Premier League Darts: Preview
The new 2024 Premier League season starts on Thursday, February 1. This is a darts competition in which eight players from the Professional Darts Corporation compete against each other. After a very interesting World Cup, in which many top players were quickly eliminated, we look at who has the best chance of winning a (new) Premier League title. The players that will be there are only the best of international darts.
Competition format
The Premier League of Darts starts on the first Thursday of February every year, and has a total of sixteen rounds held at various locations across the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany. A kind of mini-tournament is held every Thursday evening, with seven matches per day: 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals and a final. Every match until the final evening is played in a “best of 11 legs”.
The better the participants do in such a mini-tournament, the more points they collect for the rankings. The distribution of points is as follows: the winner of the match round receives 5 points, the losing finalist receives 3 and the semi-finalists receive 2 points.
After all 16 rounds, the best 4 players advance to the play-offs. The semi-finals and final will take place at the O2 arena in London that same evening. On that so-called ‘Play-off Night’, the semi-finals are played over a “best of 19 legs”, and the final over a “best of 21 legs”. The winner walks home with around 275,000 British pounds, more than 300,000 euros. But the other participants will also take home a nice amount of money: if you are invited to the tournament, you will receive at least £60,000. There is also a bonus of £10,000 for winning a round of play.
Players
Defending champion Michael van Gerwen will start his 12th participation in this tournament on Thursday, February 1. The record holder with 7 titles to his name came face to face with Luke Littler in the Dutch Darts Masters on Saturday evening, January 27, and eventually won 8-6. As a result, he now has the same number of points as the 17-year-old Briton, but he is still first on the World Series Order of Merit because he won the most recent tournament. In the World Championship he was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Scott Williams.
Van Gerwen meets another big name: Michael Smith. “Bully Boy” Smith was the defending champion at the World Cup, but was eliminated in the eighth finals. He did throw a higher average than his compatriot Chris Dobey, but failed in the doubles. This meant he could not defend his first world title, which he had won earlier that year. At the Dutch Darts Masters he could not get further than an 8th final, in which he was eliminated by Gian van Veen.
On the first day of the match we will immediately receive a re-release of the World Cup final. The winner of that final, Luke Humphries, is still in first place on the PDC Order of Merit. Humphries eliminated Joe Cullen, Dave Chisnall and Scott Williams in the World Cup before facing Luke Littler in the final. Humphries was successful against the youngster at the World Championships, but in the Dutch Darts Masters Littler would eliminate him in the quarter-finals.
Littler, who is still only 17, is currently the darts sensation among almost every expert. In his World Cup debut, he immediately eliminated Raymond van Barneveld, Brendan Dolan and Rob Cross, which meant he immediately reached the final. Luke Humphries turned out to be just a size too big. At the Dutch Darts Masters he was able to beat Humphries, but Michael van Gerwen stood in his way.
Nathan Aspinall also plays again. At the Dutch Darts Masters he was already eliminated in the eighth finals by a strong Danny Noppert. The number 4 on the PDC Order of Merit was also eliminated in the second round during the World Cup. These are disappointing results for the World Matchplay champion, who may have to adapt his game to the cutthroat level of the Premier League.
Nathan Aspinall meets Gerwyn Price on the first day of the match. Price was eliminated in the semi-finals of the Dutch Masters by Luke Littler 7-4. He managed to impress by beating Dimitri van den Bergh in the first round with an average of 103. ‘The Iceman’ was quickly eliminated at the World Cup due to a great performance by Brendan Dolan. It is not surprising to think that the audience has a lot to do with this: Price can regularly encounter a lot of boos in the iconic Ally Pally.
The penultimate player in this tournament is Peter Wright. His performances have also been lacking a bit lately, but the 53-year-old Briton is still in the top 10 in the PDC World Series Order of Merit. Last year Wright won the European Championship, but he came last in the Premier League. In the Grand Slam and at the World Cup he was also allowed to pack his bags immediately. A quarter-final at the World Grand Prix and a semi-final at the Masters helped boost his results, but he will have to adapt if he wants to win the Premier League.
Rob Cross concludes the list of players. Cross became the first semi-finalist at the World Darts Championship after a sensational comeback against Chris Dobey, but was eliminated in the next round by a good Luke Littler. Cross is currently ranked 6th on the PDC Order of Merit and 7th on the PDC World Series Order of Merit, so he certainly has his place in these ranks. But this 33-year-old Brit also knows well that he should not underestimate his opposition.
Bet on Premier League Darts
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