World Series of Darts Finals 2024 Predictions: Can Littler pick up yet another title?

The PDC calendar continues with the World Series of Darts Finals from Amsterdam, which runs from the Friday 13 to Sunday 15 September. As always, we've asked our darts expert Sean Rafferty to preview the event and give us his World Series of Darts Finals Predictions, which you can check out below.

History, Location and Format

The 2024 World Series of Darts Finals is the tenth running of this PDC event, with the tournament held at AFAS Live, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with this year's event running from September 13th to the 15th and will be shown on ITV4, Viaplay and PDCTV.

The field has been increased for the first time to 32 players, with the top eight from the Masters Series automatically seeded. There are also two additional PDC invited players, nine World Series Order of Merit qualifiers, PDC Order of Merit qualifiers and Tour Card Holder qualifiers.

Michael van Gerwen will be looking to defend his title and win his sixth trophy here, after beating Nathan Aspinall 11-4 in the 2023 final.

Prize Money

There is a total prize fund of £400,000 on offer to the 32 participants.

Draw

World Series of Darts Finals Odds

3 pts Luke Littler to win @ 4/1

As usual, it's a toss up between Luke Littler and Luke Humphries at the top of the outright market, as they continue to lead the way this year.  I felt I had to take one of them this week, as once we’re beyond the second round the format changes to first to 10/11 legs, which usually favours the big names.

Littler has got the nod from me this time - he's making his debut here, having enjoyed a very successful World Series campaign, which saw him win two titles and make a further two finals, incredibly he has made the SFs of all six World Series events he’s played in to date.

He arrives here as top seed, not that it seems to have made his draw any easier but this may at least give him added confidence that he’s the man to beat. Since the Aus/NZ swing in the World Series, The Nuke has averaged 104+ in six of his last 13 matches and it’s highly unlikely anybody beats him, if he can produce that level, which is pretty terrifying for the rest of the field.

He has a tough match against Ross Smith first up, however, Smudger has had a few below par performances recently on the Euro Tour, so I think he’ll get the better of him. He'll then likely face Raymond van Barneveld, which means playing against a hostile crowd too. There have been hints that Littler may be a bit fragile to this but he’s playing at such a higher level than Barney right now, that I don’t think it’ll come into play too much.

He’ll need to get past big names all the way but as we know nothing phases this young man. He has six titles to his name thus far in his debut year as a PDC tour card holder, I believe he can make it seven here.

1 pt Michael Smith e/w (1/2, 2 places) @ 12/1

With all due respect to the others in it, this quarter of the draw looks a bit of a two-horse race between Michael Smith and Rob Cross. Over the last year, I would’ve tended to side with Cross but I do feel like his game has taken a slight dip in recent months, after Smith himself hammered him in a World Matchplay QF and Smith has showed signs that his game is there at that tournament and in a few matches in World Series events following it.

Bully Boy has took the best part of a month off, perhaps a wise decision as he buckles up for a pretty relentless final few months of the year, with a lot of big televised tournaments to come. We saw him begin to peak at this time of year in 2022 ahead of becoming World Champion, so he’ll be looking to do similar this time round.

The draw looks pretty kind - he faces Jose De Sousa first up, who looks a shadow of the player he once was, so he should win that comfortably. He then faces the winner of Wesley Nijman / Andrew Gilding. I have a hunch it will be Gilding but even the pace of Nijman would suit Smith’s game and he has a wealth of experience over him.

He’d then likely face Cross in a QF which would be the big game, with no Littler or Humphries in this half of the draw the winner of that match will feel they have a great chance of making the final at least. The St Helens man really needs a big televised win and this looks like a good opportunity to convert.

0.75 pts Peter Wright e/w (1/2, 2 places) @ 22/1

Darts Odds

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