The 2021 World Series of Darts Starts This Weekend in Copenhagen
The World Series of Darts, a series of darts tournaments organized by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), visits Scandinavia for the first time this weekend. It is Denmark’s Forum Copenhagen that plays host to the 2021 Viaplay Nordic Darts Masters. The competition starts on Friday.
Mainstream television broadcasters ITV4 and Holland’s RTL7 will broadcast the action live. The £20,000 to-the-winner competition comprises of 16 players – eight PDC representatives and eight players from the Nordic and Baltic tours.
Fallon Sherrock: One of eight players representing the PDC in this weekend’s Viaplay Nordic Darts Masters, the first leg of the 2021 World Series of Darts. ©PDC Europe
Unsurprisingly the local tour players have been given dismissive quotes by the bookmakers. Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas is the shortest-priced of them. He can be backed at 100/1 for outright glory. The BetVictor online sportsbook are offering a whopping 750/1 about Danes Ivan Springborg or Andreas Toft Jørgensen landing the title.
Cream Rises to the Top of the Betting
The top three places in the betting are reserved for world champions. Current title holder Gerwyn Price is industry top-priced 5/2 with BetVictor. 2020 world champion Peter Wright is a uniform 7/2. William Hill bookmakers are more generous than their rivals in offering 9/2 about three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen.
Belgium’s Dimitri Van den Bergh, winner of the 2020 World Matchplay, is priced 7/1. 2021 Premier League champion Jonny Clayton is 12/1, and 2019 UK Open winner Nathan Aspinall completes the top six in the betting at 14/1.
There is another former world champion in the field, Gary Anderson. The Scotsman took the crown in 2015 and 2016. Furthermore, he was runner-up in 2021. The 50-year-old has won five World Series of Darts titles in the past, his last triumph came in 2018.
Fallon Is the Biggest of the Shorties
All eight first-round games will be played on Friday evening. They will be a ‘best of 11 legs’ format. During Saturday four ‘best of 19 legs’ second-round games, two ‘best of 21 legs’ semi-finals, and a ‘best of 21 legs’ final will all be played to their conclusion.
According to the betting, the most competitive of those first-round games could be 52-year-old Danish player Niels Heinsøe versus Fallon Sherrock.
Nicknamed the ‘Queen of the Palace’ following her heroics at the 2019 World Championship at London’s Alexandra Palace – when she became the first female player to win a match at the sport’s showpiece event – Fallon Sherrock is 4/9 to prevail on Friday.
Van Gerwen Defeat the First-Round Shocker?
Ultimately all first-round matches have a one-sided look to them. The shortest propositions are Jonny Clayton to beat Ivan Springborg Poulsen at 1/20, Gerwyn Price at 1/10 to dismiss Daniel Larsson and Dimitri Van den Bergh is priced 1/9 to dispatch Johan Engström.
Such is the apparent superiority of the visiting players a £10 eight-fold accumulator about all first-round favorites winning will return just £37.28. That equates to around 11/4.
If there is to be a first-round upset Darius Labanauskas might be the man to deliver it. Currently world-ranked 39, the Lithuanian is on an upward trajectory. He made the fifth round of the UK Open in March and was a quarterfinalist in the 2020 World Championship.
Last week Labanauskas showed his wellbeing with a strong performance in the World Cup of Darts. Individually he beat Jonny Clayton and his team gave ante-post favorites Wales a run for their money.
Opponent Michael van Gerwen may have been the world’s number one player for seven consecutive years, but he has not won a competition in 2021 and is clearly lacking confidence. Last weekend he took to blaming the dartboard for defeat in the World Cup of Darts.
Lacking confidence? Michael van Gerwen has not won a tournament during 2021. ©PDC
Talking to broadcaster RTL7 van Gerwen raged: “You just have to deal with amateurs who supply the dartboards. After that he got two more darts, but of course it gets into your head,” he said when referring to dart which bounced out of a bullseye.
Michael van Gerwen is doubtlessly one of the best darts players the sport has ever seen. But he is 9/2 to win this competition because the likelihood is he will be beaten at some point. Against an opponent who has the winds of confidence billowing in his sails, will that defeat come in the opening round match? You can bet on it – Darius Labanauskas is 7/2 with Ladbrokes to claim his notable scalp.
