2023 UK Open Darts Betting Tips And Predictions

Pete’s Darts Betting Tips (each way pays 1^st and 2^nd places at ½ the odds at bet365)

• Back Dirk van Duijvenbode each way to win the UK Open for 20/1 with bet365.
• Dave Chisnall to win the UK Open each way at 25/1 with bet365 could pay off.
• bet365 are offering 22/1 on Josh Rock winning the UK Open and looks like a tasty each way wager.
• Ryan Searle can finally win a televised PDC event by taking down the UK Open which is worth 40/1 with bet365 making it nice for an each way bet.

Betting lines are accurate at the time of the writing.

Known as the FA Cup of Darts, the UK Open gets underway this Friday at the Butlins Resort Minehead. The competition gets its nickname because of the randomness of the draw after each round plus the presence of amateur qualifiers in what will be a whopping 158 player deep field. Amateur qualifiers, multiple stages and no seedings, means anything can and usually does happen when the biggest field in darts comes together on the Somerset coast.

Play will take place across eight stages and will feature the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright, Jonny Clayton and defending champion Danny Noppert who are all bidding for glory.

Round One is made up of the Tour Card Holders ranked from 97 – 128 plus the top eight players from the 2022 Challenge Tour and Development Tour, and a further 16 amateur qualifiers. Round One winners will then be joined by Tour Card Holders ranked 65 – 96 in Round Two. The 32 Second Round winners will then be accompanied by Tour Card Holders ranked 33 – 64 in Round Three.

The world’s top 32 will enter the event in the Friday evening session’s Fourth Round before the action continues on Saturday March 4th with the fifth and sixth rounds held over two sessions. The quarter finals, semi finals and final are then contested on the Main Stage on Sunday.

The random nature of the draw can play havoc with the fate of your selections and the standard down the rankings is so high that over a best-of-19 leg format, as it is fourth round onwards, means that there are no foregone conclusions. In short, there are sure to be plenty of cup upsets and underdog stories along the way and it doesn’t necessarily mean that we will see a winner from the top 32.

Six Winners In The Last Six Years

This tournament has delivered different winners in the last six years – Peter Wright, Gary Anderson, Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwen, James Wade and Danny Noppert – which tells you everything you need to know about the tournament. Even the legendary Phil Taylor only won the UK Open five times. Another multiple winner, three time champ Michael van Gerwen leads the betting and arrives in Minehead fresh from Thursday night’s win in the Premier League in Exeter as do the other seven Premier League Darts participants. Thursday also saw Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Chris Dobey and (yes, once again) Peter Wright all eliminated in the quarter final stages of the DPL Night Five, which saw Michael van Gerwen crowned the winner.

Snakebite, who is still to break his point scoring duck in this year’s Premier League, was even sporting duck patterned trousers to mark the occasion. Also wearing a yellow Chizzy tribute jersey to try and inspire a win, Wright lost to Jonny Clayton who also beat Dimitri van den Bergh on his way to play in the final against Michael van Gerwen. 

The Green Machine also beat Gerwyn Price in the first round and Nathan Aspinall in the second round in Exeter. In doing so, Mighty Mike becomes the first player this Premier League of Darts season to win two nights following back to back victories. Elsewhere, Michael Smith lost out in the quarter finals to Nathan Aspinall, while Chris Dobey lost to van den Bergh. The Premier League is a much shorter format, however, and in a race to 10 legs, any DPL form might not necessarily be carried over to the UK Open, especially as some the players looked like they already had one eye on Minehead.

Despite this tournament having a history of heavy priced finalists, generally speaking it is the good players that have tended to prevail and, even allowing for such a large field, the cream usually rises to the top, even with the random draw. 

High Priced Outsiders

Because the field is so large, this can be a tournament where each way bets can pay off. Every darts punter will have their favourites, and Major winners in waiting such as Dirk van Duijvenbode and Ryan Searle are definitely more than capable of going as deep as anyone so long as the draw is kind enough to allow them.

2020 Grand Prix runner up van Duijvenbode has enjoyed a strong start to this new calendar year with a win on the Players Championship floor when he beat Searle 8-2 in the final a fortnight ago. This success has been accompanied by quarter final spots at both the PDC Darts Masters and Baltic Sea Open. The Aubergenius is a confidence player and has put some of the scruffy form of 2022 behind him timing things nicely for another crack at the UK Open. 

The same can also be said for Ryan Searle. Having reached round five in 2021 then round six last year, Heavy Metal is making improvements in this tournament and his trajectory at what for him is his home venue looks encouraging. 

The world number 14 was runner up to Peter Wright at the 2021 in the Players Championship Finals just over a year ago before going off the boil for a while. 2023 has been much better for him though, reaching two Pro Tour finals in four starts and making it to the semis of the Baltic Sea Darts Open where he lost 7-6 to Luke Humphries with an average of 101 in Kiel last Sunday.

Chizzy Getting Busy

That event, the first European Tour event of the season, was won by another player still to take down a televised PDC title, Dave Chisnall. Chizzy was playing some great darts towards the back end of last year, winning a Pro Tour title and reaching the latter stages in plenty of others. What’s more, he has carried his good form into the new year, reaching two quarter finals and one semi final in the opening four Players Championship events of the season before winning at the Wunderino Arena in Germany at the weekend.

There, he managed to shake off Gerwyn Price’s average of 108 to win by a 6-4 scoreline and a 107 average of his own. That was before he defeated local favourite Martin Schindler and Jonny Clayton before putting in an excellent display in the final against Luke Humphries, where he averaged 101 in an 8-5 win.

Elsewhere, this will probably be the last year that Josh Rock enters the UK Open as early as round three but if he can make it past an awkward looking opening match against Luke Woodhouse, then he could definitely go on a deep run to the later stages.

Bet365 Outright Winner Betting Odds Darts UK Open 2023

• Michael van Gerwen – 11/2
• Gerwyn Price – 7/1
• Michael Smith – 15/2
• Peter Wright – 12/1
• Jonny Clayton – 12/1
• Luke Humphries – 20/1
• Dirk van Duijvenbode – 20/1
• Josh Rock – 22/1
• Rob Cross – 25/1
• Nathan Aspinall – 25/1
• Dimitri van den Bergh – 25/1
• Dave Chisnall – 25/1
• Damon Heta – 28/1
• Danny Noppert – 33/1
• Joe Cullen – 33/1
• Ryan Searle 40/1
• Ross Smith – 40/1
• Chris Dobey – 40/1
• 50/1 bar

UK Open 2023: How the players qualified

• Players 1-32 – Enter in Fourth Round
• Players 33-64 – Enter in Third Round
• Players 65-96 – Enter in Second Round
• Players 97-126 – Enter in First Round
• 2022 Winmau Development Tour Qualifiers
• 2022 Winmau Challenge Tour Qualifiers
• Rileys Amateur Qualifiers

UK Open 2023 Schedule 

Friday March 3rd

First, Second & Third Rounds (Best of 11 legs)

• Luke Littler v Nick Fullwell (R1)
• Jelle Klaasen v Josh Payne (R1)
• Danny Jansen v Bradley Brooks (R2)
• Connor Scutt v Jimmy Hendriks (R2)
• James Richardson/Tricole v Richie Burnett (R2)
• Keegan Brown v Girvan/Zonneveld (R2)
• Adrian Lewis v Joe Murnan (R3)
• Josh Rock v Luke Woodhouse (R3)
• Montgomery/Jenkins/Warner v Simon Whitlock (R3)

• Gian van Veen v Robert Owen (R1)
• James Richardson v Thibault Tricole (R1)
• Lukas Wenig v Jeffrey de Zwaan (R1)
• Sebastian Bialecki v Joshua Richardson (R1)
• Jules van Dongen v Kevin Doets (R2)
• Rusty-Jake Rodriguez v Littler/Fullwell (R2)
• Matt Campbell v Van Trijp/Holt (R2)
• Labre/Klose v Mario Vandenbogaerde (R2)
• Florian Hempel v Jamie Hughes (R3)
• Boris Krcmar v Jermaine Wattimena (R3)
• Steve Beaton v Scutt/Hendriks (R3)
• Scott Williams v Klaasen/Payne/Pietreczko (R3)

• Jurjen van der Velde v Brett Claydon (R1)
• Geert Nentjes v Christian Kist (R1)
• Arron Monk v Vladimir Andersen (R1)
• Dan Read v Callum Loose (R1)
• Jose Justicia v Mickey Mansell (R2)
• Cameron Menzies v Moston/Neyens (R2)
• Ted Evetts v McEwan/Lauby (R2)
• L Gurney/Pilgrim v Burton/Smith-Neale (R2)
• William O’Connor v Devon Petersen (R3)
• Lewy Williams v Jansen/Brooks (R3)
• Van Dongen/Doets v Szaganski/Kciuk (R3)
• Labre/Klose/Vandenbogaerde v Adam Gawlas (R3)
• Rusty-Jake Rodriguez/Littler/Fullwell v Ritchie Edhouse (R3)

• Conor Heneghan v Daniel Lee (R1)
• Graham Hall v Jeffrey Sparidaans (R1)
• Jacques Labre v Daniel Klose (R1)
• Karel Sedlacek v Harry Lane (R1)
• Luc Peters v James Wilson (R2)

• Damian Mol v Davey/L Evans (R2)
• Read/Loose v Brian Raman (R2)
• Bialecki/Joshua Richardson v White/Roelofs (R2)
• Ryan Joyce v Mike De Decker (R3)
• Menzies/Moston/Neyens v Ian White (R3)
• Jim Williams v Van Veen/Owen/Waites (R3)
• Slevin/Kuivenhoven/Wilkinson v Monk/Andersen/Goffin/Knops (R3)
• Andy Jenkins v Adam Warner (R1)

• Noel Grant v Graham Usher (R1)
• Nathan Girvan v Niels Zonneveld (R1)
• Michael Flynn v Jonathan Wynn (R1)
• Richard Veenstra v Jamie Clark (R2)
• Taylor/Webster v Tony Martinez (R2)
• Heneghan/Lee v Rupprecht/Kenny (R2)
• Hall/Sparidaans v Thomas Banks (R2)
• Martijn Kleermaker v Steve Lennon (R3)
• Martin Lukeman v Read/Loose/Raman (R3)
• Madars Razma v Cole/Van der Wal/Killington (R3)
• James Richardson/Tricole/Burnett v Van der Velde/Claydon/R Huybrechts (R3)

• Callum Goffin v Robbie Knops (R1)
• Pascal Rupprecht v Nick Kenny (R1)
• Jarred Cole v Jitse Van der Wal (R1)
• Jim McEwan v Danny Lauby (R1)
• Kevin Burness v Nathan Rafferty (R2)
• Grant/Usher v John O’Shea (R2)
• Wenig/De Zwaan v Nentjes/Kist (R2)
• Klaasen/Payne v Ricardo Pietreczko (R2)
• Mensur Suljovic v Justicia/Mansell (R3)
• Keane Barry v Mol/Davey/L Evans (R3)
• Jeff Smith v Campbell/Van Trijp/Holt (R3)
• Flynn/Wynn/Sedlacek/Lane v L Gurney/Pilgrim/Burton/Smith-Neale (R3)

• Jim Moston v Kenny Neyens (R1)
• Dylan Slevin v Maik Kuivenhoven (R1)
• Gary Davey v Lee Evans (R1)
• Danny van Trijp v Christopher Holt (R1)
• Radek Szaganski v Krzysztof Kciuk (R2)
• Van Veen/Owen v Scott Waites (R2)
• Van der Velde/Claydon v Ronny Huybrechts (R2)
• Flynn/Wynn v Sedlacek/Lane (R2)
• Ryan Meikle v Burness/Rafferty (R3)

• Andrew Gilding v Taylor/Webster/Martinez (R3)
• Brown/Girvan/Zonneveld v Darius Labanauskas (R3)
• Evetts/McEwan/Lauby v Bialecki/Joshua Richardson/S White/Roelofs (R3)
• Dom Taylor v Darren Webster (R1)
• Lewis Gurney v Darryl Pilgrim (R1)
• Stuart White v Owen Roelofs (R1)
• Stephen Burton v Adam Smith-Neale (R1)
• Ross Montgomery v Jenkins/Warner (R2)
• Slevin/Kuivenhoven v Shaun Wilkinson (R2)
• Cole/Van der Wal v George Killington (R2)
• Monk/Andersen v Goffin/Knops (R2)
• Veenstra/Clark v Rowby-John Rodriguez (R3)
• Ricky Evans v Grant/Usher/O’Shea (R3)
• Wenig/De Zwaan/Nentjes/Kist v Peters/Wilson (R3)
• Hall/Sparidaans/Banks v Heneghan/Lee/Rupprecht/Kenny (R3)

Fourth Round (Best of 19 legs)

Players that are ranked inside the world’s top 32 will join the competition at this point, alongside the 32 who have come through the previous three rounds.

• 32 Matches

Saturday March 4

Fifth Round (Best of 19 legs)

• 16 Matches

Sixth Round (Best of 19 legs)

• Eight Matches

Sunday March 5th

Quarter-Finals (Best of 19 legs)

• Four Matches

Semi-Finals (Best of 21 legs)

• Two Matches

Final (Best of 21 legs)

• Winner SF 1 v Winner SF 2

QUICK GLANCE AT THE UK OPEN DARTS 2023

Venue: Butlin’s Minehead Resort, Minehead

Dates: March 3rd – 5^th, 2023

Format: Best of 11, 19, 21  legs

Current Champion: Danny Noppert

Where To Watch: ITV 4 

When To Watch: 11:45, 19:00 UK