World Cup Darts Friday Preview

James Punt has already penned an outright preview, check it out here. Get his World Cup Darts Friday tips below.

Sweden vs. South Africa

The South African duo of Devon Petersen and Stefan Vermaak are another new partnership for SA. Petersen is the star player, Africa’s only darts professional but hopelessly out of form. He continues to say that big things are coming, despite losing nine of his last eleven matches.

Vermaak is unknown to me, but he will be an amature player taking to the big stage for the first time in his life. It is a big ask for an out of form Petersen to carry a teammate in a pairs match, but he had done just that on seven different occasions.

Swedes Experienced

The Swedes have a reasonably experienced duo, Daniel Larsson and Johan Engström, who have played together last year, losing 1-5 to the USA. They played OK, but the USA were too good. Larsson has played in five World Cups and never won. He has been a tour card holder but now plays on the Nordic Baltic Tour. His A game is decent, but it struggles to come out very often. Johan Engström also plys his trade on the Nordic Baltic Tour where he averages in the low 80’s.

Can Petersen do it again? It is hard to knock his record and Sweden’s is one of abject failure when Larsson has been in the team. We have seen him play on the Euro Tour and World Series recently and he has played quite well, but he struggles to keep his game together for very long, often starting well but falling away as the game goes on. Maybe the short format will help him, but I’ll have to side with South Africa and the will power of Petersen.

World Cup Darts Friday tips: 1 point South Africa to win @ 2.10 generally available

England vs. Czech Republic

Perhaps the most anticipated of all the first-round matches, and let’s be fair, there are very few this evening.

England are the second favourites to win the title, have the best player in the world on current form and a decent number two in the form of James Wade. Michael Smith is just winning all sorts at the moment and is the most confident he has ever been. Wade is not at his best, but all he needs to do is take his turn and let Smith win the match.

Decent Czech Pairing

The Czech Republic will not be taking a beating laying down however. Gawlas and Sedlacek are a decent pairing and very unlucky to get drawn against England. Last year they faced Poland and they played well, averaging 103.47, an excellent average in his format.

They lost 2-5 to the Poles who averaged 104.97. In 2020 the same Czech pairing faced Belgium in the first round and lost 4-5. They really haven’t had much luck with the draws, and this is another stinker.

Both the Czech players have lost seven of their last ten matches and up against a winning machine like Smith, aided by Wade, they are hard to fancy. England is the 1.30 favourite but I’ll take them giving a 2.5 leg handicap.

World Cup Darts Friday tips: 1 point England to win -2.5 legs @ 2.20 with SpreadEx, Betfred

The rest of this evening’s matches look like fairly easy pick ups for the favourites, but the odds are unbackably small.

-JamesPunt