The 2018 Champions League of Darts is being played over the weekend of September 22nd and 23rd and this is the 3rd edition of the event. It is being hosted down in Brighton and this is just an eight-man tournament. The qualifiers are the top seven in the current PDC Order of Merit along with the reigning champion.
The reigning champion is Mensur Suljovic who took a fantastic win over Gary Anderson 11-9 twelve months ago. It is a little surprise though that it is Michael van Gerwen who is the outright right favourite at 5/6 odds* (betting odds taken from 9:03 pm on September 19th, 2018).
Champions League of Darts Odds*
Michael van Gerwen 5/6
Gary Anderson 4/1
Rob Cross 6/1
Peter Wright 15/2
Mensur Suljovic 12/1
Dave Chisnall 33/1
Daryl Gurney 40/1
Simon Whitlock 66/1
* (betting odds taken from Betfred at 9:03 pm on September 19th, 2018)
Format
The tournament is split into two groups of four in a round-robin format. The top two players from each of those groups then go through to the semi-finals.
Group A
Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Daryl Gurney and Dave Chisnall
The heavyweight clash in Group A is clearly going to be between Van Gerwen and Gary Anderson. These two have both been losing finalists in the Champions League of Darts, van Gerwen going down against Phil Taylor in 2016 and Gary Anderson last year. Van Gerwen won the German Darts Championship at the start of the month, his first title since the Auckland Masters at the beginning of August.
Those are his only two titles since his PD Europa Matchplay success at the start of July. Anderson hasn’t got a title since his World Matchplay success in July and has been struggling a bit lately to really make a big impact. That is just why we have to stick with Van Gerwen at 4/11 odds with Betfred* (betting odds taken from 9:03 pm on September 19th, 2018) although there’s not a great deal of value in that. Pushing for a straight forecast with Anderson following him through could therefore appeal.
Group B
Peter Wright, Rob Cross, Mensur Suljovic, Simon Whitlock.
Not many would have backed Veteran Suljovic to come through last season’s field at a 40/1 chancer at the start of the tournament. That was a huge underdog success for the Austrian. We like Peter Wright for the group win in Group B not only because he is going into the tournament as the second seed, but he seems to have found his groove against after a tricky period. ‘Snake Bite’ has been pretty consistent since August.
Rob Cross has been churning out results but tournament wins have been hard to come by for him. His only success for some time was a victory at the recent Brisbane Masters which is enough for us to warrant backing him to come through the group along with Wright. Simon Whitlock did alright in the Premier League this season but isn’t a major threat and Suljovic is going to find life hard in backing up his success from last season.
Predictions
We are going to go and Back The Field at 10/11 odds with Betfred* (betting odds taken from 9:03 pm on September 19th, 2018) for our Champions League of Darts predictions. That is because Mighty Mike hasn’t quite looked as sharp as he usually is, and we see enough in the challenges of the likes of Anderson and Wright to throw down a serious enough challenge to him.
