The Champions League of Darts gets its second outing as the PDC event will go off from September 16th-17th at the Motorsport Arena in Cardiff. Last year in the inaugural event, Phil Taylor claimed the title as he took down rival Michael van Gerwen in the final and it was a pretty convincing 11-5 win at that as well. So will Phil “The Power” Taylor be able to successfully defend his title?
Taylor, because he is the reigning champion gets an automatic place at the event and he will be joined in Cardiff by the other seven from the top eight ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit at the end of the 2017 World Matchplay. Taylor won that World Matchplay at the Winter Gardens back in July against Peter Wright, beating Van Gerwen along the way in the quarter finals.
Group A: Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, Raymond van Barneveld
Group B: Gary Anderson, Peter Wright, Dave Chisnall, Mensur Suljovic
It shows that even though the titles aren’t coming his way as thick and as fast as they used to, he can still not be written off. There will be another big coming together between Taylor and Van Gerwen as they are together in Group A for this tournament. The eight contestants for the Champions League of Darts 2017 are split into two round robin groups and the top two from each group goes through to the semi finals for a straight knockout.
Michael van Gerwen heads up the Champions League of Darts outright betting at a price of 5/6 with Ladbrokes and he will be keen to get back into action in this televised event after missing the Australian Masters recently because of the birth of his first child. He warmed up with some pretty hot scoring at the Dutch Darts masters recently including a 107 average against Kyle Andersen.
Mighty Mike, therefore, is the man to beat and he is trading at 5/6 with Ladbrokes which is going to have huge appeal in what is an eight-man field. You have a quote of 8/11 Van Gerwen v The Field for this one. The main challenge to him in the betting odds is Gary Anderson at 9/2 but he hasn’t managed to get a major on the board this year though and that is despite the Scotsman having been to at least the semi final of six televised events this season. He has admitted that his big priority this year now is the World Championship which starts in December.
Phil Taylor is a 6/1 shot to retain his title at the Champions League of Darts and with his retirement pending at the end of the season, then he will have his backers to get another title on the board before he goes. Peter “Snakebite” Wright is the only other man in single figures heading into the tournament in Cardiff at a price of 6/1 level with Taylor, but Wright’s form has been all over the place.
With the draw laid out as it is, if MVG and Taylor get through Group A and go their separate ways in the semi final, whoever they meet they will be expected to meet up for the final once more. It’s set up nicely here for a repeat of that. However, Taylor’s form this year has been pretty poor and his flourish at the World Matchplay, his favourite tournament doesn’t really disguise his lack of form this season.
So Taylor is worth opposing fully in this one and therefore Raymond van Barneveld to qualify from Group A with Ladbrokes at 12/5 is a fantastic price to consider. That offers a little value elsewhere other than just backing Michael van Gerwen to go out and do what he does, that is winning titles.
