The FA Cup Of Darts To Be Contested This Weekend

With the Premier League of Darts delayed until early April, the next big tournament that is on the schedule for many of the best players across the world is the famous PDC UK Open Championship.

This is a genuinely true open event, with qualifying for the event allowing almost any player with any skill level a chance to try and qualify for the televised event which starts this Friday (shown live on ITV 4).

With the top 32 players in the world seeded through until the fourth round, the remaining players will battle it out across three rounds of action prior to that to earn one of the 32 available fourth round spots and a shot at one of the top 32.

What makes this tournament unique is that there are so many players taking part across the event and the draw is random at each stage of the tournament, so players are never sure who they will face in the next round. That can throw up some very spicy ties, even in the relatively early stages of the competition.

If you are keen to see if it will be one of the favourites, or a rank outsider, that manages to claim the trophy in the UK Open this weekend, then you may want to have a flutter on the outcome and the best place to do that and receive some great odds is at bet365 Sport. Remember too, if you are not yet a customer you can sign up with the site great value welcome bonus to help you get started betting.

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Darts is also growing in popularity across the pond in the United States and there may well be plenty of bookmakers across the land that offer odds on this event this weekend. For more information on these sites, as well as news and the latest promotional offers, check out the details available at the exciting new sports betting site bestbetsusa.com.

Let’s now take a closer look at this famous tournament, why it is so popular with both the darts players and fans and who we think will be the players in line to land the trophy when the final is played on Sunday evening after a hectic three days of darts.

PDC UK Open Championship History & Preview

• History of the Event

The first UK Open was held back in 2003 at Bolton Wanderers Reebok Stadium and it remained at the Reebok until 2014 when it moved to Butlin’s Minehead where it has been played ever since up until this year.

The event has seen a number of nine dart finishes, Mervyn King, Gary Anderson, Wes Newton and Jonny Clayton achieving it once apiece, while Michael van Gerwen has done it twice and Phil Taylor four times.

This is the second time in four years that the event will be played behind closed doors after the 2018 tournament was also played this way due to extreme weather.

• Previous Winners

Phil Taylor won the very first event and he landed this trophy on five occasions. Other multiple winners include Michael van Gerwen who has three wins to his name, while Raymond van Barneveld and James Wade, have each landed the trophy twice.

Players to land a single win in the event include Roland Scholten, Robert Thornton, Adrian Lewis, Peter Wright, Gary Anderson and 2019 winner Nathan Aspinall.

Last year’s event was won by Michael van Gerwen who beat Gerwyn Price 11-9 in an exciting final.

• The 2021 UK Open Championship Format

This year’s tournament starts with a first round featuring the tour card holders ranked 98^th to 128^th plus 32 additional qualifiers who have earned their place in the event through winning a series of qualifiers held across the UK over the last few months.

Due to six players pulling out of the event, six players have received a bye into the second round with the remaining 26 games to be played across Friday. These 32 players then go into the second round where they will be drawn at random against the players ranked 65-97 in the PDC.

The 32 winners of those games then go into the third round where they will be drawn at random against the players holding PDC Tour Cards 33-64.

Finally, the 32 winners of those games will then enter the fourth round where they will be randomly drawn against the players ranked 1^st to 32^nd in the PDC and this is the stage where the more familiar names in darts, such as current champion Michael van Gerwen and World Champion Gerwyn Price, will enter the tournament.

For a player to win the event from playing in the first round they would need to win nine matches across the three days. Even the top players still need to win six to claim the trophy.

This year’s event is taking place in Milton Keynes, instead of the usual venue of Butlins resort in Minehead.

The winner will pocket £100,000 of the £450,000 total prize pool.

Who Are Our Tips To Win The UK Open Championship 2021?

Last year’s finalists, winner Michael van Gerwen (4/1) and runner up Gerwyn Price (5/1) are the two clear leaders in the pre-tournament betting with bet365 and it is not hard to understand why. Both of these players have been in dominant form over the last six months with van Gerwen getting back to his best form while Gerwyn Price landed his first ever World Championship just a couple of months back.

They are certainly the players to beat in this tournament but one of those listed that is capable of doing precisely that is Peter Wright (9/1). The Scotsman’s form has been a little up and down of late and he has suffered a few disappointing defeats, but on his day he is more than capable of beating anybody in the field comfortably and I think he is due a big tournament performance.

Outside of that form has played a key role in deciding the odds of the next two players with Jonny Clayton a 12/1 shot and Joe Cullen 18/1, the odds on these players being shortened dramatically after excellent performances in recent events. Gary Anderson is a 20/1 shot alongside Dmitri van den Bergh, while David Chisnall and Michael Smith are both 25/1

Our pick to go well in this event though is the 33/1 shot Nathan Aspinall, who won this event back in 2019 and who I think will go well again here.