Champions League of Darts 2019 Odds
2019 Champions League of Darts
The 2019 Champions League of Darts will be the 4th instalment of the tournament which is organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. It will take place very soon on the 19th and 20th of October which is one of the shorter events out of all the major tournaments, the Champions League is hosted at the Morningside Arena, Leicester in England.
In the 2019 tournament the defending Champion will be Englishman Gary Anderson who beat the Scot Peter Wright.
History
The first details of the initial tournament were announced by the Professional Darts Corporation on the 9th of February 2016, addition to the announcement of the new broadcasting deal between the BBC and PDC.
With the PDC 2016 calendar already announced in August 2015, a Barnsley round of the PDC Player championship was moved elsewhere to accommodate it.
A second champions league tournament was then announced as part of the August ’16 release of the ’17 calendar.
Format of the tournament
The Champions League’s format is a group stage initially and then followed by the knockout stage. The group stage features two groups of four, who meet in a round-robin format, which is where each player plays their group opponents once in a single match.
Following the round-robin only the top 2 players qualify to go onto the semi-finals, which as you can tell, means the winners of both semi finals meet in the finals to battle it out. Though in some tournaments there is a 3rd 4th playoff within this tournament there is no 3rd 4th playoff.
Matches in the group stage are won by the first player to win 10 legs, while the knockout stages are first to 11.
Qualified Players
All payers that qualify are all decorated, as there is no way you can get into the Champions League without being decorated with major trophies, here are the 8 players that have qualified.
Michael van Gerwen – one of the best darts player of all time Michael is hunting for Phil Taylors accolades and records, Van Gerwen is understandably the favourite to win this tournament.
Rob Cross – this year already Rob has won the Darts Matchplay, the UK Open and the Premier League, Rob is already having a wonderful 2019 and I tip Rob to at least top his group.
Daryl Gurney – The man from Northern Ireland is definitely an underdog in a packed group, Daryl, since 2017 has achieved a lot of accolades winning the World Grand Prix in 2017, if Daryl gets out of his group I see him contesting for the championship.
Michael Smith – In 2019 Michael has been unlucky with finishing twice as Runner-up in the World Matchplay and the World Championship, Michael is always in the latter rounds and I can’t see him doing any different this year, I can see him getting out of his group depending on his matches vs Anderson and Wade.
Gary Anderson – The Scotsman is a very popular player to the fans Gary has been around for a while now and is still achieving a lot, Gary is the reigning champion this year and has been put into a very testing group.
Peter Wright – The mohawk man that everyone would miss if he doesn’t attend an event. Peter this year got to the semi-finals in the Masters losing out to James Wade 11-9, Peter Wright is always a big performer in the big matches, I can see Peter Wright causing trouble for MVG.
Gerwyn Price – The Welshman has had a good flurry of years winning the Grand Slam in 2018, the solo Welshman needs too be on top of his game to do well in his group, it is also his champions league debut.
James Wade – James has been given a testing group this year, he hasn’t had the best year in terms of personal performance, but he did win the European Championship in 2018 beating a powerful Whitlock.
Group Predictions
Group A
Michael Van Gerwen
Michael Smith
Gary Anderson
James Wade
Any group in the Champions league is going to be a very entertaining group, each group has four major powerhouses all sniffing for that champion of champions triumph, as stated previously, MVG will be on everyone’s list as favourite, but do not count out the 3 other groupmates.
It’s very hard to predict this group, my prediction is Michael Van gerwen (1st) and Anderson (2nd) to go through to the Semi Finals.
Group B
Rob Cross
Daryl Gurney
Peter Wright
Gerwyn Price
I see this group being a very interesting one, all of these players I can realistically see them topping the group, all players have had success in their own right, I see Peter Wright being a big dark horse in this tournament.
My humble prediction for this group is Peter Wright (1st) and Daryl Gurney (2nd) to go through to the semi-finals.
If you would like to watch the highlights from the 2018 Champions League where Gary Anderson beat Peter Wright 11-4 in the final, then please follow this link to the Scottish Rivalry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLX1gIfdhk