European Championship Darts 2024 Predictions: Cool Hand to keep up hot streak

After thirteen weeks of Euro Tour action, the PDC calendar continues with the European Championship from Dortmund, which runs from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 October. As always, we've asked our darts expert Sean Rafferty to preview the event and give us his European Championship Darts Predictions, which you can check out below.

History, Location and Format

The 2024 European Championship is the seventeenth running of this PDC event, having debuted in 2008 and is the culmination of the PDC European Tour series, which saw 13 events played across varying European cities.

The tournament is held at the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund, Germany, with this year's event running from October 24th to the 27th and will be shown on ITV in the UK.

The field is comprised of the top 32 from the PDC European Tour Order of Merit and the draw is played in a fixed bracket format, where the number one seed plays number 32, number two plays number 31 and so on.

There have been several multiple winners of this tournament including Phil Taylor, who won the first four staging's, Michael van Gerwen (four times), Rob Cross and Peter Wright (both twice).

The defending champion is Wright, who defeated James Wade 11-6 in the 2023 final.

Prize Money

There is a total prize fund of £600,000 on offer to the 32 participants.

Draw

European Championship Darts Odds

5u Luke Humphries to win @ 7/2

Luke showed his class again last weekend, storming his way to his second European Tour of the year. 'Cool Hand' averaged above 100 in every single match and nobody he beat along the way could get within two legs of him.

This consistency is what’s separating him from the other elite players in my opinion, there’s around 10-20 players who can regularly average 100+ but nobody does it as consistently as Humphries - at tournaments with a decent sized crowd in attendance, besides the Grand Prix double-in format, he hasn’t dropped below a 94 average in his last 20 matches.

Luke Littler was on a rampage of crazy scoring last weekend but Humphries managed to stand up to it in their semi final clash and put him in his place you could say. This will have given Humphries further confidence and the upper hand in their mini rivalry, which could prove crucial as they’ll meet each other in the semis again if both come through their respective quarters of the draw.

The World Champ has a tricky opener and potential banana skin when he’ll face multiple major champion Nathan Aspinall. Luke did beat him 6-4 on the Pro Tour last month and Nathan is still showing some inconsistency in his performances, so I feel he’ll win that. No other player in Humphries’ quarter of the draw has won a major this year and once we get to best of 19 legs I just think Cool Hand is so tough to beat due to that consistency I keep talking about.

The European Championship is one of very few titles Luke hasn’t yet added to his collection, so he’ll be keen to put that right this weekend. Again, I’m surprised to see him come in as second favourite behind Littler at 7/2 and it looks good value to me.

2.5u Michael van Gerwen @ 15/2

MVG was warming up nicely into the event last weekend, until he was on the receiving end of an absolute barrage from Littler, who averaged 110.57. Incredibly, van Gerwen averaged over 112 in that match himself, yet only won a single leg.

Despite a small lay off through illness, it hasn’t seemed to have affected his form too much - after a disappointing opening round defeat at the World Grand Prix to Daryl Gurney, Mighty Mike went on to pick up a second Pro Tour title in the space of a month, defeating Gerwyn Price in the final. He actually played better at the weekend than he did on his way to winning that title so can still be happy with his overall form.

This looks a much better chance for MVG, as he doesn’t have Humphries or Littler to contend with in his half of the draw, who are the only two players I’d make him second favourite against just now. He has what should be a fairly routine opener I reckon against Gabriel Clemens, albeit it’s in Germany but so have been many of their previous Euro Tour meetings, with van Gerwen holding a very strong record against the German Giant.

He’d then face Bunting or Anderson, again he has pretty good records recently against these two and would be confident of a result. The top half of the draw looks a lot more open and the Green Machine will want to prove that he’s up to the job, this looks a good opportunity for him and his price hasn’t changed much at 15/2 despite the more favourable draw.

1u Mike De Decker e/w (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 33/1 

It’s been a great few months for De Decker, picking up his maiden PDC title over the summer at the Pro Tour, then following this up fairly quickly with his first ever major/televised title at the World Grand Prix. Many players carry the burden of not winning a major their whole careers, so for Mike to do it pretty early on as his career progresses will be a relief.

He looked really good at the Czech Darts Open last weekend until coming up in a rematch against Luke Humphries where he looked out of sorts. Before that, he averaged 104, 102.5 and 104.6 in victories over Claydon, Noppert and Schindler, dropping just three legs in total. The form is very much still there and he’s perhaps playing with more freedom now he’s probably already achieved what he had set out for himself at the start of the year.

He’s playing well enough to be classed as a genuine contender for any majors/televised events now and one more big televised win between now and the end of the year could see him be included in next year’s Premier League line up, as he should be considered as it is.

He does have the daunting prospect of facing Littler in the QFs if himself and Luke progress through the first couple rounds, but Mike can beat anybody on his day now, he already proved that at the WGP coming through several big names over a longer format.

He faces Josh Rock first who I fancy him to beat, his doubles are much superior and that will be the telling factor in that match I reckon. He’d then face Noppert or Cullen, Noppert who he just thrashed 6-0 on the Euro Tour or Cullen who his level is well ahead of just now.

If Littler gets put out early doors then this is definitely De Decker’s section to win and who knows from there, the Real Deal is a genuine contender and at 33s I won’t be backing away.

1u Martin Schindler e/w (1/2 - 2 Places) @ 40/1

Finally, 'Schindy' has done all the hard work through the year, picking up two European Tour titles along the way, on top of two semi final runs which see him come here as the number one seed. Of course if you’re top seed, you’re more likely to have a favourable section of the draw and I’d say Martin has definitely got that here.

He faces Dirk Van Duijvenbode first, who he’ll need to be wary of, as the Dutchman showed some good form at recent Pro Tour events, however, he hasn’t won a match in-front of a crowd since June, funnily enough it was Schindler who ended that run too.

He’ll then face the winner of Gurney/Price, I’m still not fully convinced Price will play in this, having pulled out at the weekend due to a trapped nerve in his back.  Even if he does play his fitness is a question mark, as is his desire for the game at the moment in my opinion.

The next best seeds in his quarter of the draw are Ryan Searle and Ross Smith, Searle who often flatters to deceive in the televised events and Smith who hasn’t shown his best form recently (lost five of last six games, all to lower ranked players).

Schindler still averaged 100 in defeat to De Decker at the weekend and averaged 103 in a 6-1 drubbing over Peter Wright prior to that, so can be relatively happy with his game coming into this.

Hopefully the pressure of being top seed doesn’t get to him, he’s never been beyond the first round in four attempts at the European Championship so needs to put that right, he looks more ready than ever to make an impact in these bigger events now and The Wall will also have a bumper home crowd in Dortmund backing him all the way. 40/1 for the top seed is too good to refuse.

Darts Odds

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