Luke Humphries will be looking to bounce back in Amsterdam after falling at the semi-final stage in his pursuit of the Flanders Darts Trophy title in Antwerp last weekend. The world no. 1 lost 7-4 to an inspired Ricardo Pietreczko.

Humphries also fell short at the Australian Darts Masters last month but he rebounded one week later by reigning supreme in New Zealand. He may feel he has a bit of a point to prove this weekend and he can justify 4.0 favouritism by getting his hands on more silverware in the Dutch capital.

Humphries should ease himself into the tournament by coming through his opening round tie with Haupai Puha, who is one of the lowest-ranked players in the tournament. Thereafter, ‘Cool Hand’ would remain the man to beat.

He added the World Matchplay title to his growing list of honours earlier this year and he has since continued to perform to a very high standard, evidenced by his exploits in New Zealand. Humphries’ average of 99.50 over the last 12 months is bettered only by Gary Anderson (99.54), while the world champion leads the way for 180s hit over the same period (695).

Luke Littler reached yet another final two weeks ago and he will have his sights set on going one better this weekend. The ‘Nuke’ looked to be on course for glory on the European Tour in Germany before Peter Wright staged a remarkable comeback to claim top honours.

Littler has since put in a below par showing in Belgium last weekend but his confidence is unlikely to have been affected by that. The Warrington wonderkid tends to save his best stuff for the biggest stages and the World Series of Darts Finals comes into that category. Littler started the year by finishing as runner-up at the World Darts Championship before going on to win the Premier League, becoming the youngest-ever major darts champion by doing so. Furthermore, Littler has also hoovered up the Bahrain Darts Masters, the Polish Darts Masters, the Austrian Darts Open and the Belgian Darts Open this year.

That has coincided with him averaging 97.54 over the last year of action, a tally topped by just four other players. On top of that, only Luke Humphries (695) has more maximums than Littler (635) across the same timeframe. Thus, Littler warrants 4.50 second favouritism in Amsterdam.

Michael Smith should give us a good run for our money at 15.0. The ‘Bully Boy’ was unfortunate to run into both Luke Humphries and Luke Littler at the quarter-final stage of both the Australian and New Zealand Darts Masters respectively, losing out on both occasions.

However, Smith would appear to have landed on the softer side of the World Series of Darts Finals draw, as he is guaranteed to avoid a potential clash with either Humphries, Littler or Michael van Gerwen until Sunday’s final at the earliest.

Smith opens up against Jose de Sousa – a player who is clearly not the force of old – and he would then be expected to dispatch either Andrew Gilding or Wessel Nijman to reach the quarter-final stage.

While Smith’s Jekyll and Hyde performances make him difficult to trust, he did perform well under pressure to make this year’s play-offs in the Premier League, and he then went on to put in a strong showing at the World Matchplay by reaching the semi-final stage. His path to the latter stages of the World Series of Darts Finals looks more favourable than the other market leaders, making him an appealing option to triumph.