Darts Masters 2019 Preview – February 1st – 3rd, 2019
The 2019 Darts Masters is the next big step on what is a busy start to the new calendar year for the sport. The Masters is a relatively new tournament in the PDC, and this will be just the seventh edition of it.
Stepping back into action at Milton Keynes to defend his title will be Michael van Gerwen. Mighty Mike will start the event as the 10/3 odds-on favourite*(betting odds was taken from bet365 on January 27, 2019, at 5:40 p.m.)
Masters Darts 2019 winner odds*
Michael van Gerwen 10/11
Gary Anderson 5/1
Michael Smith 8/1
Rob Cross 9/1
Peter Wright 12/1
Mensur Suljovic 22/1
Adrian Lewis 28/1
James Wade 28/1
Gerwyn Price 30/1
Dave Chisnall 45/1
Ian White 66/1
Simon Whitlock 66/1
Darren Webster 150/1
Jonny Clayton 125/1
*(betting odds taken from bet365 on January 27, 2019, at 5:40 p.m.)
Tournament information
The 2019 Darts Masters is held in Milton Keynes and this is a short tournament with just 16 participants. Those are the top 16 on the PDC Order of Merit at the conclusion of the 2019 World Championships.
Three players will be entering the action at the Marshall Arena and making their debut. They are Darren Webster, Joe Cullen and Johnny Clayton. The tournament itself runs from February 1 through to February 3 so it is a short tournament.
The first round action is played across February 1st and 2nd. All of the quarter-finals, the semifinals and the final itself are all held on Sunday, February 3. The first two rounds are the best of 19 legs with the semifinals and final being the best of 21 legs.
Michael van Gerwen
When he enters a PDC tournament Michael van Gerwen is always the one to beat. You will always find him at the head of the betting market for any major darts event. While this is the seventh edition of the Darts Masters just three men have won the tournament before.
The reason for that is that Michael van Gerwen has won each of the last four editions. Beyond him, James Wade is the only player in the field for the 2019 edition who is a previous winner of the tournament.
Right at the start of the year, Michael van Gerwen picked up another World Championship title. It is not very surprising that given his track record at this tournament and his current standing in the game (along with form), that he is the outright favourite. The Masters is only a short tournament which means that van Gerwen only needs for match wins to lift the title.
He’s not a man who loses very often and it’s no stretch of the imagination to picture him winning four matches in two days.
The main challengers
Is there potentially anyone in the field who can step up and take down Mighty Mike? The one player that most punters will be leading on to come through field and cause an upset will be Scotland’s Gary Anderson. Anderson has a great track record in recent major events as he has been to at least the semifinals in all but one of his last nine major tournaments entered. Anderson picked up three titles last year and is most recent appearance in the final was at the Grand Slam of Darts.
The interesting thing about the 2019 Masters Darts draw is that Anderson and Van Gerwen are both in the same half of the draw. On the cards would be a massive semi-final showdown between the two. Anderson has been to the final of the Masters before, losing the 2017 final against Van Gerwen.
But still, even though he has the tough draw of Van Gerwen in the way before reaching the final, it says something about the threat of the Scotsman that he is running a second favourite. There is a great rivalry between Van Gerwen and Anderson and it was the Dutchman who came out on top when they met in the semifinals of the recent World Championships.
Draw to favour Smith and cross?
Because Van Gerwen and Anderson are in the top half of the draw it does leave the draw wide-open for somebody in the bottom half to make a run at the title. The leading protagonist down in the bottom half of the draw is Michael Smith who is at 8/1 odds to win the tournament outright*(betting odds taken from bet365 on January 27, 2019, at 5:40 p.m.).
The reason that Smith is trading very well in the outright winner market for the 2019 Darts Masters, is because of his impressive run at the recent World Championships. It was he who opposed Van Gerwen in the final and while Smith was unsuccessful there it was nonetheless a good run from the Englishman. While Smith is the shortest-priced option to win the tournament from the bottom half of the draw, it is Rob Cross who is the highest seed in that section.
Former world champion Rob Cross is in the opposite quarter to Michael Smith in the bottom half of the draw, so they would be coming together at the semi-final stage. Cross started last year really strongly with his World Championship title and back-to-back quarter-finals at the Masters and then the UK Open. However, he bowed out early in the fourth round of this most recent world championship campaign.
Stacked bottom half
The bottom half of the draw looks like a really competitive and wide open scrap, to be honest. For example, there is a big clash between Scotland’s Peter Wright and Adrian Lewis in the first round of action at the Masters. The winner of that would potentially be going up against Michael Smith. Also in the bottom half of the table, there is James Wade who title at the European Championships last year, his first title in a major tournament since back in 2014 when he won the Masters.
Wade has a proven track record at the Masters, with two quarter-finals, two semifinals and the title (along with a first-round crashing 2017) from his six previous appearances. Basically when you weight it all up you are looking at a price of 10/11 odds to oppose Michael van Gerwen by backing The Field to triumph*(betting odds taken from bet365 on January 27, 2019, at 5:40 p.m.)
Prediction
Michael van Gerwen has been unstoppable at this tournament in the last four editions. It is no stretch of the imagination to see the big Dutchman win four straight matches and get his hands on the title again. He destroyed Gary Anderson recently when they met at the World Championships and so not even the presence of the Scotsman in his half of the draw should really faze him too much.
We don’t see anywhere else to go but backing MBG at 10/11 odds to win outright*(betting odds taken from bet365 on January 27, 2019, at 5:40 p.m.).
