Darts Betting Tips: Sean previews the semi-final matches

Sunday marks the semi-final stage at the Grand Slam of Darts.

Betfred Insights' Darts expert, Sean Rafferty, is back with his darts betting tips for Sunday's Grand Slam action and is confident of another winner, after a red-hot week thus far.

Darts Odds

Martin Lukeman to win @ 1/2

What an opportunity this is for both Lukeman and Mansell, both have the chance to make their first ever major final, perhaps neither will get a better chance than this. It’s also a first major semi final for the pair, so don’t be surprised if nerves play a big role in this match.

Mansell came through a rollercoaster of a match against Cameron Menzies, eventually coming out on top in a nervy deciding leg to win 16-15. He averaged 91 and knocked in eleven 180s, so the scoring was pretty solid.

However his doubles were a bit of a concern - he only hit 31 per cent of them, missing 36 darts in total on the outer ring. It’s a further concern when you compare it to how reliable his doubles have been the rest of the tournament, he was 64 per cent on doubles for the event before playing Menzies. Perhaps you could argue that nerves were playing their part already at the back end of legs, which could worsen the deeper we get in the tournament and the more that’s at stake.

Lukeman took care of Rob Cross pretty easily in the end, winning 16-11. This was despite having trailed 5-1 at one stage, but he looked the better player throughout and eventually managed to pull away from Cross in the latter stages. He’s been mid to high 90s averages the whole week, he does have another gear though, as he showed in the qualifying for this event, averaging 103, 104, 104, 107 in his matches to reach the event itself.

He does have a level that I’m not sure Mansell can get to so I’m sure he’d love to do that, even just for a spell of 5-10 legs which would probably be enough to take the match away from Mickey. He’s mentioned making a new darts room at his home in Watford and putting in the hours with Connor Scutt, he seems very happy with his current practice regime and clearly it’s paying dividends.

Lukeman is playing the slightly better stuff of the two this event, has had a better year and looks like he can hold it together on the doubles a bit better than Mansell, when almost everything swings in the favour of one player at 8/15 then I’ll back them.

Expect a nervy encounter but Smash looks a bit too strong in most departments and should get over the line to complete a fairytale run to the final.

Grand Slam of Darts Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Grand Slam of Darts page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this tournament.

Highest checkout over 140.5 in Luke Littler vs Gary Anderson @ 5/6

What a contest this has the potential to be, the semi-final I think all the fans wanted to see, a first ever competitive match between Luke Littler and Gary Anderson. Littler made it clear in his post-match interview yesterday how much he’d like to face Gary in the semis and now he’s got his wish, he’ll be looking to put on a show.

It was yet another masterclass yesterday from The Nuke - demolishing poor Jermaine Wattimena 16-2, averaged 105, hit twelve 180s (seven in the first five legs), 62 per cent on doubles and even missed double 12 for a nine-darter. To take the words from Littler himself in his post-match interview, it feels like he’s unbeatable when he plays like that.

You can tell he feels totally within himself this week and the confidence is oozing out of him. His “worst” performance this week was a 102.05 average in a flashy 5-3 win over Lourence Ilagan, which tells you everything about how well he’s playing.

Luke has averaged 102+ in nine of his last ten matches and averaged 105+ in six of them so the recent form is absolutely frightening. It’s so hard to see him being beaten over this lengthy format if he keeps up the level he’s producing just now.

Gary has finally took his brilliant floor form onto a big televised stage, to the relief of everyone in darts besides his opponents this week perhaps. He had to battle away against Gian Van Veen to fend off a potential comeback from the young Dutchman, despite Gary being the better of the two throughout, finally getting over the line 16-14.

The Scot was brilliant on his own throw which really limited any break of throw opportunities for Van Veen, meaning he could hold onto his couple legs lead.

What’s really impressed me this week with Anderson is his finishing. He’d admit himself that sometimes his doubles can be the undoing of him, but this week they’ve arguably been his strength. The Flying Scotsman is 51 per cent on doubles for the week, a significant improvement on his 41% success rate on doubles over the past twelve months. He was 57 per cent on them last night, it’s not often I say this about Gary but he never looked like he’d miss with three in hand at a double, pinning tops with his first attempt several times. You’d think his doubles need to remain as they are and he’ll need to find the top of that treble 20 bed with regularity if he’s to have any chance of winning.

In a match that could and probably should produce fireworks, I’m staying away from match winner, handicaps etc and instead opting for a big checkout to be nailed in the match. Over 140.5 checkout looks absolutely cracking value at 5/6, remembering we could get as many as 31 legs in this. Littler had checkouts of 167, 164, 110 and 104 in just eighteen legs against Wattimena.

Anderson had checkouts of 124 and 120 last night against Van Veen and has hit a 121+ checkout in all five matches he’s played this week, with most of them being much shorter in length than this match will be.

There’ll be opportunities aplenty for big outs and the way these two are playing I can’t see it not happening.

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