The Darts Masters is upon us and we have done the form for Day 2 of the tournament, which features the likes of Gary Anderson and “Mighty” Michael van Gerwen. There are four matches on the betting card at Milton Keynes on Saturday night and we have form and tips every game. The night starts with Australia’s Simon Whitlock taking on James “The Machine” Wade and the bookmakers are having a tough time splitting them.
Whitlock v Wade Form and Tip
Bookmakers have both players at 10/11 in the betting, but we think the clear advantage should be with James Wade. The experience customer hasn’t had a last few years to remember, but his recent losses came to tough opponents. He lost to rising star Keagan Brown at the World Championship and although the first-round loss would have stung former Premier League player James Wade, it wasn’t as bad as it looked.
Prior to that he lost 6-10 to Rob Cross at the Player’s Championship and that form has been franked nicely. Simon Whitlock showed glimpses of form in 2017, but he has suffered some poor losses to unranked players and that’s not going to be good enough. James Wade needs a lift in confidence and the 10/11 at Betway is a fair price.
Gurney v Price Form and tip
Both Daryl Gurney and Gerwyn Price don’t lack confidence and this should be an interesting showdown. Gurney was knocked out of the World’s by big John Henderson and that was a game Gurney was expected to win, but he couldn’t capitalise on his heavy scoring. Gerwyn Price suffered the same fate at the World’s, but his loss came to Michael van Gerwen, so he will be feeling a little less frustrated by the loss. These two have met only once prior and Price took that out 6-4, but the ceiling hasn’t been reached by Gurney and he’s got many big tournament wins in store. Gurney is the 4/7 favourite and that’s worth including in your darts bets.
Anderson v Van de Pas
Gary Anderson is the hot favourite against Benito van de Pas and with good reason. The multiple World Champion might have lost to Phil Taylor at the World’s, but he’s got the class factor and he just needs to rediscover his consistency. He did lose two matches prior to the end of year tournament and one of those losses was unforgivable, but van de Pas is out of form in a bad way. The unique-throwing player has lost five of his last six games and he never got out of the starting blocks against Steve West at the World’s. Anderson has comfortably beaten van de Pas in their two previous meetings (10-3 and 4-2) and we don’t see much changing here.
There’s no value with the 1/6 for Anderson, but the option of total 180’s hit by Anderson (Over 5.5) is at value odds of 11/10. We’re predicting Anderson to have at least six maximums over a 10-leg match.
Van Gerwen v Huybrechts
Michael van Gerwen will be hurting after losing to Rob Cross at the World’s, but he’s got an easy start to this tournament. The Dutch master is the 1/20 favourite over Kim Huybrechts, who is in horrible form of late. Having dropped to #17 in the world, Huybrechts has lost his last four games and only one of them has been close. He’s losing matches to players he would usually take out with ease and that spells another early exit at the Darts Masters.
Van Gerwen has an incredible record against Huybrechts and how often do we see Michael losing in the first round? We don’t, so he’s the clear play here, but we’ll find some better value. This is a 10-leg match and whilst Huybrechts has ability, his confidence is shot. We’re expecting van Gerwen to apply the pressure early and win 10-6. That pays 13/2 at Ladbrokes and it’s worth a shot.