Players Championship 14: Pro Tour darts preview and betting tips

Written by: Matt Hill

Tuesday sees the second leg of a darting double-header take place in Rosmalen as some of the PDC Pro Tour’s best battle for the Players Championship 14 title.

After Damon Heta reigned supreme on Monday afternoon, who will be the last man standing today? Our arrows expert Matt Hill (@Matt_Hill93) marks your card ahead of the midday start.

Players Championship 13 recap - Red-hot Heta shows clinical touch 

Damon Heta is one of the PDC’s floor masters, so it will never be a surprise to see the Heat burn his way to a Pro Tour success.

It’s fair to say Heta wasn’t at his vintage, high-scoring best throughout yesterday, with averages of 89 and 94 (x3) posted on the way to victory – but what he did do fantastically is nail the crucial moments.

Checkouts of 151, 152 and 135 in a 6-2 win over Karel Sedlacek, having gone 0-2 behind, epitomised the Aussie’s brilliance. Those are tide-turning finishes against any opponent, on any stage, and we now come to expect them as standard from the Heat.

For just shy of three years, I applied a very basic logic to Heta. Simply back him for every Pro Tour, to a level stake, at 33/1, as he’ll win at least one a year – probably two.

It served me well. Two wins in 2022, two wins in 2023 and two wins in 2024. With one in the bag this year, there’s no reason the pattern won’t continue.

I refined that theory a bit more in recent times. Heta remains very much on my radar every floor tournament but I do try to consider other factors before putting him up, such as whether others appeal more at the prices, whether the two Luke’s have turned up etc.

Therefore, it’s mildly frustrating not to have included him in yesterday’s column selections. But, you have to move on quickly in darts betting as there’s always another event just around the corner.

Congrats to Damo and I hope it’s the first of many trophies he picks up this year.

Players Championship 14 betting tips

Stick with likely lads Dobey and Searle

Heta certainly fits the mould of a reliable Pro Tour performer. In fact, if you were to pick three players out who fit that description, he would feature on my list alongside Chris Dobey and Ryan Searle.

While the trio are part of a larger ‘middle tier’ of players often overlooked for the likes of Littler, Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price when it comes to making big headlines, you can set your watch to them consistently running deep on the floor.

Both were advised yesterday and both exited before the last 64. That would be a concern in some situations – but with these two, it actually excites me.

A deeper dig into Dobey’s three Pro Tour wins last year shows his previous result wasn’t anything to shout about either. Last 32…win. Last 64…win. Did not play…win.

Meanwhile, the reward for Searle’s early exit to Gabriel Clemens yesterday is a marked drift in his price. Heavy Metal is now 40/1 across the board, pretty much.

Come on now. This is arguably the most consistent floor performer of the post-COVID era we’re talking about here for goodness sake. 40/1? A 2.4% chance of winning here? With no Littler and Humphries?

It was less than two months ago that was reigning supreme at PC4 – his fifth Pro Tour win and his eighth final since February 2023. As they say, class is permanent and a few ropey results still don’t mean Searle is a 40/1 runner in this field.

Anyway, regardless of his price, I’d not be dumping him today. That game with Clemens went to a decider, where the big German broke in 12 darts. One of those things.

Dobey has been trimmed slightly into 22/1 but I still think that’s a fair quote without the Luke’s. If he’s still there come the quarters, I’d have him as my likeliest winner outside of Price.

Note that my Searle bet will be win only, given he is significantly shorter than 40s in the four-place markets. I’ll do some hedging in-running if he makes the latter stages.

De Decker worth adding after discovering scoring touch

Readers of yesterday’s column will know I still made Gary Anderson a bet at 14/1 but sadly, the Flying Scotsman was one of a couple of last-minute withdrawals alongside Dimitri Van den Bergh.

That makes room for another ‘premium’ player on my card I suppose, so let’s quickly explain why I landed on Mike De Decker.

I believe Price is a worthy favourite but he does have defeats like that one yesterday to Max Hopp in his locker on the Pro Tour. I can pass him at 8/1, while MVG is a rotten price at 12/1 given he barely makes it into the last 32 these days.

Rock, Van Veen, Aspinall and Heta are all in good nick but at between 12/1 and 16/1, you’d be backing them at the bottom of their seasonal price range. Leave them alone over the next few weeks and they will inevitably start to drift again.

I give Dobey as good a chance as all of that quartet, which makes him a bet at 22s - while Cameron Menzies and Jonny Clayton are about right at the same price.

Then we come to a very interesting trio indeed. I could easily have been making a case for backing Wessel Nijman or Ross Smith at 28/1 – but it is De Decker who gets the nod at 30s instead.

Nijman and Smith are two of the most in-form players in the field but I feel the market has known that for a few weeks. Both seem to be finding ways to get beat despite playing some of their best stuff, which must be frustrating.

But under the radar, the World Grand Prix champion is also coming to the boil in spectacular style.

Since the start of March, the Real Deal has won 75% of his matches in all formats. Yesterday, he smashed in a remarkable 20 180s in 38 legs. That was actually more than anyone else in the field, despite him exiting at the last 16 stage.

When De Decker is playing well, there’s two facets of his game that run like clockwork. His maximums and his D16 hitting. With the former clearly in rude health, it’ll only take a good day on that green segment to see him blast his way to glory.

Taylor and five monster prices to round things off

Once again, Dom Taylor managed to exit early yesterday as Andy Baetens saw him off 6-5. 

It was a sluggish start from both – three legs of low 80s fodder, which saw Baetens go 3-0 up.

Beyond that point, both players were operating at north of a ton and in the end, a classy 13 dart hold of throw got the Belgian over the line.

If you’re not the type to play the long game from a betting perspective, I imagine Taylor will be grinding your gears at the moment. However, I’ve been doing this long enough to develop some strong patience and he gets his usual spot on my betting card.

I also want to add 51-year-old Mario Vandenboegarde.

A little bit like Ian White, he’s found some form in recent weeks that defies his age, knocking out Humphries and Van Gerwen in the last two Pro Tour events alone.

Having exited at round one in six of the year’s first seven events, there’s been some serious improvement in recent weeks and this tricky customer is capable of a deep run at 200/1, in a similar mould to the likes of White, Neils Zonneveld and Nick Kenny in recent times.

Beyond that, circumstances and prices dictate that I throw some absolute flyers. 

I’m not really sure what their justification is for doing so, but Betfair and Paddy appear to have decided to take on a few outsiders today. Some of the prices are just plain wrong.

At 500/1 (and remember, they pay four places), I’ll happily keep the faith with Sebastian Bialecki and also add Dominik Gruellich.

Regular readers know I’m a big fan of the Pole, who is erratic but talented in the extreme. On a side note, I was surprised to see he got himself into a bit of a post-match tangle with James Hurrell yesterday, which seems very out of character. We all love a bit of needle though!

Gruellich, conversely, has jumped onto my radar following two stellar runs to the last 32.

On both occasions, it has taken a top-class performer to dump him out. Van Veen did so at PC12, while Dirk van Duijvenbode needed to pull rabbits out of hats to halt him 6-5 yesterday in a great match.

Gruellich averaged 93, 99 and 94 in his three Monday matches and should be brimming with confidence today.

Finally, everybody loves a 1000/1 shot and both Lukas Wenig and Leon Weber both look capable of outrunning those odds to my eye.

Wenig has been lurking on the tour for a little while now and having failed to get beyond round two in his first 30 outings, has now made the last 16 on a couple of occasions.

He’s an inconsistent type, obviously, but I would note that on a going day, he appears to have a high ceiling. At PC5, for example, he posted four mid-90s averages to beat Karel Sedlacek, Michael Smith and Ross Smith before falling foul of MVG. 

I think at 1000/1, in a field missing big names, he’s worth chancing for the minimum stake.

Weber, meanwhile, really caught the eye yesterday.

He only won his Tour Card in January and having won just two of his first 14 matches on the floor, had a breakthrough day on Monday, posting averages of 102 and 103 en route to the last 16.

Sometimes it does just take something to click for new card holders and I imagine he’s desperate to get back on the board this afternoon.

Effectively priced at 250/1 to win five games today, a kind draw and similar performance levels could make for a very fun speculative punt.

Matt Hill’s best bets for Players Championship 14

1pt EW - Chris Dobey - 22/1 (Star Sports - 4 places)

1pt EW - Mike De Decker - 30/1 (Star Sports - 4 places)

1pt win  - Ryan Searle - 40/1 (general)

1pt EW - Dom Taylor - 66/1 (Star Sports - 4 places)

0.5pt EW - Mario Vandenboegarde - 200/1 (Betfair - 4 places)

0.25pt EW - Sebastian Bialecki - 500/1 (Betfair - 4 places)

0.25pt EW - Dominik Gruellich - 500/1 (Betfair - 4 places)

0.25pt EW - Lucas Wenig - 1000/1 (Betfair - 4 places)

0.25pt EW - Leon Weber - 1000/1 (Betfair - 4 places)

Total staked - 10pts

Meet the Author

Matt Hill


Head of Content

Matt has now been operating in the sports content and betting space for the best part of a decade, including extended stints with industry giants Betfred and LiveScore.

A qualified journalist, he began his career reporting on his beloved Carlisle United FC as a teenager and still follows the Blues avidly to this day, as much as life allows.

One of the keenest punters around, Matt is never shy of an opinion and builds the bulk of his betting portfolio around antepost football markets and PDC darts events.

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