The eighth staging of the PDC World Series of Darts Finals reaches its conclusion this weekend as a 24-player field that includes the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price as well as defending champion Jonny Clayton head to the AFAS Live in Amsterdam who will be hosting the event for the second year in a row and third time overall.
The 2022 Jack’s World Series of Darts Finals will take place from September 16 – 18 with both an afternoon and an evening session on Sunday and live coverage available on ITV 4. The draw has been made and already we have an intriguing opening round tie between the recently demoted world number two Peter Wright and Women’s World Matchplay champion Fallon Sherrock.
The winner of that match, which really should be Snakebite, will take on third seed Michael Smith.
Elsewhere, last year’s winner Jonny Clayton is laying in wait for the victor of the clash between World Cup of Darts winner Simon Whitlock of Australia and UK Open champion Danny Noppert, who is returning to his home nation for this event where home advantage and crowd favouritism could well make the difference as to who progresses.
Whitlock’s Darts World Cup winning partner Damon Heta faces Queensland Darts Masters semi-finalist Gordon Mathers in an all-Australian affair. The lucky winner of this will walk into local favourite and four-time champion Michael van Gerwen. Heta should be the man to make it through this one and face Mighty Mike.
The winner of both the Nordic Darts Masters and Dutch Darts Masters, Dimitri van den Bergh, has been made the top seed and will await the winner of the tie between Ryan Joyce and USA number one Danny Baggish. Any win for Baggish really would be a shock so I’ll stick with Relentless in this one.
In an effort to repeat his 2020 victory newly promoted world number one Gerwyn Price, who won the New Zealand Darts Masters in August, will get his season off to a start against either Canadian Matt Campbell or, as is far more likely, Dutch veteran Vincent van der Voort.
2018 champion James Wade will face the winner of the Leonard Gates, Devon Petersen match, while you would expect Dave Chisnall to come through his opening round match against Jamie Hughes. Finally, I am not expecting any shocks as Haupai Puha takes on Dirk van Duijvenbode with the Dutch Aubergenious predicted to move on to play Gary Anderson on Saturday.
With many of the game’s leading lights not playing until Saturday, there will many eyes on Peter Wright’s battle with Fallon Sherrock on day one. We have seen many top players wobble when sharing an oche with the Queen of the Palace, but Snakebite is top quality and as long as he keeps his head he should move on to a very tough opponent in Michael Smith.
Bully Boy could very well represent the end of the line for Wright, and I think the outright 9/1 offered on the St Helens star is worth taking. Elsewhere the usual suspects – Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen and Jonny Clayton – are naturally in with a chance and short-priced accordingly.
But it’s the Dream Maker Dimitri van den Bergh who really catches the eye this weekend in the Netherlands. The Belgian, who moved in with Wright for almost three months at the start of the pandemic, is in the middle of a feud with Snakebite right now following van den Bergh’s win over the Scotsman at the Matchplay in July.
Since then, Wright has undergone surgery to remove his gallbladder forcing him to miss a trio of World Series of Darts events in Australia and New Zealand, which opened up a space in those tournaments for his former friend.
Snakebite returned to action at the Hungarian Darts Trophy, won by Joe Cullen by the way, earlier this month and where he again blanked the Dream Maker when their paths crossed this time in Budapest as opposed to Blackpool.
The pair met last week in Sunday’s German Darts Open final in Jena where relations seemed to improve a little with Snakebite insisting that van den Bergh, who also came across unwell during the latter stages of his quarter-final win against Krzysztof Ratajski, is the future of darts.
Wright beat the Belgian 8 – 6 to lift his seventh European Tour crown and first since 2017. Along the way, Snakebite also defeated Raymond van Barneveld, Jonny Clayton, Ross Smith and Joe Cullen. But the Dream Maker battled through his illness to make the final and should be free of it now, making him a very dangerous opponent and potential champion as he looks to get one over on his old roommate.
Odds for the 2022 World Series of Darts Finals from the Bet365 online sportsbook.
First round
Second round
Venue: AFAS Live, Amsterdam
Dates: Friday 16th of September 2022 – Sunday 18th of September 2022
Format: Best of 11, 19, 21 legs
Current Champion: Jonny Clayton
Where To Watch: ITV 4
When To Watch: 12:00 & 18:00 UK