2026 Slovak Darts Open Betting Preview – JP
2026 Slovak Darts Open Betting Preview
We are back on the Euro Tour this weekend and James Punt is hoping for an upturn in fortune. Check out his 2026 Slovak Darts Open betting preview below.
2026 Slovak Darts Open
After a frustrating weekend at the World Cup of Darts, we are back on the Euro Tour and a brand new event, the 2026 Slovak Darts Open. This will take place at the Incheba in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Not attending are the World Cup winning pair of Littler and Humphries. Gary Anderson was entered but withdrew, as usual. Josh Rock, who has already won a Euro Tour title in 2026, is not playing either. James Wade withdrew before the draw was made. Those that have already won a title can stay away, knowing that they have accrued enough ranking money to make the European Championship later in the season.
Matchplay Qualification
We have the cut off for the World Matchplay on the 8th of July, so this is the last Euro Tour event before that. It is a good opportunity for those players not yet qualified, or only just inside the provisional list of qualifiers, to win some decent qualifying money and cement their place.
That includes the likes of Cameron Menzies, Karel Sedlacek, Kim Huybrechts and Jeffrey de Graaf. They are all feeling an extra bit of pressure to have good run. Miss out here and there are just a couple more Players Championships to try and make up the required ranking money.
2026 Slovak Darts Open: The Seeds
1 Gian van Veen
His game is picking up a bit but he has still lost four of his last ten matches and despite reaching the World Cup final last weekend, his confidence could be higher. Since losing the final of ET1, Van Veen has lost six of his ten Euro Tour matches.
2 Michael van Gerwen
Won the Nordic Masters World Series event two weeks ago and, along with Van Veen, reached the final of the World Cup last weekend. One was an exhibition, the other a pairs event, so a bit weak form guide wise, but his confidence will have received a boost. He has won eight of fourteen matches on the Euro Tour in 2026.
3 Jonny Clayton
Starting to look like he is hitting some good form. He has won eight of his last ten matches and reached the semi-final of PC21 on Tuesday, but is he still lacking the kind of consistency need to go all the way? He lost his semi-final to Ryan Searle and averaged just 87.78 on Tuesday.
Clayton has only played in four Euro Tour events in 2026 but was runner up in Belgium. He is getting close to something like his best form.
4 Gerwyn Price
His decision to skip the World Cup looks increasingly strange. He said he needed more time with his family but went to Copenhagen to play a non-ranking World Series event just before the World Cup, and was back to work in Wigan for PC21 and PC22 earlier this week.
He may well still pull out of this as he has already won the European Darts Grand Prix and doesn’t need to bother with the Euro Tour anymore. He has lost six of his last ten matches and isn’t in great form.
5 Danny Noppert
The usually very consistent Noppert has been losing more matches that we are used to. He usually has decent runs and loses in the quarter/semi-final stages but he has lost five of his last ten matches and on the Euro Tour, hasn’t averaged more than 92 in his last five matches.
6 Stephen Bunting
I had Bunting down as a player to watch out for once the PL had finished. However, after his last PL match, Bunting played five matches and lost four, but he found his scoring boots again on Tuesday, hitting four consecutive ton plus averages to reach the quarter final of PC21, losing that to Ryan Searle.
On Wednesday, Bunting went one better and reached the semi-final, averaging 104, but losing 3-7 to eventual winner, Rob Cross. Is The Bullet about to catch fire like he did this time last year?
7 Chris Dobey
Playing a lot of good darts in Players Championship events and is ranked 2nd in that OOM, but he struggles in Europe. He has made a semi-final and a quarter final in 2026, but has lost his three opening matches.
Overall, Dobey has won seven of his last ten matches. He is playing with a good degree of consistency, but can he take his floor game onto the Euro Tour stage? History suggests not.
8 Ryan Searle
After a quiet spell, Heavy Metal has hit some good form. He was runner up in ET7 a few weeks ago and was runner up in PC21 on Tuesday. I wouldn’t say he is back to his absolute best, but he is winning a lot of matches, eight of his last ten in fact, and is more confident than he has been for a while.
9 Nathan Aspinall
The lesser spotted Asp has been very quiet of late. He won the German Darts Grand Prix in early April, and could afford to skip events, but in the last two months, Aspinall has played just eight matches and won four.
He made his return to the Euro Tour three weeks ago and lost his opening match. Aspinall has only played 42 matches in 2026, so I can only assume he isn’t fully fit.
10 Ross Smith
In very good form and has picked up two titles in the last four weeks. He won the International Darts Open in late May. That was his first Euro Tour title and his second final of the year.
He then went on to win PC20 a couple of weeks ago and was playing some great stuff earlier this week. He has won eight of his last ten matches, two of his last six tournaments, and must be short listed for this.
11 Wessel Nijman
Talking about winning habits, Nijman won PC21 on Tuesday, his sixth Players Championship title in 2026. He has also won a Euro Tour title back in March. He has also reached a semi-final and two other quarter finals.
His seasonal win rate is now 82%, but his stage form isn’t yet quite what it is on the floor. Has won nine of his last ten matches and has to be shortlisted.
12 Jermaine Wattimena
Struggling for consistency and has lost six of his last ten matches, hitting six sub 91 averages.
13 Martin Schindler
Still struggling for form and hitting a lot of sub-90 averages. He has failed to get past the 3rd round in eleven of his last thirteen Euro Tour events. Schindler has lost five of his last ten matches overall.
14 Mike de Decker
His 2026 win rate is just 40% and there is a complete lack of consistency in his game. He has played nine Euro Tour matches in 2026 and lost eight. Ironically, that was the only first round match he had to play this year on the Euro Tour. De Decker has lost six of his last ten matches overall, which is actually something of an uptick in form.
15 Luke Woodhouse
Got his first PDC title by winning PC18 in mid-May. He followed that up by winning the Baltic Sea Darts Open two weeks later. Three days later Woodhouse reached the semi-final of PC19. He wasn’t running quite as hot in this week’s Players Championships, but it is fair to say that he has been in great form.
16 Damon Heta
Gets a leg up into the seeded bracket, and a crack at Gian van Veen should he win his first-round match, a player against whom he is 5-4. Heta’s recent form continues to be erratic and he has lost five of his last ten matches.
2026 Slovak Darts Open: Best of the Rest
Jeffrey de Graaf
Won PC19 three weeks ago, his second PDC title, but his record on the Euro Tour is very poor. He has played in nineteen events, never got beyond the third round and lost fourteen first round matches. Most recently De Graaf has won six of his last ten matches, but he is playing with a good deal of consistency and if he gets a decent draw, he could improve his poor Euro Tour record.
Kevin Doets
Runner up in ET 6 last month and was a semi-finalist in ET4. Most recently he was a quarter finalist ET8. Doets is 100% in his first-round matches, but he isn’t in the same kind of form he was a few weeks ago, losing five of his last ten matches.
Dirk van Duijvenbode
Playing a lot of good darts, but he remains mentally suspect. He can just implode at any time and is a very frustrated player. Dirk has never won on the Euro Tour but has lost three finals.
In 2026 he has lost half of his first-round matches and only got past round three once, losing in the quarter final. He has won seven of his last ten matches but continues to be inconsistent. Could he play his best for six matches in a row? Doubtful.
Ryan Joyce
Runner up last time out in Europe, losing the Baltic Sea Darts Open 4-8 to Luke Woodhouse. Since then, he has played eight matches and lost four, including hitting two sub 80 averages. One was on Tuesday, a 73.39 average in in 2-6 loss the Beau Greaves.
He also hit a couple of ton plus averages, so where his game is, is anyone’s guess. Joyce has had some good runs on the Euro Tour this year and sits 12th in the European Championship OOM.
Rob Cross
Has been on my watchlist for a while now. When I do back him, he generally struggles, but he won PC22 on Wednesday, unbacked of course. He has been battling to get a place in the World Matchplay, and that £15k in prizemoney has secured his name in the line-up.
He is now a provisional qualifier in all the Majors but is just £4k inside the cut off for the European Championship. He has had to qualify for these events and only played in five events, but he has reached two semi-finals in the last three Euro Tour events.
Cross has been under pressure for a few weeks now, chasing that Matchplay place, but his experience of winning big tournaments under pressure helped him cope, and cope far better than the likes of Sedlacek. Picking up his first ranking title for a year and a half is bound to get his tail up and he is on the shortlist.
2026 Slovak Darts Open: The Draw
We have had eight Euro Tour events in 2026 so far, and eight different winners. Gerwyn Price and Ross Smith have reached two finals. One unseeded player has won a title, Wessel Nijman, and two have reached a final, Kevin Doets and Ryan Joyce. With the trend of more of the top players skipping the Euro Tour, the tournaments are more open.
For this weekend there are seven players on the shortlist. Clayton, Bunting, Searle, Smith, Nijman, Woodhouse and Cross. Who got best draw to make the final cut?
First Quarter
From the shortlist we have Rob Cross facing a local qualifier in round 1, and then Van Veen in round 2. He is 4-4 with Van Veen and on recent form, he may well go off favourite for that one.
Also on the shortlist is Ryan Searle. He is straight in to round 2 to face the winner of the Keane Barry vs. Kim Huybrechts match. The other seeds are Heta and Aspinall and this looks like a quarter that is winnable for Cross or Searle. Cross is 10-5 vs. Searle and he gets the pick.
Second Quarter
No shortlisted players here. The four seeds are Price, Schindler, Noppert and Wattimena, none of whom are in good form. Of the unseeded players, nobody stands out as being in-form.
Dirk van Duijvenbode is probably playing the best darts, but I can’t see him not throwing in a duff performance at some point. He plays Madars Razma in round one and the Latvian is 8-4 vs. Dirk, and 2-1 in 2026.
Maybe Gerwyn Price has lucked into a very winnable quarter? The Welshman is the 6.50 favourite to win the title, but while he has got a decent draw, he has lost six of his last ten matches. He has only played five matches in the last three weeks, losing three. There is nothing wrong with his scoring, but there is something not right.
Third Quarter
Two of the shortlisted players are in the third quarter, Luke Woodhouse and Ross Smith. Both are seeded into the 2nd round and Woodhouse is likely to face Andrew Gilding, who has been playing some good stuff lately. Woodhouse has won their last three, including two in 2026.
Smudger is likely to face Joe Cullen. He is 9-9 vs. the GOAT but won their only match in 2026, 6-3, on the Euro Tour last month. Smith is 8-5 vs. Woodhouse. The other seeds are Dobey and MVG. Tough players to beat, but Dobey is not great in Europe. MVG is an obvious threat but Smith has won five of their last seven H2H’s and he gets the nod.
4th Quarter
The quarter of death. The seeds include three shortlisted players. Clayton, Nijman and Bunting.
Nijman and Bunting are scheduled to meet in round three and their H2H record is 4-4. Clayton should be facing Ryan Joyce in round two and he is 4-2 with him and in better form. Clayton would then play one of O’Connor, De Graaf or De Decker, and Clayton has good H2H record against all three. Clayton also has winning H2H record with Bunting and Nijman.
It is a very hard quarter to choose a potential winner from, and the odds will decide it. Nijman is the 8.00 tournament second favourite, Clayton 13.00 and Bunting 17.00. All three have good claims, but Bunting was the more impressive earlier this week, even if Nijman did win a title.
