Darts Betting Tips: Boosted double for Thursday

Thursday's action at the Grand Slam of Darts sees the climax of the last 16, with a  fantastic night of matches for us to enjoy!

Betfred Insights' Darts expert, Sean Rafferty, is back with his darts betting tips for Thursday's Grand Slam action and is hoping a boosted double will land, featuring two of the sports hottest young talents. 

Grand Slam of Darts Odds

Gian Van Veen to beat Ryan Joyce @ 8/13

These two have surprisingly never played each other so this could be an interesting one. Two players I’ve been pretty fond of backing on the Pro Tour over the last couple years, but it’s the young Dutchman who’s really impressing me so far this week.

GVV romped through what was hyped up as the “group of death” with three wins from three, with the group certainly lived up to the billing, with an overall average of 105.87 for the group as a whole. To be so dominant in a group of that class shows how well he played, he averaged 106, 115 and 104 in his matches. If he’s close to those numbers, then I can just about guarantee he’ll coast to victory here.

Joyce came through what looked a tricky group, with Gary Anderson and Michael Van Gerwen for company. The big Geordie came through in 2nd place, despite losing his opening group match 5-1. He beat MVG 5-4 in a winner goes through match on Tuesday night, after beating Noa-Lynn Van Leuven 5-2 the previous night.

He never really found his best stuff though it has to be said - Relentless averaged 90, 87 and 93. He’ll need to add 5+ points to those averages to give himself a fighting chance here. Statistically, Joyce is the second best doubles hitter in planet darts over the past 12 months, he’ll need to showcase that here but it’s whether he gets enough darts at double to do so, as I think he could get outscored pretty significantly.

8/13 looks a really good price for The Giant, who statistically holds the upper hand in this one.

Mike De Decker +4.5 legs handicap @ 8/15

What a match this could potentially be. The World Grand Prix champion against the Premier League champion and young superstar in darts right now. The pair have met just once in their young careers so far, with Luke Littler coming out on top 6-3 in a meeting on the Pro Tour.

Littler lit up his group with some incredible performances - he averaged 112 and 107 in dominant victories over Keane Barry and Dimitri Van den Bergh, dropping just one leg in total between those two matches. He then followed that up with a very entertaining 5-3 win over Lourence Ilagan, still averaging 102 in the process. If he can keep that up then he’ll be so tough to beat over this extended format.

Mike De Decker had a less straightforward passage to the knockout stages after losing his opening match 5-2 to Jermaine Wattimena, but he could count himself a bit unfortunate in that one as he still averaged high 90s himself. He put things right though with a gritty 5-2 win over Mensur Suljovic, followed by a brilliant display in a 5-0 demolition job over Michael Smith. That was a winner goes through match and he didn’t even allow Bully Boy a single dart at double, very impressive stuff.

I’d edge towards Littler winning this one but he’s way too short at 1/4 in my opinion, he’s still prone to throwing in the odd ropey performance and he’s up against a very capable opponent. De Decker has been slightly disrespected in the betting market for me in this one and I think The Real Deal can quite easily win 6+ legs if he performs how he did against Smith, generously priced at 8/15.

Sean's chosen double has been generously boosted from 11/8 to 13/8 at the time of publishing, which you can load direct to slip by clicking below.

Darts Odds

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