THE Unibet Champions League of Darts takes place this weekend at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff and darts expert @lockupstipster previews the tournament where he think Michael van Gerwen can come out on top.
The event will see eight players contest two groups of four. Group A consists of Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, Raymond van Barneveld and defending champion Phil Taylor
In the other group has Gary Anderson, Peter Wright, Dave Chisnall and Mensur Suljovic.
The top two will progress and odds compilers have MVG as the 10/11 (52.3%) favourite. Anderson is 5/1 with Taylor 6/1, Wright 15/2 and the rest 28/1 upwards.
With Anderson, Taylor, Barney and Wright all competing in the World Series will they be recuperated enough? Having only seen Wright at the European Tour since it is relatively unknown.
What we do know is MVG returned from his hiatus in August to take back-back European tour titles and will have a real thirst to put his name on this title this weekend beating Rob Cross in his last outing with a superb 111 average.
I genuinely do not see another contender for this over the weekend with Gary, Ray and Phil taking a rest and Michael well primed going into this will see plenty of backing at 10/11and this is where we head towards. With 1/3 the odds for each way makes a potential each way punt less attractive so will stick with the green machine at a shade under evens this weekend.
Looking at the opening group matches:
- Chisnall Vs Wright (13/8 -1/2)
- Anderson Vs Suljovic (1/4 – 37/10)
- Taylor Vs Lewis (4/11 -5/2)
- MVG Vs Barney(2/11 – 5/1)
The favourites to all win pays almost 2/1 with William Hill (2.98)
One match I potentially like the look of is Anderson to beat Suljovic 10-6 or better and can cover the -3.5 handicap at 10/11 with BetVictor. Mensur since a quarter final exit at the matchplay has suffered early exits in both European tour events this winning just once in the process.
Anderson returns after a month in Australia and New Zealand bringing back the Perth Masters in the final leg of their tour.
Recommendation
- MVG 10/11 William Hill/Sportingbet – 3pts
- Anderson to beat Suljovic -3.5 legs – 10/11 BetVictor 1pt
