Grand Slam of Darts Thursday Betting Tips: Nuke features in Boosted Double

Darts guru Sean Rafferty is back with his daily Grand Slam tipping piece as we continue round two on Thursday.

Check out his Grand Slam of Darts Thursday betting tips below featuring a Boosted Double featuring a certain Luke Littler...

Connor Scutt +4.5 legs handicap @ 4/9

Connor Scutt has had an underwhelming year. I had high expectations for him after all the promise he showed last year, but he hasn’t managed to hit the same heights this year, however, he may be starting to put that right now.

I’ll be interested to see how he fares over a longer format, as we haven’t seen a great deal of him outside of first to 5/6 leg matches. You have to go back to the Players Championship Finals last November - Scutt beat Daryl Gurney 10-3 before losing out to Dirk van Duijvenbode 10-9, but averaged 99. He then followed that up at the UK Open this year with a 10-9 win over Price with a 100 average, before losing 10-7 to Heta. It’s an interesting angle to look at but it certainly seems as though Scutt may prefer the longer format.

Josh Rock looks to have returned to his best form after a couple ropey weeks by his lofty standards. Averages of 109, 99 and 97 to secure a massive win over Gian Van Veen last night suggest that Rocky is once again a major contender for the title this week. The head-to-head record is also interesting - aside from a 6-0 win for Rock in their first meeting in PDC, all their meetings have been tight (6-4, 6-5, 6-5, 6-4), all in Rock’s favour but nevertheless Scutt is proving a challenge for him every time they play now.

I think Rock’s power scoring may just prove too much in the end but I do think this could be tight. Scutt has bags of talent and this is the ideal opportunity for him to showcase it.

Over 9.5 total 180s in Luke Littler vs Wessel Nijman @ 1/3

Wessel Nijman was in good form coming into this, winning 12 of his 13 matches in the final two Pro Tour events of the year, as well as four matches at the Grand Slam qualifier. He looks to have brought that form to Wolverhampton as he navigated his way through a very tricky group, averaging mid 90s or higher in all three of his matches.

Thursday, of course, brings a totally different test as he faces the current World Champion in Luke Littler. They’ve only played three times in PDC so far without the Development Tour, Littler leading 2-1 in those meetings. This will be their first match over a longer format and it’s an extremely exciting prospect, when you consider the heights both of these young lads can reach.

Combined, they are averaging 0.77 180s per leg. If they go at that rate, then they’ll only need around 12/13 legs to manage 10+ 180s, which is almost a guarantee to open. Neither of them were at their best in the group stages in terms of 180 hitting but I think they can raise their games in the knockout stages, the pace of the match should play into the hands of both and this match-up has the potential to explode and light up Day Six.

A barrel load of maximums feels like a near certainty if they can bounce off each-other.

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