Austrian Darts Open 2024 Odds: Three big each-ways for Austria

The darts calendar continues its relentless march, as straight after the Premier League in Liverpool, we move over to Austria for the fifth of the PDC European Tour events, which runs Friday 26th to Sunday 28th April.

As always, we've asked our darts expert Sean Rafferty to preview the event and give us his Austrian Darts Open Predictions ranging from 40/1 to 100/1.

History, Location and Format

The 2024 Austrian Darts Open is the 11th running of this PDC European Tour event and is the fifth of thirteen such events on the PDC Pro Tour calendar.

The tournament is held at the Steiermarkhalle, Premstätten, Austria, with this year's event running from the 26th-28th April 2024 and will be shown on PDCTv.

The field is comprised of the top 16 from the PDC Order of Merit and then the next highest 16 ranked players from the ProTour Order of Merit, as well as 16 regional qualifiers.

The draw sees the top 16 in the Order of Merit enter the tournament at the second round stage.

Jonny Clayton is the defending champion, after defeating Josh Rock 8-6 in the 2023 final.

Prize Money

There is a total prize fund of £175,000 on offer to the 48 participants.

Draw

1 pts Martin Schindler e/w (1/2, 2 places) @ 40/1

'Schindy' won his maiden PDC title at long last a couple of weeks ago, in his home country on the Euro Tour. This week we move away from Germany, next door to neighbouring Austria.

I feel like Schindler has always had the talent to succeed in the PDC but maybe lacked that bit of belief and/or bottle when it really came down to crunch moments in tournaments. Now he’s put that to bed, I feel it’s a weight off his shoulders, with every German player carrying extra pressure with them, as they look to become the first household name in German darts.

Since winning, he played in the European Grand Prix last weekend and averaged 109 and 106 in his matches, somehow losing the latter 6-5 against Cross. Schindler is 11th on the averages list for 2024, which is not too shabby at all.

I think this year could be his time to shine and the draw has been fairly kind in my opinion - he plays an out of sorts James Wade on Friday then would face one of the weaker seeds in Ricardo Pietreczko on the Saturday.

He has to be considered most weeks now and this looks another decent opportunity for 'The Wall'.

0.5 pts Ritchie Edhouse e/w (1/2, 2 places) @ 100/1 

I backed Edhouse last week at much bigger odds of 250/1 and that number has came into 100s this week, which is probably about right. He exited in the last 16 last weekend but should have been coming back in the evening, having missed six match darts to reach the QFs.

Hopefully he doesn’t have too much of a hangover from that and can bounce straight back this week - he has a similarly decent draw again, as he faces Arron Monk on Friday and would then face Dirk Van Duijvenbode again, who he beat in the same round 6-1 last week.

None of the seeds in this section are playing great just now, so Ritchie shouldn’t fear anyone. His achilles heel is probably belief in himself as we reach the latter stages of a tournament but I’m happy to have a go on him again at triple figure odds.

0.5 pts Ryan Joyce e/w (1/2, 2 places) @ 100/1

Ryan Joyce has had a steady-ish start to 2024 - reaching the last 16 of the first two Euro Tour events and of a Pro Tour event. He has had a couple weeks off as didn’t qualify for the last couple of Euro Tour events, meaning he  should come here refreshed and ready to go on a run. He did average 102+ in three of his last five matches so has been finding some form.

This is a guy that isn’t scared to win - he's won Pro Tour events in 2020 and 2023. However, he hasn’t had nearly the same joy on the Euro Tour yet, not ever going beyond the last 16 but he’s still improving in my opinion.

'Relentless' has a good draw - playing Danny Lauby on Friday where he should prevail, then would face Peter Wright where I’d make him solid favourite on recent form, so straight away has a great chance of making last 16.

Stamina could be a question mark for the 38-year-old come  Sunday night, as we have seen from him at the UK Open last year. But again at triple figure odds I’m happy to oblige.

You can find all Sean's latest Darts Betting Tips on our main Darts Insights content hub.