BoyleSports World Grand Prix predictions and winner odds: De Sousa worth a bet

Darts tips, best bets and player analysis for the BoyleSports World Grand Prix at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Arena, from 6pm Sunday

Best bets

Jose De Sousa to win World Grand Prix
1pt each-way 12-1 BoyleSports, Coral, Ladbrokes

Ross Smith to win first quarter
1pt 14-1 Betfair, Paddy Power

Stephen Bunting to win second quarter
1pt 12-1 Coral, Labrokes

Tournament preview

Darts' holy trinity successfully flexed their muscles during September but it might be worth looking beyond established stars Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price and lumping on Jose de Sousa at the World Grand Prix in Leicester.

The big three certainly arrive at the Morningside Arena feeling good about their games.

World number one and defending champ Price bookended the month with victories in the two European Championship heats in Hungary and Gibraltar, Wright teamed up with John Henderson to strike gold at the World Cup while Van Gerwen was a tearful wreck after snapping his drought in Copenhagen.

The claims of all three are obvious but in this competition of all of them, blessed with its unique double-in, double-out format and a brutally short best-of-three first round, there are far more forgivable grounds for looking elsewhere. Big-price winners and finalists are commonplace – last year's runner-up Dirk van Duijvenbode was the latest skinner at 250-1.

De Sousa is nothing like as fancy a price and understandably so given he's the reigning Grand Slam champion and Premier League runner-up, a big-scoring bruiser of a player – he heads the Tour averages with 99.37 – and also far more composed on his doubles than he ever was.

To win tournaments you need to be able to hit the outer ring; to start legs at the Grand Prix you need to be able to hit the outer ring and where once De Sousa might not have been trusted in that department, that's no longer the case.

Again, just look at the numbers. Not only does he top the three-dart average list, he also heads the checkout turn percentage - number of eligible visits in which he could win a leg - at 46 per cent. The Portuguese Man o' Scores has become the complete player.

Another player whose doubles numbers are impressive is Ross Smith, who is enjoying a great year which has included two floor finals, one of which he won.

The Kent flinger finds himself in a top quarter which is absolutely wide open beyond Price, who has to get past Michael Smith in his opener and that's no certainty.

Ross Smith looks a big price to win three matches even if Price is in his section while the same goes for Stephen Bunting in quarter two, where the betting is headed by Dimitri van den Bergh.

The Bullet is also a Tour winner this year and showed at Ally Pally in the winter during a run to the semi-finals of the World Championship that he's back to near his best.

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