Following victory at the first event of the World Series of Darts in the Bahrain last weekend, Luke Littler, who turned 17 this week, will be eager to maintain the momentum he has built in recent weeks at the Dutch Masters at Maaspoort, Den Bosch, the Netherlands on January 26-27.
'The Nuke' defeated Michael van Gerwen 8-5 in the final in Bahrain, overcoming Man Lok Leung, Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price on route to the final two. Littler boasts a three-dart average of 101.46 in 2024 (2nd in the world), a checkout percentage of 40.93% (6th) and boasts 50 180s (6th).
Despite overcoming the field in the Persian Gulf, Littler (7/2) is unable to wrestle favouritsm away from world champion Luke Humphries (3/1). 'Cool Hand's' 20-game winning streak was ended by Price in the quarter-final of the Bahrain Masters – yet even in defeat he out-averaged his opponent by almost five points.
Few would bet against Humphries bouncing back this week, and at 3/1 there is excellent value on the table. Humphries boasts the highest three-dart average in the world in 2024 at 103.61 - 104.99 against the throw - and has hit 57 180s since the start of the year.
Bahrain finalist Van Gerwen is third in the betting at 4/1 after defeating Hasan Haji, Rob Cross and Michael Smith on his way to facing Littler. He showcased a three-dart average above 100 in all three of the those wins before dropping to 87.80 against the English prodigy.
'MVG' has 19 Masters titles to his name, with eight other appearances in the final. He won six titles in 2023 on the PDC Tour, including the US and Poland Masters, and is always a threat to challenge week-on-week.
Gerwyn Price (13/2), Michael Smith (9/1), Rob Cross (11/1), Nathan Aspinall (20/1) and Peter Wright (25/1) are the other five names who will compete for a second successive week on the World Series of Darts
Perhaps it is Aspinall who could be the threat from the rest of the field – he averaged 97.20 in victory over Lourence Ilagan before losing to Littler in last week's quarter-final, although he did average 100.48 in that loss.
The calibre of local opponent in the Netherlands will be much higher than on the Arabian Peninsula seven days ago with Danny Noppert (20/1), Dirk van Duijvenbode (33/1), Dimitri van den Bergh (33/1), Gian van Veen (40/1), Raymond van Barneveld (50/1), Kevin Doets (80/1), Jermaine Wattimena (125/1) and Vincent van der Voort (200/1).
Van den Bergh is a two-time winner, and three-time runner-up, in World Series of Darts events and could be the pick of the 'home contenders'.
