Gerwyn Price gave follower of James Punt’s tips a great run for their money last week. He went all the way to the final and though he lost, each way bets were landed at 15.00. This week it is the World Series of Darts and it promises to be a thrilling tournament. Check out James Punt’s 2019 World Series Darts tips and preview below…

2019 World Series Darts Tips and Preview

The World Series of Darts Finals is the culmination of the five World Series events played earlier this year. The top eight players from those events are seeded and go into the draw at the second-round stage. The other 24 players play a best of 11 leg first round match on Friday before the second round matches on Saturday, with a gruelling day of quarters, semis and final played out on Sunday.

This is the firth World Series Finals with Michael van Gerwen winning the first three and James Wade winning it last year. MVG is the 2.50 favourite and the fact that the event is played in Amsterdam this year won’t hurt his chances. With nine wins from his last ten matches, he is in top form, and the fact that comes in at the 2nd round stage means he only has to win four matches to win the title.

Draw Gods Have Smiled On MVG

The top quarter of the draw looks quite generous to Van Gerwen. He will play the winner of the Gerwyn Price vs. Michael Smith first round clash. That sounds like a tough draw and it is, for Smith and Price. Gerwyn Price has never beaten MVG in seventeen events, he is getting very close, but he’s never done it.

Smith has beaten MVG, but it is still 30-7 in Van Gerwen’s favour. He should face Wade or Clayton in the quarters. Wade’s form has dropped off and Clayton may be the bigger threat. The Welshman has won seven of his last ten and he is starting to hit some impressive numbers.

Clayton beat Wade 6-0 last weekend and averaged 111. He then ran into a rampant Dave Chisnall and lost 4-10 but he averaged 101 in that match. That makes it three ton plus averages from his last four matches. He has beaten MVG three time in their previous twelve matches and its 2-2 in the last 12 months.

Heta An Unknown Quantity

The second quarter has Daryl Gurney and Damon Heta. The Aussie player won the Brisbane Masters to earn his place in the finals. We know little about him outside of his form in that tournament where he beat Wade, Gary Anderson, Whitlock and Rob Cross in the final. He was very impressive, and he has backed it up by qualifying for the World Championship at the end of the year.

I believe he has plans to stay on and try and win a tour card. He certainly has the game to win one and he can’t be lightly dismissed. He will face the winner of the Kyle Anderson vs. Mensur Suljovic first round match. In a first to six legs format, he has a decent chance of making a quarter final. Neither Anderson nor Suljovic are in great form.

2019 World Series Darts: Gurney Needs Consistency To Win

Daryl Gurney didn’t get a kind draw as he will face the winner of the Ratajski vs. Aspinall match. The is a tough draw, regardless of who he faces. Gurney’s form is five wins from ten, not tournament winning form, but he is having decent runs in big events. There was the Premier League semi-final, the World Matchplay semi-final, Melbourne Masters final, winning PC25, Gibraltar Darts Trophy semi-final and the semi-final of last weekend’s European Championship.

On that form he must be considered as a potential winner. He hasn’t quite hit his best form except for five legs against Simon Whitlock last Friday. He averaged 117 in that spell and was simply unplayable. If he can access that form over a weekend than he can win but his intensity has been inconsistent.

Wright Needs To Bounce Back

The third quarter is hard to call. The two seeds are Peter Wright and Gary Anderson. It is hard to get a firm grip on Wrights form. He was in brilliant form going into the Champions League of Darts and reached the final, only to miss darts to win the title before losing the final 10-11 to MVG.

That was a tough result for him, and us as we had backed him to win the title. He then lost his first-round match in the European Championship final last weekend. He didn’t play badly, he averaged 97 but Jeffery de Zwann was the better player on the day, winning 6-4.

Wright can’t be written off on the back of one heart breaking defeat, but it does put a question mark over him. He was in equally brilliant form back in July. Snakebite had won the World Cup in June and followed that up by winning the German Darts Masters World Series event, back to back player championships and he went into the World Matchplay in top form. He lost his quarter final to Daryl Gurney 13-16 despite averaging 104.

That defeat did knock him out of his imperious form. He went on the World Series tour down under and scored poorly, from ton plus averages match in match out, he was hitting sub 90’s.  His scoring didn’t recover until late September and he was rewarded with a semi- final in PC29 and won PC30. He then lost that final to MVG. We will find out this weekend whether he has been knocked out of his stride once again.

2019 World Series Darts: Anderson Out Of Form

Gary Anderson just isn’t winning very many matches. His scoring has been good by and large but he has won just three matches from his last ten. He will face the winner of the De Zwann vs. Noppert match and either of those two will be tough to beat.

De Zwann was showing some signs of hitting good form last weekend. Beating Peter Wright and Jermain Wattimena but lost rather easily to Michael Smith. He was just terrible on his doubles in that match and it is an area of his game which does let him down. If he has a good weekend on the doubles, he could go all the way, he has that sort of potential, but five matches without some double trouble seems to be a struggle for him.

Noppert has done his best work in the floor tournaments this season. No titles won this year but four players championship semi-finals, including in the last one a couple of weeks ago. His scoring is a bit weak overall. There are occasional ton plus averages, but generally he is in the low 90’s and at the top level, that isn’t good enough. He is a dangerous opponent none the less.

Barney Bids Farewell To Home Fans

The bottom quarter sees Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross as the two seeds. This will be Barney’s final farewell to his home fans on the big stage as he retires at the end of the year. He has effectively been retired for some time now. Van Barneveld was picked for the Premier League as he sells tickets, not on form.

He then played a few Players championships, reaching one final back in March. RVB was picked to go on the World Series tour down under and reached the final of the New Zealand Masters. There have been very few highlights and it is hard to think of him as a full-time darts professional these days.

Van Barneveld will face the winner of the Wattimena vs. Clemens match and either of those players should be too good for Barney. Wattimena has had a good season on the floor and is up to seventeenth in the world rankings. Am I the only one that thinks that this flatters him? His stage form has largely been poor this year. There was one euro tour quarter final and the quarter final of the World Grand Prix. Not much to suggest he can go far this weekend.

Clemens One To Watch

Clemens is a player on the up. Very talented and a player I expect to see end up with more success than Wattimena. He lacks a lot of big stage experience, but he did reach the final of the German Masters World Series in July. Clemens hit some top form at the start of the month and had six consecutive ton plus averages in players championship events. He has never beaten Wattimena in three attempts and they met very recently in PC 28 which Wattimena won 6-1.

Rob Cross won the European championship last weekend. That was on the back of a very poor display in the Champions League the preceding weekend. He beat our selection, Gerwyn Price, in the final but Price was completely gone in the final. It wasn’t really a match, but Cross was fresh enough to win easily. Will that win, and playing three big matches on Sunday, have taken anything out of him? It is a good question as it was an intensive tournament and to see Price look so exhausted underlined the point.

Boo Boys Taking Toll On Iceman

Gerwyn Price was our each way selection to win last week and he did reach the final. However, and a little surprisingly, he was knackered physically and emotionally. It was a surprise to see the fittest man in darts, physically exhausted but perhaps not such a surprise to see him mentally drained. He has had to put up with a year of abuse from the crowds all over Europe. To his credit he has performed very well, winning a euro tour title, but perhaps more tellingly, he has won three floor tournaments, the tournaments which have no audience. He is free to just play darts and it is no coincidence that Gerwyn price topped the player’s championship 2019 OOM. No doubt the crowd will be on his back once again and it has become an anchor to his performance.

Cross will face the either Dave Chisnall or Simon Whitlock. Chisnall has been in top form of late but he still can’t win the big ones. He was in great form last weekend, many people tipped him to win the tournament, but in the end, he went out tamely to Daryl Gurney, losing the quarter final 5-10. He is perfectly capable of beating Rob Cross and is 4-0 up on him in 2019. I think we will see an early exit for last weekend’s winner.

2019 World Series Darts Tips: MVG A Worthy Favourite

Looking at possible winners it is hard to get away from Michael van Gerwen. On home soil, a big crowd cheering him on and in great form, he only has four matches to win. That is very doable for Van Gerwen. Jonny Clayton is a potential banana skin and Ratajski, Aspinall or Gurney could pose problems if one gets through to the semi-final. Odds of 2.50 for a Van Gerwen win are a touch generous. He is a three-time winner from the four previous World Series Finals and he has recently won the World Grand Prix and the Champions League of Darts.

In his last six matches he has averaged 102.5 and he was just unlucky to come up against Ross Smith playing like a god last week. Everything looks set fair for another title for the world number 1.

2019 World Series Darts Tips: 4 points Michael van Gerwen to win the World Series @ 2.50 with Hills, Betfred, BET365, Sportingbet

There are a few outsider’s worth considering. Jonny Clayton is flying under the radar, but he would likely have to get passed MVG, which he has done before, but on home ground for MVG? Ratajski is due good run in a televised event. He has recently won a stage event on the euro tour but he has his work cut out to reach a quarter final, never mind a final. Aspinall is a World Series tournament winner but he too is in exactly the same boat as Ratajski. Jeffery de Zwann has a decent draw but Peter Wright may well stand in his way of a semi-final but he does have a winning H2H record over Wright (2-1) one of them coming last week. This is a home event for De Zwann amongst others and he is a decent price.

Gabriel Clemens will win tournaments. He has reached two player’s championship finals and a World Series final already this year. He has been scoring well and if he can get one over Wattimena in the first round, things might just open up for him. Clemens is worth a small bet.

2019 World Series Darts Tips: 0.5 point e/w Jeffery de Zwann to win the World Series @ @ 41.00 with Hills, Boylesports, BET365, Betvictor (1/2 the odds 1-2)

2019 World Series Darts Tips: 0.25 point e/w Gabriel Clemens to win the World Series @ 101.0 with Betvictor (1/2 the odds 1-2)

-JamesPunt