, averaged 100.95, but lost 5-6 to Brendan Dolan.
8 Nathan Aspinall
Hasn’t played a lot of darts in 2026. He is getting married and has been occupied with that and has also been struggling with Dartitis. He has already won a Euro Tour title in 2026 and made two other quarter finals, including last time out in Slovakia. Didn’t play the Players Championships this week and has lost five of his last ten matches.
9 Ross Smith
Runner up in ET5 and then went on to win ET7 and was a semi-finalist in Slovakia last time out. Smudger has also won two Players Championships in 2026. He has won six of his last ten matches and, as he has been winning titles, he has to be considered as a possible winner this weekend. However, is consistency is not great right now.
10 Wessel Nijman
The first player to win two Euro Tour titles in 2026 and he has also won six Players Championships. His seasonal win rate in 2026 is 81% and Wessel is an obvious contender one again. Nijman only won two matches in PC23 and PC24 earlier this week but he has won seven of his last ten matches overall and he remains in great form.
11 Jermaine Wattimena
Ended a very poor run of form on the Euro Tour by reaching the quarter finals in Slovakia. That equalled his best ever Euro Tour finish, which may tell you all you need to know about his chances this weekend. He did make two Players Championship finals in April and May, but his form has dropped off since then. Wattimena has won six of his last ten matches while still not at his best.
12 Martin Schindler
A three time Euro Tour winner but his last was 14 months ago and his form has not been good for some time. He has reached two quarter finals but has had seven 2nd or 3rd round defeats. He has lost six of his last ten matches and it is hard to see a decent run here.
13 Mike de Decker
A seasonal win rate of 44% tells its own story, but a small equipment change at the World Cup of darts saw his performances improve. He reached the quarter final in Slovakia and has won six of his last ten matches. It is hardly earth-shattering form, but it is a step forward.
14 Luke Woodhouse
Won his first title with PC18 in the middle of May and his first Euro Tour title the following weekend. There was another Players Championship semi-final shortly after that, but he has been a bit more inconsistent in his most recent matches.
Woody had a good run on Tuesday reaching the final of PC24 but losing to Gabriel Clemens. He hasn’t been at his best, but because he is a more confident, tournament winning player now, he can win with his B game.
15 Damon Heta
Gets another leg up into seeded status, but his form remains inconsistent, especially on the Euro Tour. He has lost five of his last ten matches overall. On the Euro Tour he has played in all nine events, made two semi-finals but lost seven first or second round matches.
16 Krzysztof Ratajski
Another player who has dropped his form lately. He has lost five of his last ten matches and is not playing the kind of stuff that saw him reach two Euro Tour semi-finals in the spring. Just like Heta in the other seven events he has gone out early, losing in the first or second round outside of his two semi-finals.
2026 European Darts Open: Best of the Rest
With many of the top players giving the Euro Tour a miss, there are more opportunities for the ‘second string’ players to have good runs. We have had one unseeded player winning a Euro Tour title, Wessel Nijman, and three runners up have made the final. Some of them are in better form than many of the seeds but having to play one match more is still a disadvantage.
Kevin Doets
His first ever Euro Tour match was in this event back in 2022 (lost) and he hasn’t been a Euro Tour regular until this season. He has reached a final, another semi-final and a quarter final.
Hawkeye has played 24 matches and won 19 in Europe this season and he has to be considered as a contender. His recent form sees six wins from his last ten and he is playing well.
Cameron Menzies
The form horse coming into this? Menzies won PC23 on Monday and he has won nine of his last ten matches. He is working hard on all sorts of things, losing weight, being healthy, working on life skills and playing better darts.
From where he was after punching the crap out of a drinks table at Ally Pally, to back to winning a title, he has to be commended. Menzies has reached a semi-final on the Euro Tour this season and was a quarter finalist here last year. Contender.
Rob Cross
Another form horse. Cross won PC22 in mid-June and followed that up by reaching the final of The Slovak Darts Open a few days later, losing 3-8 to Nijman. We were on him each way so at least we got a payout, which is not something that happens very much when I back him.
Since then, he played in this week’s Players Championship events and again, was playing well. He is back to something like his best, and that is a very good standard. Cross has won seven of his last ten matches and is another for the short list.
2026 European Darts Open: The Draw
First Quarter
Gian van Veen, Ratajski, Aspinall and Ross Smith are the four seeded players. Aspinall is the defending champion and, along with Smith, has already won a Euro Tour title in 2026. However, Aspinall has played little darts recently and that is far from ideal. Ross Smith is in decent form, if a little inconsistent, but it looks to be between Smudger and Van Veen. Their H2H record is close and it is a bit of a toss-up.
Or is it? Rob Cross faces Max Hopp in round one, with the winner playing Ratajski. Cross played Hopp on Monday and won that 6-4, but Hopp beat Cross 6-2 in May. I would say Cross in in better form now. Cross is 2-0 vs. Van Veen in 2026, including a 6-3 win in the recent Slovak Open. Cross has to have a decent chance in this quarter, despite a tricky draw.
Second Quarter
Wade, De Decker, Noppert and Schindler are seeded into this quarter and it looks a decent draw for Wade. But can I see him going all the way? Not really.
What of the first round players? We have the in-form Cameron Menzies looking very likely to face Mike De Decker in round two. Should he win that, Menzies should be facing James Wade, and the Scotsman has won seven of their last eight matches.
The other danger man in round one is Kevin Doets. He will play Schindler, should he beat another German, Dominic Grullich in round one. Doets has lost his last three matches 5-6 to Schindler, but the Dutchman is the better player right now.
Third Quarter
The four seeds here are MVG, Heta, Dobey and Nijman. The obvious choice is Nijman. He is a title winning machine and, importantly, he got his first ever win over MVG in ET5 back in April. It is important for the young Dutch players to realise that MVG is not some sort of god.
Of the unseeded players here we have Cullen, Gilding and Dirk van Duijvenbode. All decent players but none look like having a deep run.
Fourth Quarter
Clayton, Woodhouse, Bunting and Wattimena are all seeded into round two. That is a strong group. Woodhouse is the form horse, having picked up two PDC titles in May and having reached a semi-final and a final since then, including the final of PC24 earlier this week.
The unseeded Ryan Joyce, runner up in ET8, should face Bunting in round two, a tricky match for both, but the other unseeded players are unlikely to make much impression.
Kim Huybrechts might disagree, and he has won seven of his last ten matches, but he has not got past the third round in six attempts on the Euro Tour this season. Huybrechts is 2-0 over Wattimena in 2026 and is likely to face him in round two.
2026 European Darts Open Selections
Menzies, Doets, Cross, Nijman, Smith, Wade and Woodhouse made the shortlist, but it has to be narrowed down. One for each quarter of the draw.
