We continue to move through a congested darts season and the next tournament on the agenda is the European Championship in Dortmund. We’ve taken a look at this one and given you our predictions for the event.
History, Location and Format
The 2023 European Championship is the 16th running of this event and is held at the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund, Germany, between the 26th and 29th October. The event was originally devised as a way of getting the top 32 from the European Tour events to all compete at the same time against one another.
The original 2008 tournament was held in Frankfurt and has since been held in Germany 11 times, Belgium three times, with one appearance each in the Netherlands and Austria.
All four hostings of the European Championship were, of course, won by the GOAT, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor and other multiple champions include Michael van Gerwyn (four times) and Rob Cross (twice).
The defending champion is Englishman Ross Smith, who defeated Michael Smith 11-8 in the 2022 final, for his first major televised title.
There are 32 players taking part in the event, with the top 32 in the European Tour Order of Merit prize money qualifying, from the 13 European Tour events over the season. The draw bracket is fixed, with the #1 seed Dave Chisnall playing #32 seed Chris Dobey and so on.
First round matches are played over a bet of 11 legs, climbing all the way to best of 21 in the final.
| Top 32 European Tour Order of Merit | |
|---|---|
| 1 Dave Chisnall 2 Luke Humphries 3 Michael van Gerwen 4 Gerwyn Price 5 Rob Cross 6 Damon Heta 7 Dirk van Duijvenbode 8 Michael Smith 9 Peter Wright 10 Jonny Clayton 11 Josh Rock 12 Danny Noppert 13 Nathan Aspinall 14 Ricardo Pietreczko 15 Krzysztof Ratajski 16 Martin Schindler |
17 Stephen Bunting 18 Joe Cullen 19 Ross Smith 20 Ryan Searle 21 Andrew Gilding 22 Daryl Gurney 23 José de Sousa 24 Gabriel Clemens 25 Raymond van Barneveld 26 James Wade 27 Gian van Veen 28 Dimitri Van den Bergh 29 Keane Barry 30 Madars Razma 31 Brendan Dolan 32 Chris Dobey |
Prize Money
There is a £500,000 total prize fund with the money distributed as follows:
| Position | Prize Money |
|---|---|
| Winner Runner-up Semi-final Quarter-final Last 16 Last 32 |
£120,000 £60,000 £32,000 £20,000 £10,000 £6,000 |
Luke Humphries to win – 5/1
There is no more in-form player in the darting world right now than Luke Humphries.
The 28-year-old Englishman has long been seen as a stellar talent on the tour but has struggled to carry over those performances on to the televised events.
That all changed for the former youth World Champion at the recent World Grand Prix, where ‘Cool-Hand’ Luke finally got over the line, with a brilliant 5-2 win over Gerwyn Price.
That victory was no fluke and you get the feeling it’s only a matter of time before Humphries starts winning the big events regularly. His consistency has been brilliant over the last couple of years, regularly making the semi-finals of televised tournaments and I think he can go back-to-back here in Dortmund.
Rob Cross e/w (1/2, 2 Places) – 18/1
Talking of Germany, one man who simply loves it here is England’s Rob Cross, who is a two-time winner of this very event.
The 2018 World Champion has had an up and down few years but is on the up again and had his last major win in this very event back in 2021.
The World number nine showed his form at the Masters, where he reached the final and ‘Voltage’ also made the quarter-finals at three other major events this season.
Cross picked up his first win of the season at the European Darts Grand Prix back in May, which was again held in Germany. Perhaps it’s something in the water here?
Seeded five in the order of merit, Cross looks to have a favourable draw and if he can get past Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals, who knows?
*All prices correct at the time of writing.
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