Walk on music, grown men dressed as penguins and a 50 grand pot for the crowd if we see a nine-dart finish.
It can only mean that Paddy’s sponsoring the Champions League of Darts this weekend, so we’ve asked the traders for a few tungsten-tossing tips.
Outright winner: Rob Cross 6/1
The world champion has had an up and down season and as he told Paddy recently, winning the world championship changed his life. He’s shed a few pounds and is exercising a bit more so that will help his stamina and energy levels for what is an intense weekend of arrows action. The group games are the best of 19 legs and the semi-finals and final are best of 21 legs.
Cross looks to be coming back to form recently. He did beat Michael van Gerwen in Brisbane 11-6 last month and played really well.
If you consider that MVG is 10/11 fav to win the Champions League of Darts outright – Cross looks a bit of value at 6/1. And we’re also going money back all losers in the outright market if MVG wins with a max free bet of a tenner per customer.
Name the Finalists: Rob Cross v Gary Anderson 12/1
MVG can struggle with his doubles when he comes under pressure and Cross and Gary Anderson are players that can do that.
Anderson has been very consistent lately and we believe both players can beat MVG this weekend.
They’ll need the luck of the draw to avoid a clash in the semi-final. However, if that can be avoided they can both can make it through to Sunday’s final.
Group B : Dual Forecast: Rob Cross and Mensur Suljovic 5/2
Group B looks the slightly weaker group and Peter Wright might be the one to lose out as he’s a bit inconsistent at the moment.
The dual forecast here of R Cross / M Suljovic @ 5/2 looks the play. We’ve spoken about Cross and his return to form and Suljovic has been very consistent all year too.
He showed great form when getting to the World Match-play Final. And don’t forget he won this tournament last year.
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