Darts: European Championship 2011

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As soon as one tournament finishes another one begins although this is only a four day tournament which begins on Thursday. £50k to the winner though so it's well worth winning. All the action is live on ITV4 and the format and it's distance should make for a few betting opportunities along the way. We had a decent Matchplay thread and I'm sure this one will be just as profitable.

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Re: Darts: European Championship 2011 I'm taking 2 outrights this week. 1.5pts ew A.Lewis to win European Championship 12/1 Blue Square (1/2 1,2) Adrian Lewis was a bit weird last week in that he seemed to be in a trance in his matches but did enough to win them until he met his nemesis in the semi final. I think overall Lewis will be disappointed with how he played in Blackpool and he'll want to put in a good tournament this weekend to show why he's the world champion. Having been to the final of this tournament in the past, his first major final, the event has good memories for Jackpot. His initial draw isn't too bad if he has his darts head on and I see him making the semi finals again at least. He could meet any number of tricky opponents in the semi finals but with the semis and final in the same night then I would expect Lewis to have his best game with him by then like we saw in the Premier League where really Gary Anderson would've smashed anyone to pieces that night. A few people are beginning to question the World Champion and he may well feel he needs a good weekend to shut the critics up. I expect him to deliver that with this draw and I think 12/1 is a pretty decent price as we know the quality he has. The world champion and Premier League runner up is probably the second best player in the world on his day. If we see those days this weekend 12/1 will look big very quickly. 0.5pts ew A.Hamilton to win European Championship 70/1 Boylesports (1/2 1,2) It was good to see Andy Hamilton bounce back to form in the World Matchplay last week even if he did deliver the hardest beat to a bet I've ever taken. On his day he's such a devastating scorer that he can be really hard to beat. His doubles are a bit shaky but if he had everything he'd probably be a 5 time world champion and 7/1 not 70/1. One thing we do know is he has restored confidence coming into this week and he also has motivation for a strong week as he wants to get his ranking back towards the top 10 again having had a lean 12-18 months before last week. Hamilton has a manager now and he says that's given him the boost his game needed and we've seen the immediate returns on that. His draw this weekend is very tough but if he can take out Barney in the opening round it could open up a bit for him. The way he played last week 70/1 looks a bit big and if he can redeliver the same form this week then he might well give us a decent run for our money in a tournament which has had Wayne Jones and Steve Beaton as former finalists proving that it's often a wide open event.