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World Grand Prix Day Seven Premium Picks
Well, the final of the World Grand Prix is here, and it’s been a week of shock exits and agonising defeats. We’ve got the two most consistent players this week, Mervyn King and Michael van Gewen facing off in a battle of the BDO old boys.
We went 2-2 last night, taking us to 16-17 and we have a profit of +3.06 units after five days of competition.
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Mervyn King Vs Michael van Gerwen.
This is going to be a classic final, and Mervyn King wasn’t the name we expected to be here. I was convinced Michael van Gerwen would make it, but not King.
Mervyn King averaged 88.6 in his impressive win over Brendan Dolan in their semi-final, the highlight being his 5 maximums, his 135 checkout and the fact he went 50% on his starting doubles – double 16 was good to him last night. The worry for me is the pressure King puts on himself. This is his biggest match for a long, long time, and King is the type of player who puts so much pressure on himself to perform well. That being said, his experience will help him here and he’s got to have some confidence back in his game now.
Michael van Gerwen, what can I say about his performance? He averaged 95.04 in a double-in format, which is unbelievable, especially when you consider he only his 2 maximums. But he put in a 135 checkout, and was 40% on his finishing doubles, 46% on his starting doubles, and that’s a huge factor in this format. There’s a lot of pressure on Van Gerwen, as now he’s come good, after playing exceptionally well for the past 12 months or so. He’ll be feeling the pressure just as much as King, and you have to remember that his big finals in the PDC have been on the Youth Tour, and he wasn’t exactly amazing in those.
I’m more excited for this final than I have been for most PDC finals outside of the World Championship, and this is because it could be a close one. That being said, last nights performances were a stark contrast. While King was solid, impressive and clinical, Michael van Gerwen was flashy, exciting and just unbelievable. I like the young Dutchman to take the final, simply because his semi-final performance was out of this world in terms of performing in the biggest match of his PDC career. He’s a nice price, so we have to go there. I also think we could be getting a quick, short match, and the line for the total number of legs just looks a bit high to me. I think we could get getting 36 legs or so, so the 39.5 legs looks just a tad high. Finally, the highest checkout line is a bit high, too, as both players didn’t get over the mid-130s in their semi-finals, and this is the big one for both, so the pressure should be on.
Michael van Gerwen to beat Mervyn King: 4/5 @ 888sport.
Recommend: 2.5 units.
Highest checkout in Brendan Dolan Vs Mervyn King match under 141.5: 5/6 @ Victor Chandler
Recommend: 2 units.
Total legs in Mervyn King Vs Michael van Gerwen match under 39.5 4/5 @ 888sport.
Recommend: 1.5 units.
And that’s it for the World Grand Prix. We’ll be back with for the Grand Slam of Darts in November. We’ll be looking for a comfortable Michael van Gerwen win tonight, and I think the young Dutchman has what it takes to finally kickstart his PDC career. Enjoy the final, and we’ll be back next month.
