With just a one week of the 2023 Premier League Darts season completed, now is a great opportunity to take a look at this hugely popular tournament that takes place each Thursday from February until May.
It has already been something of a controversial tournament after the announcement of the players that would compete in this event, and moreover, the players that were overlooked for a place in the tournament.
However, eight stars are going head-to-head every week in venues across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands all hoping to earn a place in the Finals which will take place at the 02 Arena in May.
Bet365 Sport offers a wealth of different bets on each of the games taking place in any given week and this exciting new format for the tournament, first introduced last year, means that there are plenty of great games to enjoy each evening.
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Let’s now take a look at the tournament in greater detail, together with how the Week One matches finished and who was the first weekly Champion of the tournament.
This year’s tournament will follow the new knockout format first introduced in the event last year. The eight players will play in four pre-drawn quarter final games with the winners moving on to two semi-finals and then the two semi-final winners battling it out in the final.
Each weekly winner will claim a bonus prize of £10,000 for their win on the night.
Points for the Premier League are awarded as follows:
The players will compete over 16 nights of action and at the end of those 16 nights of action, the final Premier League Darts table will be complete.
The top four players in this table then move on to the Play-Offs on the 25th May at the 02 Arena, where they will play two best of 19 semifinals with the winners then battling it out in a best of 21 final to be crowned the new Premier League Champion of 2023.
A total of £1,000,000 is up for grabs in the Premier League this year, divided as follows:
In addition, each weekly winner of the Premier League tournament for that week will win an additional £10,000 to add to the total won above.
Part of the great appeal of the Premier League of Darts is that the fixtures are taken on tour around England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany across the 17 weeks of action, with each week being hosted at a different venue as outlined below:
The first 16 weeks will see all 8 players in action in the tournament, but the Playoffs will see just the top four from the Premier League table compete to become the Champion.
As always, the selection process for the Premier League of Darts was a very competitive one and there were always going to be players disappointed at missing out, while others may be surprised that they were selected to participate.
The top four players in the PDC Order of Merit – Michael Smith, Peter Wright, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwen Price all qualified through their rankings, meaning the selection panel had four vacancies to fill in the tournament.
In the end, the selectors went with the 2021 winner of this event, Welshman Jonny Clayton, the runner up in 2020 Nathan Aspinall, Belgian star Dimitri Van den Bergh and the newly-crowned Masters Champion, Chris Dobey.
Dobey’s inclusion was perhaps the most contentious, with him only ranking 21st on the PDC Order of Merit by the start of January 2023.
This meant that players such as Luke Humphries (5th), Rob Cross (6th), Danny Noppert (8th), James Wade (10th) and last year’s beaten finalist Joe Cullen (12th) all missed out.
The first week of action took place in Belfast last Thursday and saw the following results:
The opening night of action in the Premier League saw a number of players, whose inclusion was questioned, show precisely why they were selected to play in the event as three of the four picked up points on the opening week of action.
In fact, the lowest ranked player on the Order of Merit, Chris Dobey, continued his great form by winning the first night of the tournament by beating Dutchman Michael van Gerwen in a final leg showdown.
The results from Week 1 leave the current table looking like this:
Table shows points won and total legs won and lost.
This week the action moves on to the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales and the eight players have been paired in the following Quarter Final ties for the opening round of action.
The odds for each player to win are courtesy of bet365 Sport and were correct at the time of writing but may have changed in the meantime.
The current World Champion has had his struggles in this event in the past and he got off to a losing start last week when beaten by Michael van Gerwen in the opening round. Jonny Clayton also got off to a losing start when defeated by Dmitri van den Bergh in his opening game. I expect both to play better here but I think Smith will likely pick up his first win of the 2023 event here.
I don’t think there is a player whose form can be so up and down in this event than Peter Wright. More than capable of winning the whole tournament, Wright can rattle off a string of wins in no time at all, but equally has also suffered a run of early defeats in his time. Aspinall is perhaps more consistent and I think that may be the key here as I am backing Aspinall to land the first shock of the night with a win here.
Gerwyn Price hasn’t shown a great deal of enjoyment when participating in this tournament over the years and he began with a defeat last week, while Chris Dobey followed up his Masters win with a win in the first week of the tournament to claim the maximum 5 points and a £10,000 prize. Dobey’s form is great at the moment and if he is ever going to beat Price, then now is the time. I am backing Dobey to land the win here.
Michael van Gerwen (3/10) v Dimitri Van den Bergh (5/2)
Michael van Gerwen almost won last week’s event, just losing out in the final to Chris Dobey. On his way to that win, he defeated Dimitri Van den Bergh in the semifinal and the Belgian won’t be too pleased to have to face the in-form Dutchman once again here. I think Van Gerwen lands this one too, but it will be a close one I feel.
This will be a close one, but I am backing Michael van Gerwen to land the win that eluded him last week.
Tune in on Thursday night to catch all the action from Cardiff and to enjoy a wide range of In Play betting on the games with bet365!
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