The ITV4-televised European Championship takes place in Dortmund this weekend and our Chris Hammer brings you his quarter-by-quarter preview and tips.
Darts betting tips: European Championship
1pt each-way Gary Anderson to win the European Championship at 16/1 (BetVictor)
1pt Dirk van Duijvenbode to win quarter one at 10/1 (Sky Bet)
0.5pts Dirk van Duijvenbode to win the title at 80/1 (Sky Bet 1/2, 1,2)
1pt Chisnall, R Smith, Dobey & Cross to win first-round matches at 8/1 (Betfair)
Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook
The bells of Dartmas are now starting to become audible as the top 32 on the European Tour Order of Merit come together at the Westfalenhalle this week for the latest major on the road to the Ally Pally.
Unless you’ve kept a close eye on the 13 events of the European Tour season – in which we’ve seen nine different winners – you might be surprised to learn that Martin Schindler has bagged himself top seeding ahead of Luke Humphries and Luke Littler, who both further underlined their sheer brilliance with extraordinary campaigns at the Czech Open this past weekend.
Schindler made his own history by becoming the first German to win two European Tour events and then the first to lift a trophy outside of his own country – while a host of decent runs across the campaign saw him top the Order of Merit.
Here’s a quick reminder of how the tournaments were won;
As you’ll see, Schindler, Humphries, Littler and Dave Chisnall are the only players to win more than one title while there’s been 17 different finalists, including a two-time runner-up Ross Smith.
I’ll now go through each quarter of the draw in a quest to predict who will win the 17th staging of the European Championship.
European Championship: Quarter One
- (1) Martin Schindler v (32) Dirk van Duijvenbode
- (16) Gerwyn Price v (17) Daryl Gurney
- (8) Ryan Searle v (25) Raymond van Barneveld
- (9) Ross Smith v (24) Luke Woodhouse
Sky Bet odds to win the quarter: Price 9/4, Smith 7/2, Searle 4/1, Schindler 7/1, DVD 10/1, Gurney 12/1, Barney 14/1, Woodhouse
As well as Martin Schindler has performed on the European Tour this season to become top seed – and as much as he revels playing on home soil – it’s no real surprise to see him at quite a big price to come through this section.
Gerwyn Price heads the betting in this section but not only has he struggled to win titles this year, his statistics since the start of September have been pretty mediocre by his own blockbusting high standards.
In fact he’s only managed a handful of 100+ averages in this time and despite showing some signs of a return to form at one of last week’s Players Championship events, it would take more than that to suggest he’s going to win a major trophy this week.
The only former European champion in this section – Ross Smith – is also well favoured and certainly looked a viable contender for World Grand Prix glory earlier this month when producing a stunning 102 average in round one only to crash out with a much lesser performance against Jonny Clayton.
If he finds his deadly range on the 180s front then he’ll be dangerous but so too will Dirk van Duijvenbode, who has been playing some superb darts recently.
Only a year ago everyone was fearing for his future due to injury problems but he’s crashing in the maximums for fun once again and unleashing some big averages over the past couple of months.
In fact, since September his 180 per leg rate of 0.43 is second only to Luke Littler’s ridiculous 0.48 while his average of 96.6 is inside the world’s top 10 in this time frame. When you consider he’s outside the top 20 for the year with under 95, it shows how much he’s on an upward curve right now.
During October’s ProTour action he’s reached 110 once and consistently manages in the very high 90s or 100+, so it would be no surprise to see him take this momentum into Dortmund.
Verdict: Dirk van Duijvenbode to win the quarter
European Championship: Quarter Two
- (4) Dave Chisnall v (29) Michael Smith
- (13) Gian van Veen v (20) Ritchie Edhouse (5)
- Michael van Gerwen v (28) Gabriel Clemens
- (12) Stephen Bunting v (21) Gary Anderson
Sky Bet odds to win the quarter: MVG 7/4, Anderson 3/1, Smith 4/1, Chisnall 13/2, Bunting 9/1, van Veen 18/1, Edhouse 28/1, Clemens 40/1
Gary Anderson is not only the highest averaging player for the whole this season in all competitions by quite some distance with 99.62 compared to Luke Littler’s 98.72, but he also bosses this metric on recent form.
Since the start of September he’s top of the pile with 99.44 and has gone over 100 in seven of his last 12 matches. However, he couldn’t find his rhythm at the World Grand Prix as he succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to eventual champion Mike de Decker in round two and we haven’t really seen his blockbuster performances on the big stage for quite some time.
Maybe if he focused on his own game when the cameras are around him at majors rather than slagging off pundits and members of the media, he might fare better but who am I to give him advice. After all I’m just one of the many who work in the media who he thinks ‘don’t have a life’ and ‘don’t have a friggin clue’.
He’s had a rest from competition since departing Leicester with his tail between his legs and unless he’s been ‘having a life’ away from darts, you’d like to think he’s been fine tuning his game ahead of this big run of majors. After all, he’s worked so hard and played so brilliantly this season, he won’t want his form to fizzle out just when it matters most.
This ‘shorter format’ major is probably prime for Anderson, who hasn’t had a deep run on TV since last year’s Grand Slam of Darts, and one of the primary reasons why he’s not won it before is the fact he’s not competed in it since 2016 due to a long hiatus from the European Tour that lasted until 2023.
His triumph at the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen back in April was his first European Tour title for 10 years and meant he didn’t have to bother taking part in any more events in order to qualify for Dortmund.
He’s got an awful first-round draw against Stephen Bunting, whose has reached six finals in all competitions in 2024 and is inside the top 10 for averages since the start of September, and then is likely to come up against Michael van Gerwen.
A lot has been made of MVG following up his recent floor title last week with a monstrous losing average of 112 against Luke Littler on the European Tour a few days ago but I’d still fancy Anderson in a best of 19 leg match right now.
Dave Chisnall, Michael Smith or Gian van Veen will be lurking next but despite their obvious dangers, Anderson can cope with any of them over this distance.
Overall I don’t feel it’s disrespectful to brand this quarter stronger than the first so it would then make sense to back Anderson each-way for the title rather than just to win this section.
Verdict: Anderson to win the quarter
European Championship: Quarter Three
- (2) Luke Humphries v (31) Nathan Aspinall
- (15) Chris Dobey v (18) Jonny Clayton
- (7) Rob Cross v (26) James Wade
- (10) Peter Wright v (23) Jermaine Wattimena
Sky Bet odds to win the quarter: Humphries 5/6, Cross 9/2, Wright 7/1, Wade 9/1, Dobey 10/1, Clayton 12/1, Aspinall 12/1, Wattimena 28/1
It’s very hard to oppose Luke Humphries in this section – and indeed the tournament really given the ominous form his found – and his rivals will be hoping Nathan Aspinall can do them a favour in the risky best-of-11 leg first round format.
Cool Hand was stunned by Mike de Decker in his sixth major ranking final in a row the other week and then seemed to suffer a little hangover during a couple of Players Championship events when he only managed one 95+ average in six matches.
That was only temporary, however, because he promptly stormed back to top form at the Czech Darts Open with five successive 100+ averages including a 109 to defeat Luke Littler 7-4 in a phenomenal semi-final.
Chris Dobey is potentially dangerous if he gets past Jonny Clayton and then produces one of his A games but we haven’t seen so many of those recently and his last match was a 6-0 thumping at the hands of Jermaine Wattimena.
Rob Cross, James Wade and Peter Wright are all former European champions but Humphries will obviously only need to play one of these and, whoever it is, I fancy him to come out on top.
Verdict: Humphries to win the quarter
European Championship: Quarter Four
- (3) Luke Littler v (30) Andrew Gilding
- (14) Ricardo Pietreczko v (19) Damon Heta
- (6) Josh Rock v (27) Mike De Decker
- (11) Danny Noppert v (22) Joe Cullen
Sky Bet odds to win the quarter: Littler 5/6, De Decker 6/1, Heta 13/2, Rock 15/2, Noppert 9/2, Cullen 14/1, Gilding 40/1, Pietreczko 40/1
No disrespect to anyone in this quarter of the draw – or the third quarter for that matter – but we really ought to brace ourselves for a Luke Humphries v Luke Littler semi-final in Dortmund.
And if it’s anything like we saw at the Czech Open, we’ll be in for a treat.
Littler was on course to produce the most incredible European Tour campaign ever seen when he marched into the last four with averages of 110.4, 116.5 and 110.6 but despite managing another 106.7 against Humphries, he just fell short in a 7-4 defeat.
Had he won that, you’d like to think he’d have swept Kim Huybrechts aside and landed his 10th title of the campaign in all competitions with a tournament average in excess of the European Tour record of 107.58 set by Michael van Gerwen back in 2018.
The 17-year-old has been looking a little bit human since he won his last title back in September but if he produces similar kind of levels that we saw in Prague then I can’t see anyone living with him, even recent World Grand Prix champion Mike de Decker.
Verdict: Littler to win the quarter
First-round acca
Dave Chisnall, Ross Smith, Chris Dobey & Rob Cross all to win
Chizzy is marginal outside to see off Michael Smith but I feel his form is better, especially on the European Tour where he’s won two titles this season.
Ross Smith should have too much firepower for Luke Woodhouse in the opening round while the same could well be true of Chris Dobey, even though Jonny Clayton has found some winning momentum of late.
Finally, Rob Cross faces another former European champion in James Wade and I fancy him to come through what could be an early cracker.
European Championship: Daily schedule & results
Thursday October 24
Evening Session (1900-2300 CEST, 1800-2200 BST)
First Round (Best of 11 legs)
TV Channel: ITV4
- Gian van Veen v Ritchie Edhouse
- Gerwyn Price v Daryl Gurney
- Ross Smith v Luke Woodhouse
- Stephen Bunting v Gary Anderson
- Ryan Searle v Raymond van Barneveld
- Michael van Gerwen v Gabriel Clemens
- Martin Schindler v Dirk van Duijvenbode
- Dave Chisnall v Michael Smith
Friday October 25
Evening Session (1900-2300 CEST, 1800-2200 BST)
First Round (Best of 11 legs)
TV Channel: ITV4
- Danny Noppert v Joe Cullen
- Chris Dobey v Jonny Clayton
- Rob Cross v James Wade
- Ricardo Pietreczko v Damon Heta
- Peter Wright v Jermaine Wattimena
- Luke Littler v Andrew Gilding
- Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall
- Josh Rock v Mike De Decker
Saturday October 26
Afternoon Session (1245-1700 CEST, 1145-1600 BST)
Second Round (Best of 19 legs)
TV Channel: ITV4
Evening Session (1900-2300 CEST, 1800-2200 BST)
Second Round (Best of 19 legs)
TV Channel: ITV4
Sunday October 29
Afternoon Session (1300-1700 CET, 1200-1600 GMT)
TV Channel: ITV4
Quarter-Finals (Best of 19 legs)
Evening Session (1900-2300 CET, 1800-2200 GMT)
TV Channel: ITV4
Semi-Final (Best of 21 legs)
Final (Best of 21 legs)
- Winner SF 1 v Winner SF 2
What channel is the European Championship Darts on?
The Machineseeker European Championship will be broadcast live on ITV in the UK, through the PDC’s worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding subscribers based in the UK, Germany, Austria & Switzerland).
European Championship Darts: Prize money
- Winner: £120,000
- Runner-up: £60,000
- Semi-final: £32,000
- Quarter-final: £20,000
- Last 16: £10,000
- Last 32: £6,000
- Total: £500,000
- Nine-Darter Bonus £15,000
European Championship Darts: Previous winners
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