Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips by James Punt

The last tournament previewed by James Punt was the International Darts Open. Gerwyn Price delivered the goods for our doyen of darts, comfortably beating Cross in the final. Advised at 11.00, it was a lovely winner for us. James is hoping to do even more damage this weekend. Check out his Gibraltar Darts Trophy tips and preview below…

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips and Preview

The Gibraltar Darts Trophy is the thirteenth and final Euro Tour event of 2019.It has been a great series with eight different tournament winners. Michael Van Gerwen has won four titles, but he hasn’t picked up a title since the fifth event. In the second half of the season we have become more used to seeing him losing finals as he has been runner up to Ian White, Mensur Suljovic and Joe Cullen. Having won four of the first five events, MVG has failed to add to that tally and his vice like grip on the Euro Tour has been broken.

We have seen a different winner of the last six Euro Tour events and looking at the list of competitors this weekend we might very well see another new winner. There are many the top players coming here in very good form and the shortlist of possible winners is a long one.

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips: Out Of Sorts Van Gerwen Heads The Market

Van Gerwen remains the tournament favourite at odds of 2.75. That reflects how far his stock has fallen. He was odds on to win these events earlier in the year, but he has lost the Midas touch. We are becoming used to seeing him beaten and losing in finals, something that was very rare. On the European tour he had won seventeen consecutive finals, thirty-one titles and lost just five finals before this run of three consecutive final defeats.

Van Gerwen hasn’t played in all the Euro Tour events, but he has failed to win any of the last five he has played in. That is a drought by his high standards. Part of the problem for him is that it isn’t just two or three players that are beating him. It used to be Taylor, Barney or Anderson who where his problem opponents but in the last 12 months he has lost finals to Daryl Gurney, Ian White, Mensur Suljovic and Joe Cullen. Purely on the Euro Tour he has lost matches to Keegan Brown (twice), Peter Wright, White, Suljovic and Cullen.

His general form remains very good but no longer excellent. He has won eight of his last ten matches and in 2019 he has lost just 19 matches form 119 played. That is a win rate of 84% so his dip in form must be put in that context. The rest of the professional dart playing world can only dream of such a strike rate. However, for Michael van Gerwen it is all about winning titles and dominating his opponents.

MVG Has Picked Up A Losing Habit

He has lost to 14 different players so far this year. He has lost three times to Daryl Gurney and twice to Wright, Brown and Durrant. Players are looking at him these days and thinking…..if they can…why not me? His opponents are no longer turning up to play him and thinking they are beaten before a dart is thrown.

Rob Cross is the second favourite but he remains winless on the European Tour. His overall form remains very good but his odds of 8.50 just don’t reflect his overall win rate. Peter Wright is the third favourite at 11.00 but he just hasn’t quiet clicked in Europe this season, reaching one final (lost to White) and three other semi-finals.

He is in good form with seven wins from ten but there are others with equally as good a chance at bigger odds. Michael Smith is the 15.00 joint 4th favourite despite a terrible year on the Euro Tour. He is just 39th on the Euro Tour OOM and he needs to at least win his opening match and probably a 3rd round match if he is to make the European Championship finals. Bully Boy is a past winner of this event but he is under a bit of pressure.

The players at the top of the betting market all have enough question marks over them to suggest that there is better value elsewhere.

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips: Suljovic A Huge Price

There are plenty of form players here this week. Two of them were winners in the Players Championship events at the weekend, Daryl Gurney and Mensur Suljovic. Both have won nine of their last ten matches and Suljovic’s form over the past few months has been very strong. Since late June he has won 78% of his matches and won two titles in the last three weeks. Amazingly he is made a 26.00 shot which are good odds for a player in winning form.

Daryl Gurney, like Suljovic, won a player’s championship title at the weekend and he won the second event on the euro tour earlier this season. He wasn’t scoring at his best level when winning PC25 but there plenty of 180’s at the right time. Like Suljovic, he is a player who can be very hard to beat. He is a 23.00 shot and he makes more appeal than those at the head of the market.

Ian White has won two Euro Tour titles this year and was a runner up twice. That great run of form was back in April/May but his form last weekend was a real eyecatcher. He was runner up to Mensur Suljovic in PC26 and reached the semi-final of PC25, losing to eventual winner, Daryl Gurney. That was eleven wins from thirteen matches, and he had a ton plus average in seven of those matches. He looks decent value at 17.00.

Machine Makes The Shortlist

James Wade has won nine of his last ten matches having won PC24 two weeks ago. He has played a very light schedule since coming back from the World Series tour down under. He has played just 14 matches this month and won 12. Wade hasn’t done that well on the Euro Tour this year, two semi-finals are the highlights. Given his recent form though he must be on the shortlist at odds of 26.00.

Another recent tournament winner at big odds is Jose De Sousa. He got his first pro tour title a couple of weeks ago, thrashing Gerwyn Price 8-1 in the final of PC23. He was runner up not long before that in PC18. De Sousa was tipped up here on his Euro Tour debut and he gave us a good run for our money, reaching the quarter final at huge odds. The bookies have now picked him up on their radar and he is a 67.00 shot this weekend. He still remains great value.

Nathan Aspinall has won eight of his last ten matches and he was runner up to Daryl Gurney on Saturday. He continues to climb the rankings, but it hasn’t quite clicked for him on the Euro Tour with three quarter finals being his best results. He has the ability to win majors and a Euro Tour win seems inevitable at some point. Aspinall is another top-class player who is decent value at 34.00.

Price Could Go Back To Back

It is a long shortlist and we haven’t even considered recent Euro Tour winner Gerwyn Price who was a winning tip two weekends ago in Germany. He makes some appeal at 15.00 and back to back Euro Tour wins are hardly unheard of.

The draw can be a pointer as to who to back but such is the quality of the players in action this weekend that there are no easy quarters in the draw. The 1 ST quarter has MVG, Aspinall, Wright and Suljovic. Tough, very tough and made tougher still as De Sousa has been drawn to face MVG in the 2 ND round if the Portuguese gets past Darius Labanauskas. Peter Wright will have a very easy 2nd round match

The 2nd quarter sees Wade, Clayton, Chisnall and Wattimena as the seeded players. Wade can be fancied to come through that, but it will be no walk in the park. The non-seeded players drawn in this quarter include some in-form players such as Justin Pipe, Steve West along with De Zwann, Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts. Wade’s draw looks not to bad compared to some other seeds.

White Could Progress

The 3rd quarter features White, Smith, Cullen and Ratajski and I like Ian Whites chances there. He will likely face Michael Rosenauer in the 2nd round and while the German won a couple of matches in the last ET event, white should be way too good for him. Michel Smith gets the winner between Keegan Brown and Danny Noppert which is exactly not what he wants for a must win match.

The bottom quarter has Gurney, Durrant, Price and Cross so who get through that will have earned it. Daryl Gurney gets a good draw and will face either a local qualifier or Carl Wilkinson who is in poor form. Durrant gets the winner between O’Connor and Dobey but I would fancy him to beat either. Gerwyn Price is likely to face Robert Thornton in the second round. Cross looks likely to face Kirk Shepard in the second round so the seeds in the bottom corner have been fortunate in the draw.

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips: Outright selections

The top quarter of the draw has three players I was hoping to back. Aspinall, De Sousa and Suljovic but only one can get through to the final and there is a certain MVG in there as well. Truly the quarter of death. However, I just can’t stop backing Mensur Suljovic. He did us proud winning the Austrian Open at the start of the month and maybe he can end the month with his third title in four weeks.

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips: 1 point e/w Mensur Suljovic @ 26.00 with Betfair, Paddy Power

James Wade is in great form and the draw has been reasonably kind. He has won five floor titles this season and a good run in Europe is long overdue. He won this title back in 2014 so he has positive mental associations with the tournament and the odds are good.

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips: 1 point e/w James Wade to win @ 26.00 with Hills, Betfair, Paddy Power

Ian White is also bang in-form and has a decent draw. I was hoping for a bigger price but he is a four time Euro Tour finalist this year and a two time winner so we have to take the 19.00.

Gibraltar Darts Trophy Tips: 1 point e/w Ian White to win @ 19.00 with Boylesports

Match Betting tips will be posted on the TXODDS app over the weekend starting with selected 1 ST round matches on Friday.

-JamesPunt