US Darts Masters 2024 Odds: Two to win at the iconic MSG

The PDC calendar continues to march on towards the Betfred World Matchplay in Blackpool, as  we head stateside to New York for the US Darts Masters which runs from Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June.

As always, we've asked our darts expert Sean Rafferty to preview the event and give us his US Darts Masters Predictions, with two familiar names taking centre stage...

History, Location and Format

The 2024 US Darts Masters is the sixth running of this PDC event and is the third event in the World Series of Darts.

The tournament is held at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City, with this year's event running from the 31st May to 2nd June and will be shown on DAZN, Viaplay and PDCTv.

The field is comprised of eight top ranking players from the PDC Order of Merit and then eight regional qualifiers.

The draw sees the PDC Order of Merit players taking on a local player in the first round.

Michael van Gerwen is the defending champion after defeating Jeff Smith 8–0 in the 2023 final.

Prize Money

There is a total prize fund of £60,000 on offer to the 16 participants.

Draw

1 Michael van Gerwen
Danny Lauby

Rob Cross
Adam Sevada

4 Luke Humphries
David Cameron

Nathan Aspinall
Stowe Buntz

2 Luke Littler
Matt Campbell

Michael Smith
Jeff Smith

3 Gerwyn Price
Jules van Dongen

Peter Wright
Alex Spellman

3.5 pts Luke Humphries @ 9/4

I feel like 'Cool Hand' could be keen to get back to winning ways this weekend, having lost out to Luke Littler in the Premier League final, despite averaging 102.5 himself in that match. He averaged above 102 over 33 legs on PL Finals Night, so he can still be happy with the way he performed.

Outside of PL nights, he hasn’t won any of the last five events he’s played in, which these days is a bit of a drought for Humphries. He’s due a win and already shared his desire to lift the title this week. He usually recovers well from losses and should bounce back without much hurt from last Thursday, as he can be pleased with his performances.

The draw has been fairly kind to him - he faces Dave Cameron on Friday night which should be a routine win, then plays the winner of Nathan Aspinall or Stowe Buntz. Buntz hasn’t rediscovered his form of last year and Aspinall has lost his last five matches.

Rob Cross/MVG potentially in the semis looks his toughest test on route to the final, but he’s already proved he’s playing at a higher level a lot more consistently than Van Gerwen. Cross is playing well but Humphries I’m sure would like revenge from his defeat to him in the Austrian Darts Open final.

I was only going to take one of Littler/Humphries and while I couldn’t ignore both, as there’s no denying that the pair of them are some distance ahead of the rest of the top 16 this year, I’ve sided with Cool Hand, as I think he’ll be hungrier than Littler to lift this title and put him back in his place.

1.5 pts Gerwyn Price @ 6/1

Outside of Littler, I feel Gerwyn Price has the best chance in this half of the draw. Gezzy seems relieved to put it mildly about the Premier League campaign being over, he doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the event or the crowds attending them, perhaps bogging him down in other events that have seen him go without a big stage win since lifting the World Cup with Jonny Clayton for Wales, last June.

Last weekend looked like a return to form, smashing Van Veen and Mansell who only took one leg off Price between them. 'The Iceman' averaged 103 over these two matches. He then lost to eventual winner Josh Rock 6-3, but still averaged a ton in that.

I think he’s treating this phase in the season as a fresh start and will look to go into his World Cup defence with some good form under his belt. I really fancy him to make the semis relatively unscathed, as the trio in his section is a generally out of sorts Peter Wright, then American qualifiers Alex Spellman and Jules Van Dongen, neither of them have been anywhere near their best in 2024 to say the least.

Getting past Littler potentially is going to be the big challenge but if he can get into that semi final with another two good performances in the lead up, he’ll be confident of his chances. Another big factor here is that usually the crowd in America are fairly laidback/muted compared to some of the British crowds, so Price won’t have this to contend with which often effects him in a negative way. This could be the best chance in some months for Gezzy to lift some much needed silverware.

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