Michael van Gerwen Wins World Series of Darts

Michael van Gerwen Wins World Series of Darts

Michael van Gerwen World Series of Darts Win

As expected, Michael van Gerwen claimed his third successive World Series of Darts title, this time after beating Gary Anderson 11-6 in Sunday’s final at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.

Andeson comes up short to MVG

MVG (Shanghai and Las Vegas) and Anderson, (Dubai and Perth) each won two World Series events each this year and followed the performance up with a final battle in Scotland’s second city over the weekend. Unfortunately for the Scot involved, the Dutch master had far too much class at the oche and the pre-tournament favourite duly won his third in a row.

Mighty Mike’s other victims of the weekend included German Max Hopp, Englishman Rob Cross and Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney before meeting up with The Flying Scotsman where two 11-darters and a 158-checkout helped to provide an 11-8 victory.

Anderson began the event poorly, missing three chances at double before MVG landed a 103 checkout that set him on an early path to victory, which soon found himself 4-1 up. The spirited Scotsman, fueled by a passionate home crowd, claimed three of the next four to shorten the difference momentarily before the World Champion banked four legs in a row to home in on yet another title victory.

Another brief surge from Anderson, one that this time included tops and double four, saw him pull back another two legs but in the end, it was all to prove futile. After missing his 132 target, the World number two could only watch on as his superior ranked rival took out 87 to retain the championship.

On his way to Sunday’s final, Anderson enjoyed victories over Chris Dobey, Gerwyn Price and James Wade. Anderson will now look to go one better in the weeks ahead, starting this Sunday at the Grand Slam of Darts.

Regarding the 2018 World Series of Darts schedule, the PDC confirmed on Sunday that Brisbane will host its first World Series next year alongside confirmed returns to Auckland, Shanghai and Las Vegas.

As for Van Gerwen, his win in Glasgow comes ahead of his attempt to win yet another event for the third time in a row when he starts his defense of the Grand Slam of Darts this Saturday.

Grand Slam of Darts Betting Tips

From November 11-19, at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, the best in the world from the PDC compete with the best in the world from the BDO. The very best player of them all, Mighty Mike will begin said defense of the title he picked up in both 2015 and 2016 against Group A rivals Rob Cross, Joe Murnan and Ross Montgomery in the group phase.

In all, there will 32 darters participating, from which eight will represent the BDO, while the remaining 24 are all-stars of the PDC. The players are divided into eight groups of four players (listed below), with the top two from each group qualifying for the latter stages. The winner of Group A plays the runner-up of Group B and vice versa, so on.

Six time champ, Phil Taylor will make a return to action this weekend in one of his preselected winter tourneys that are worth his time. The Power goes in Group C, where James Wade represents his biggest threat. Another returning veteran will be Raymond van Barneveld, the seed from Group B hoping to top Gerwyn Price. I expect Price will make the cut, but Barney, a former winner here, will fancy his chances of claiming top spot, as do I.

Peter Wright and Gary Anderson can be found in groups E and H respectively. For Snakebite, Group E probably represents the fabled Group of Death where he comes up against Alan Norris, Corey Cadby and Glen Durrant but should prevail. In H, Anderson’s only threat will come from Simon Whitlock making it a much easier task for the second seed than his countryman faces.

Elsewhere, Mensur Suljovic is rightly the favourite in a tricky Group G that includes the highest ranked BDO representative, world number one Mark McGeeney, plus Michael Smith and James Wilson.

In a busy weekend, the recommended darts betting tips would be to do the obvious thing and back MVG to win the tournament at 5/6 but if you do for some reason favour the BDO then look into Glen Durrant (80/1) or Mark McGeeney (250/1) as each way bets at a half of the odds for a top two finish. Betway are also paying out 22/1 on ANY BDO player to win which would handsomely cover the both and others.

World number two Gary Anderson is 11/2 for the tourney, a few points shorter than Peter Wright at 15/2 while romantics will be hoping for Phil Taylor at 9/1 to win the event one last time.

Oh, and backing MVG, Taylor, Barney and Anderson to win their groups at Betway pays 4.29 to the £1 which should represent easy money, but throwing in world number three Peter Wright in the toughest group bumps that price up past 7s so I’ll leave that one with you.

Grand Slam of Darts Groups (Live on Sky Sports)

Group A

  • Michael van Gerwen
  • Rob Cross
  • Joe Murnan
  • Ross Montgomery

Group B

  • Raymond van Barneveld
  • Gerwyn Price
  • Steve Lennon
  • Jamie Hughes

Group C

  • Phil Taylor
  • James Wade
  • Robbie Green
  • Peter Machin

Group D

  • Daryl Gurney
  • Darren Webster
  • Mark Webster
  • Danny Noppert

Group E

  • Peter Wright
  • Alan Norris
  • Corey Cadby
  • Glen Durrant

Group F

  • Dave Chisnall
  • Stephen Bunting
  • Jeffrey de Zwaan
  • Scott Mitchell

Group G

  • Mensur Suljovic
  • Michael Smith
  • James Wilson
  • Mark McGeeney

Group H

  • Gary Anderson
  • Simon Whitlock
  • Berry van Peer
  • Cameron Menzies
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Michael van Gerwen Claims Fourth Successive European Championship

Michael van Gerwen Claims Fourth Successive European Championship

Michael van Gerwen Is European Championship Title Holder

For the fourth time in a row, Mighty Mike van Gerwen has won the European Championship after he beat Rob Cross in the final by 11-7 in Hasselt, Belgium on Sunday night. It was a final the imperious Dutchman nearly missed after coming very close to defeat during his semi-final match against Australian Kyle Anderson.

MVG’s path to victory #4

Having eased past another Aussie Simon Whitlock 10-5 in the quarter-finals, MVG moved on to Anderson. MVG trailed 2-0 and 3-2 before rallying by taking four legs in a row to establish his own lead — a lead from which not many opponents recover. Indeed, that was the fate that would befall Anderson who can consider himself unlucky as the plucky Aussie, an Auckland Darts Masters winner, astonishingly hit two 180’s before finishing with 141.

Despite a further Dutch drive, Anderson was worthy of another four legs before the game went to a deciding 21st leg. Anderson criminally missed two match darts which allowed the World Champion all the invitation necessary to land the 76 needed to snatch victory and progress to the final.

It was uet another final that went all the way with the first five legs all sticking with throw before van Gerwen registered a ten-darter in the sixth leg. MVG then followed with a 12-darter to break and move ahead. Englishman Cross responded in kind to square the game before Van Gerwen started to turn the screws.

At 9-6 up, Van Gerwen landed a seventh 180 including a 130 bullseye, 12-dart finish to move within a leg from victory. The victory was finally sealed soon after with a superb double 16.

Cross, who had previously seen off Dave Chisnall, Michael Smith and Daryl Gurney, averaged 102.39 in defeat in the final, while Michael van Gerwen, who matched Phil Taylor’s achievement of four successive wins in the event, registered a final average of 108.91.

World Series of Darts Finals betting tips

This Friday, November 3rd through Sunday November 5th, the World Series of Darts Finals will get underway at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena, drawing to a close six months of top class international darts.

So far this season, we have visited World Series events in Dubai, Shanghai, Las Vegas, Auckland, Melbourne, Perth and Germany and now it’s all built up to this weekend. A 24-man field will battle it out live on ITV4 as Michael van Gerwen, fresh off the back of a fourth straight European Championship win, is looking to take down the World Series title for a third year running. Betway has the Dutch master listed as 10/11 for the tournament victory.

For the past two seasons, MVG’s defeated final opponent has been Scotland’s Peter Wright, As World Number Three, Wright sees himself as third seed here in Glasgow. Snakebite can be picked up at 13/2 while fellow Scot Gary Anderson is a slightly shorter 5/1 for the outright win.

Next up is Austria’s Mensur Suljovic at the far more generous 18/1, the same price as last weekend’s beaten finalist Rob Cross. Any interest in the wider prices might be best concentrated on more established names such as Barney, out at 25’s, or twice World Champion Adrian Lewis at 33/1. Any faith in either Dave Chisnall or James Wade, each way or otherwise, could be rewarded at Betway with 40/1. That said, in the unlikely event that MVG doesn’t pick up a fourth straight title, I wouldn’t look too far past Peter Wright.

Tournament draws are drafted from the top eight stars from the final World Series rankings, save for Melbourne winner Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor playing on a self-reduced, pre-retirement schedule. These eight will be joined by the next four non-qualified players from the PDC Order of Merit, plus four global invitations and eight additional qualifiers to form the field for this £200,000 event.

Tournament Participants

Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands)
Gary Anderson (Scotland)
Peter Wright (Scotland)
Raymond van Barneveld (Netherlands)
James Wade (England)
Daryl Gurney (Northern Ireland)
Kyle Anderson (Australia)
Gerwyn Price (Wales)
Adrian Lewis (England)
Mensur Suljovic (Austria)
Dave Chisnall (England)
Jelle Klaasen (Netherlands)
Simon Whitlock (Australia)
Corey Cadby (Australia)
Michael Smith (England)
Max Hopp (Germany)
Rob Cross (England)
Dimitri Van den Bergh (Belgium)
Chris Dobey (England)
Justin Pipe (England)
Jonny Clayton (Wales)
Mark Webster (Wales)
Jan Dekker (Netherlands)
Simon Stevenson (England)

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