‘Cool Hand’ Luke comes into this in fine form having won the Czech Darts Open this past weekend as the Euro Tour came to a close for 2024. This is on the back of him reaching the World Grand Prix just a couple of weeks prior.

The standard he played this weekend was amazing. He played five matches and recorded a 100+ average in each of these. He even stopped the darting juggernaut of Luke Littler, who was arguably playing even better than him at the time.

When he was winning everything before him at the end of 2023 this was one of the titles that eluded him as he was thwarted 10-6 by James Wade in the Quarter-Finals. I’m sure the World Champion and World Number One will want to add this title to his CV and whilst he’s in the more difficult half of the draw, his quarter isn’t too bad.

Having already touched on how well ‘The Nuke’ is playing in the Humphries write-up; that probably doesn’t tell you just how well. He exited the Czech Darts Open at the Semi-Final stage despite averaging 106.73 in that defeat. Prior to this however, he averaged 110+ in three successive matches, including a 116.51 average against Damon Heta in the Last 16.

Whilst he’s enjoying a whirlwind debut season as a Tour Card Holder, he’ll be bitterly disappointed to have exited both the Matchplay and World Grand Prix in the first round, he did however get a brutal draw in both of those, facing Michael Van Gerwen and Rob Cross respectively.

He kicks of his campaign in this event with a much lesser assignment, albeit an awkward one against Andrew Gilding and you would fancy him to get past that tricky first hurdle. When he won the most recent ITV event, the World Series of Darts Finals, he took advantage of a bit first round luck before advancing to the title in storming fashion. You can imagine a similar scenario developing here.

The Aussie is another player who comes into this in terrific form having averaged 100+ in seven of his last ten matches. He was on the receiving end of the 116.51 average of Luke Littler this past weekend but he has shown he is capable of defeating the young darting sensation, as he beat him 10-8 in the Quarter Finals of the UK Open in arguably the match of the year, a game of incredible quality.

He will need that belief as should he get past Ricardo Pietreczko in the first round, a match up against Littler is on the cards. Whilst that will no doubt be tricky, if he prevails past that stage a deep run looks a real probability.

Whilst his odds reflect the severity of his draw he is a dual winner on the floor this season, a runner up in the New Zealand Darts Masters in August on the World Series and his once questionable TV form is no longer a concern having reached the Quarter-Final of the Masters and Semi-Final of the UK Open this season. He could reward backers at a bigger price.

The newly crowned World Grand Prix champion is living up to his nickname of ‘The Real Deal’ and is another player who looked in fine fettle this past weekend.

In the Grand Prix he defeated Damon Heta, Gary Anderson, James Wade, Dimitri Van Den Bergh and Luke Humphries to win that major so despite being in the toughest quarter of the lot, the draw should hold no fear for him.

He backed this up by reaching the Quarter Final of the Czech Darts Open where Humphries got some revenge for his Grand Prix Final defeat by winning 6-2. Prior to this however the Belgian averaged 100+ in three successive matches, including a 6-0 whitewash of Danny Noppert.

His success in the Grand Prix will have come as a shock to many but it’s been on the cards as he’s been ultra-consistent the past couple of years. A winner of a title on the floor in August, he’s won 68% of his matches this season and this big maximum scorer is a danger to the big-hitters once again.

‘The Wall’ is the number one seed for this event having topped the European Tour Order of Merit in 2024. He is a dual winner on this tour having enjoyed success in both the International Darts Open and the Swiss Darts Trophy and his draw looks favourable.

He is the only selection here from the top half of the draw and opens up against the number 32 seed, Dirk Van Duijvenbode who qualified for this event by the skin of his teeth. Whilst Dirk can be electric on his day, since his injury last year he’s also a tad inconsistent.

The German has made giant strides this season and replicating his Euro Tour form on the big TV stage is arguably the next step in his rise up the rankings.

He’s won 18 of his last 25 matches and is averaging 95.22 for the season so there’s no question about what he’s capable of. In his section of the draw his biggest threats are Gerwyn Price, Ryan Searle and Ross Smith which is much better than some of the other stacked quarters he’s managed to avoid.