The current world number one and reigning world champion is hard to oppose given his form at the end of the 2023 campaign. He won the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals and of course the World Championships meaning he’s only lost one game in front of the TV cameras since the start of October, that was against James Wade in the Quarter Final of the European Championships. Since that loss Humphries has now won nineteen consecutive matches and the standard he’s been playing in these matches is immense with thirteen 100+ averages.

He’ll be looking to extend his winning sequence here and opens up against local qualifier Abdulla Saeed. That should be a relatively straightforward task for ‘Cool Hand’ and a 6-0 win looks extremely likely. His task will get considerably harder after this but no one was in better form at the back end of the year. He rightly starts favourite, is the one to beat and I think all his opponents know this.

Like Luke Humphries. MVG begins his tournament against a local qualifier, his opponent being Hasan Haji. There’s no doubt he is a class above that opponent and he should have no trouble advancing to the Quarter-Final.

Van Gerwen is drawn in the opposite half of the draw to the world champion and no disrespect to the other players in this segment, the bottom half does appear the weaker of the two sides of the draw, avoiding the likes of not only Luke Humphries but also Luke Littler and Gerwyn Price.

‘Mighty Mike’ didn’t partake in this event last year, in its inaugural staging and he is well known for liking to win events he hasn’t done so before. With all the attention on the two Luke’s, he might just have a point to prove following his shock exit in the World Championship Quarter-Final to Scott Williams.

He was below par on that occasion and rumours have emerged to suggest other things were going on and may have caused this subdued display. At that point he was red-hot favourite to become world champion again so there’s probably a bit of value in his price before the event gets underway.

Smith lost his grip on the Sid Waddell trophy in December as he lost 4-0 in the Last 16 to Chris Dobey in the PDC World Championship. There was nothing wrong with the display of ‘Bully Boy’ in defeat as he averaged 102.47, it was just an emphatic display from his opponent who did the right things at the right time.

It was not the most prosperous of seasons for Smith on the back of him becoming world champion and world number one at the start of 2023 but one of his successes last year included him winning the first staging of this event after defeating Dimitri Van Den Bergh, Raymond Van Barneveld and Gerwyn Price to claim the title. He’ll want to defend that crown and get his current season up and running straight away.

It was an inconsistent year for him in 2023 but he gave us a reminder of just what he’s capable of when reaching the Semi-Final of the World Grand Prix in October, an event he’s not particularly done well in, in the past.

You’d expect him to have too much for Paolo Nebrida in his opener, despite the short format and his draw has him potentially up against Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright in the next round and that is probably the kindest draw he could face in the Quarter-Final.

If he can play himself into form in these opening rounds and find his groove, he can bely his odds and go close.