The Belgian Open takes centre stage this weekend, the first of 14 events which make up the PDC's 2025 European Tour.
All the PDC's top stars are there, including world No.1 Luke Humphries and his big rival Luke Littler, who won this title on his European Tour debut 12 months ago.
This is the fourth running of the Belgian Open with 48 players toeing the oche at the Oktoberhallen in Wieze with their eyes on the £30,000 winner's prize and ranking points towards the end-of-year European Championship.
Belgian Open free tips, prediction and odds
Jermaine Wattimena - Each-way - 66/1
European Tour events are always well attended and this year's Belgian Open in Wieze is no exception.
The eight players who were in Premier League action in Brighton on Thursday night will be topping the bill with no player more popular these days than Littler.
The young star will fly into Belgium in superb form having won the UK Open last weekend to add to the world title he claimed in the first week of January.
And Wieze will bring back happy memories for the 18-year-old, who triumphed here last February, beating Rob Cross 8-7 in a dramatic final.
He is the 5/2 favourite to successfully defend his title and feels unbeatable, which is bad news for either Darryl Pilgrim or Ryan Searle, one of whom will meet Littler in round two.
Searle versus Pilgrim is one of 16 first-round ties to be played on Friday for the right to toe the oche against the 16 seeds in round two on Saturday.
Among those in action on Friday is Jermaine Wattimena, who had a good run here last year and is suggested to go even better this weekend.
Twelve months ago Wattimena was on fire, whitewashing Daryl Gurney in his opener, then beating Ross Smith 6-2 and Joe Cullen 6-3 before finding that a 102.74 average wasn't enough to beat Littler in the quarter-finals. The Dutch star lost 6-2.
But The Machine Gun is a different animal now and looks massively overpriced at 66/1.
Wattimena has admitted that a strict health routine has seen him lose weight and gain focus, and results testify that his lifestyle changes were worth all the effort.
The Dutchman always looked a class thrower, just unbelievably erratic, but he has reigned that in and has been rewarded over the last year by reaching a maiden major final - the European Championship - plus the Grand Slam quarters and two more European Tour quarter-finals.
He has also reached two Players Championship quarter-finals this winter and is throwing some wonderful tungsten.
He is in the opposite half of the draw to Littler and faces an off-colour Stephen Bunting in round two if he can get past a Belgian qualifier in round one.
Jonny Clayton each-way - 22/1
Belgium would love to see a home winner and they boast two world-class stars in Dimitri van den Bergh and Mike De Decker.
Both are major winners and both can win this title. However, they are slated to meet as early as round three - and only presuming De Decker can beat Luke Humphries in round two, while he would have to beat Thomas Lovely before that, so it's a tall order.
Littler is in the bottom half with the prospect of having to play Gary Anderson in round three, while Michael van Gerwen is the other big hitter in the lower half.
But there is another player on the comeback trail in the bottom half to keep an eye on, and that's Jonny Clayton.
The Ferret looked unstoppable in 2021 when he emerged from close to nowhere to lift four TV titles
Then came the downward trend, culminating in a largely awful 2024 which saw him win once on the floor but do very little else.
This year already looks better. At the World Masters he beat Littler and Van den Bergh en route to the final where he was touched off, 6-5, by Humphries.
And at the UK Open at the weekend he beat Gary Anderson, Alan Soutar, Martin Schindler and Michael Smith to reach the semi-finals where he succumbed 11-6 to Littler.
These have been great signs from the Welshman, who after a couple of largely barren years looks ready to outrun odds of 22/1.
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Belgian Open odds
Luke Littler - 5/2
Luke Humphries - 9/2
Michael van Gerwen - 9/1
Gerwyn Price - 9/1
Rob Cross - 18/1
Gary Anderson - 20/1
Jonny Clayton - 22/1
Chris Dobey - 22/1
Stephen Bunting - 22/1
Josh Rock - 25/1
Nathan Aspinall - 28/1
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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.
