Nordic Darts Masters tips and predictions: Luke Humphries to claim crown, Stephen Bunting to impress

With Michael Van Gerwen and Luke Littler absent for this one, there's a slight change to the PDC's contenders, with most of the World Series tournaments this year seeing the Premier League octet being the representation from the PDC. 

Stephen Bunting and Dimitri Van Den Bergh, winners of this year's Masters and UK Open respectively, join the usual suspects as they battle it out with the cream of the Nordic crop. 

With the absence of Littler, Luke Humphries will have let out a sigh of relief as the 17-year-old has had the world champion's number this year since the Ally Pally final and that was epitomised by Littler's Premier League win two weeks ago. 

Bar Littler, Humphries has probably been the world's best in this calendar year, he made it to the finals of the Premier League and the UK Open as well as hitting a nine-darter on the European Tour so he's definitely in good form coming into this weekend.

One to watch for Cool Hand is Rob Cross, who won in New York last weekend. Voltage has been in decent form this year and has picked up a couple of titles, while Gerwyn Price looked more like his old self and reached the final last week, so he could be in with a shout. 

Other contenders include Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall and reigning champion Peter Wright as well as the Nordic hopefuls, who are looking to spring a shock result. 

Despite an impressive field, we expect Humphries to cash in on the absence of Littler and Van Gerwen and pick up his first ever World Series win.

In terms of the each-way market, Bunting looks worth a shout.

The Bullet was unfortunate to miss out on the Premier League this year, but that hasn't bogged him down as he won his first major televised title at The Masters, beating three of the world's top four en route to the title, and he also made it to the quarter-finals of the UK Open.

Bunting can mix it with the PDC's elite and at 10/1 he offers good each-way value and given the fast nature of these events, he only needs to win three games for you to get a return on that. 

Bunting has been one of the heaviest scorers on the planet over the last year, with his average of 96.83 being bettered by six players. 

The Bullet has a good chance with big names missing and he's definitely worth an each-way punt if you're looking for a good profit. 

 

Suggested bets

Outright winner- Luke Humphries

Each-way bet- Stephen Bunting