2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Preview – JP
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Preview
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday preview. We got off to a solid start this afternoon with two winners from four bets. James has four more tips for tonight, check them out below.
Martin Lukeman vs. Daryl Gurney
Both players are in reasonable form, winning six of their last ten matches. Superchin will be getting frustrated that he has not yet been able to get beyond the second round on the Euro Tour this season. He has won his last three first round matches and his game looks to be in good shape.
Lukeman has only played in one Euro Tour event in 2024, losing his first round match 4-6 to Luke Woodhouse last weekend.
Their H2H record is 3-0 to Daryl Gurney and he is the 1.73 favourite to make it four.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point Daryl Gurney to win @ 1.73 generally available
Andrew Gilding vs. Dominik Haberl
Andrew Gilding has lost all four of his first round matches in 2024. Drawing a local qualifier gives him a great chance to change that. His overall form is not great, losing five of his last ten and having six sub 92.5 averages.
Haberl averaged 82.46 across his four qualifying matches, and that is the extent of my knowledge of him.
The local qualifiers have had mixed fortunes in previous Austrian Darts Open. In 2022, two lost 0-6, one lost 5-6 and one won 6-4, beating Ian White 6-4, despite a 79.7 average. In 2019, all four lost and manged just seven legs between them. In 2018 there were five local qualifiers, two lost 0-6, two lost 1-6 and one 3-6. Clearly, there is not a lot of quality at local qualifier level.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point Gilding to win -3.5 legs @ 2.00 with Boylesports
Jose de Sousa vs. Gian van Veen
De Sousa has played five and won one on the Euro Tour in 2024. His overall form is poor, just three wins from his last ten matches.
Van Veen is the 1.62 favourite and as we are already on him outright, I do not feel inclined to back him at short odds here. De Sousa is still capable of hitting big numbers and he is no pushover. No bet.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Graham Hall vs. Chris Dobey
Dobey is the very hot 1.25 favourite to win this. He has won seven of his last ten matches and is in very good form.
Graham Hall is not a familiar face. He pops up on TV from time to time but he is a journeyman pro. He won a tour card in 2023 and has played in three Euro Tour events since then, winning one match. He played Chris Dobey in another, losing 4-6. That was their only previous meeting.
It is hard to find any value in this match. No bet.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Martin Schindler vs. James Wade
Schindler’s Euro Tour form is good enough to have backed him outright. He won ET3 a couple of weeks ago and did little wrong last week, averaging 108 vs. Van Veen in the first round and 106 in a 5-6 defeat to Rob Cross in the second.
James Wade, on the other hand, has only won two of his six Euro Tour matches in 2024. He has lost six of his last ten matches and his win rate in 2024 is just 39%.
Their H2H record is 3-1 to Wade. They last met in 2022 and in that time Wade’s form has dropped off, while Schindler is currently on a real high.
We are on Schindler outright and this is not a straightforward first round match, but the German should have too much firepower for the out of sorts Wade.
Schindler is the 1.57 favourite, Wade 2.60. Those odds look about right. No bet.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Raymond van Barneveld vs. Mike de Decker
An interesting first round matchup. Barney has felt hard done by in his first round draws in Europe. He has lost to James Wade and Gian van Veen twice, but he got a win against a local qualifier in Germany last weekend. Overall, Barney has lost six of his last ten matches.
Mike de Decker is a hugely frustrating player. Very talented but he hasn’t done a lot with that talent. He has lost five of his last ten matches
Neither player is in great form and their H2H record is 2-2. De Decker is the marginal 1.83 favourite, Van Barneveld 2.00. It is a coin toss of a match and I’ll sit it out.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Dimitri van den Bergh vs. Gabriel Clemens
Van den Bergh is in poor form, losing seven of his last ten matches. One of his three wins came against Gabriel Clemens, a 6-5 win in the first round of ET2. He is losing a lot of matches, but he did win the UK Open last month. He is still hitting a lot of low to mid 90 averages, so his form is poor, but not dire.
Clemens has won six of his last ten matches but had four sub 90 averages. He reached the quarter-finals last weekend and has won six of his ten Euro Tour matches in 2024, which by his standards in Europe is quite good.
Van den Bergh is actually the more consistent player, despite a lot of defeats. Their H2H record is 5-2 to Van den Bergh and in 2024 1-1.
Van den Bergh is the 1.80 favourite, Clemens 2.10. Again, hard to argue with. Their last four best of eleven leg matches have gone over 9.5 legs and another close one seems likely enough.
2024 Austrian Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 2.00 with Skybet
Luke Littler vs. Zoran Lerchbacher
It is nearly a case of no offers on Littler. He is a best priced 1.07. The bookies are suggesting that Zoran may as well stay at home, and he can be backed at 11.00.
The Austrian qualifier has been around the block a few times. He reached a Players Championship final back in 2017 and made the last 32 in the World Championship in 2018. However, he doesn’t play competitive darts anymore. He came through the qualifiers winning four matches but three saw sub 80 averages. He is going to get steamrolled.
