It may not generate quite the same adrenaline rush and white knuckle ride as the Euro 24 final between England and Spain, but the big battle at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens between Michael Van Gerwen and Luke Littler is the perfect tonic for sports junkies missing the football fix they have enjoyed for the past four weeks.
Darts has become a huge box-office draw and Van Gerwen and Littler, two of its most fearsome giants, will stand tall in the magnificent Empress Ballroom in the shadow of the resort’s famous tower when they meet in the World Matchplay on Monday night.
Former world champions Van Gerwen and Phil Taylor are the only players, along with Rod Harrington, to have retained the title at this tournament while Littler, the poster boy of the arrers world following his huge rise to prominence, is the youngest player to grace the Blackpool event after a tiny bit more than six months on the PDC Tour.
He will one day be the king of this particular castle as, since losing in the world championship final in London at the turn of the year, he has won the World Series, the Players Championship, the European Tour and the Premier League and he’s hit nine-darters in all of them. Phenomenal.
Littler hasn’t always had his own way against his opponent from the Netherlands though, winning just four of their nine meetings, but Van Gerwen has been in patchy form this year and Littler is 4/6 with Paddy Power and Betfair to gain the victory which will level their head-to-head record.
The 17-year-old right-handed thrower from Warrington is 8/1 with Betfred and Betway to hit another nine-darter during the tournament and he’s 17/4 with SpreadEx to win it but we’re taking him on by backing reigning world champion and current world No.1 Luke Humphries.
A recent winner at the World Cup of Darts when teaming up with Michael Smith to represent England, he was sensational when registering a remarkable 108.76 average when comfortably winning Saturday’s first-round match 10-4 against world No.33 Ricardo Pietreczko from Germany.
He’s on a mission to become only the fourth player alongside Van Gerwen, Taylor and Peter Wright to win the Matchplay in the same year as the world title and he’s 14/5 with BetGoodwin ahead of tomorrow’s second round outing.
Humphries and Littler are in opposite halves of the draw and appeal at 5/1 with Betway to square up in the oche in Sunday’s final.
• Baltimore Orioles third baseman Gunnar Henderson has already smashed the ball into the stands, or where the Americans call Souvenir City, 27 times during the MLB season which has just reached the halfway stage.
Only the extraordinary Aaron Judge with 34 home runs and the equally outstanding Shohei Ohtani with 29 have done better than the 23-year-old, who was named the American League rookie of the year at the end of last season when he also won a Silver Slugger award. Henderson is 4/1 with BetMGM to win the revamped Home Run Derby, which is the supporting act to Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas.
• As the curtain comes down on another wonderful Wimbledon, attention switches to a return to clay ahead of the Paris Olympics which start at the end of the month. Put your cash on defending champion Alexander Zverev to win the Hamburg European Open at 7/4 with bet365.
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