Premier League Darts Betting Tips: Who’ll qualify for the play-offs?
Published:
It’s all still to play for in this week’s final quartet of Premier League Darts matches as the eight remaining arrowsmiths battle it out across four more nights in Milton Keynes.
Glen Durrant looks almost home and hosed ahead of next month’s play-offs at the O2 Arena, but there’s a huge battle to join him with six players separated by four points.
Our maths isn’t always great, but we do know that six doesn’t go into three, no matter how hard we try. And with that in mind, we’ve taken a look at the chances of all the remaining players.
Glen Durrant – 4/1 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Smith (Weds), Van Gerwen (Thurs), Wright (Fri), Aspinall (Sat)
Durrant is six points clear of Nathan Aspinall with eight points left on the table. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Duzza is within touching distance of a play-off spot in his debut season.
The Teessider was already top-of-the-table ahead of last week’s fixtures in Milton Keynes, and with five wins and a draw since the league’s resumption, he’s only strengthened his position.
Four tricky tests await in his final four matches, but given the way he’s playing, those matches will hold no fear for the man who is 4/1 to win the tournament outright.
Gary Anderson – 11/2 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Gurney (Weds), Smith (Thurs), Van Gerwen (Fri), Price (Sat)
Anderson is another player who’s taken to the behind closed doors action like a Scottish duck to water, with four wins, a draw and a defeat from his six matches in Milton Keynes.
The 49-year-old holds a two-point gap back to fifth and takes on Daryl Gurney and Michael Smith in his next two fixtures, both of whom reside towards the bottom of the league.
If he can continue his good form and win both of those before trickier matches against Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price, he should secure his place in the top-four.
Michael van Gerwen – 2/1 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Wright (Weds), Durrant (Thurs), Anderson (Fri), Gurney (Sat)
Mighty Mike must be an AFC Wimbledon fan because he doesn’t seem to like Milton Keynes. The Green Machine lost three matches last week and is in danger of being eliminated.
Victory against Smith in his most recent match ensured he remains in the play-off spots for now, but if his finishing doesn’t improve, then then the Dutchman could be facing an early exit.
Anderson and Durrant have already beaten MVG, with the latter dishing out a 7-3 walloping just last Wednesday. Two similar results this week would leave the three-time world champ teetering on the brink.
Gerwyn Price – 15/2 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Aspinall (Weds), Gurney (Thurs), Smith (Fri), Anderson (Sat)
The Iceman has been throwing more hot than cold of late to leave his play-off chances looking very warm indeed.
Price has won four of his last five matches in the Premier League having tasted success just once in the opening seven weeks. 7-1 and 7-0 victories over Anderson and Jermaine Wattimena go to show what’s capable of.
That string of results has pushed him into the top-four, with crunch matches against Aspinall on Wednesday and Anderson again on Saturday likely to decide his fate.
Nathan Aspinall – 11/1 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Price (Weds), Wright (Thurs), Gurney (Fri), Durrant (Sat)
Of those still chasing a play-off place, it’s Premier League debutant Aspinall who has arguably the toughest run-in.
The 2019 Ladbrokes UK Open winner faces an in-form Price, world champion Wright, league leader Durrant and Gurney, who upset the odds to beat him on night eight.
His checkout percentage of 38.54% will need to improve while a leg difference of +3 allows little to no room for manoeuvre, but he’s playing well even in defeat and could offer the value.
Peter Wright – 4/1 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Van Gerwen (Weds), Aspinall (Thurs), Durrant (Fri), Smith (Sat)
Wright has been consistency personified since the Premier League returned. Snakebite has averaged 99 or above in each of his six matches and has dipped under a 40% checkout just the once in that time.
Unfortunately, those stats haven’t quite borne out the results they perhaps deserve, with Wright only winning twice against the two weakest players, Jeffrey de Zwaan and Daryl Gurney.
The world champion remains just a point off the play-offs, but he’ll need to start grinding it out towards the end of matches if he wants to make it to the O2 Arena next month.
Michael Smith – 16/1 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Durrant (Weds), Anderson (Thurs), Price (Fri), Wright (Sat)
Smith needs to improve on the outer ring or it’s game over in the Premier League. Bully Boy’s checkout percentages in the last six matches read 18.75%, 33.33%, 27.78%, 36.36%, 42.86% and 35.71%.
Put simply, that’s not good enough for a player of Smith’s quality, and it’s why he finds himself in seventh-place and two points adrift of the play-off places.
There’s nothing wrong with his scoring power, but unless he corrects his waywardness on the doubles in his four devilishly difficult remaining matches, he’s going home.
Daryl Gurney – 80/1 Outright
Remaining Fixtures: Anderson (Weds), Price (Thurs), Aspinall (Fri), Van Gerwen (Sat)
The damage was done for Gurney before he even stepped foot in the Marshall Arena. Superchin picked up just two points from the opening six nights, which meant this was always going to be an uphill struggle.
To his credit, the Ulsterman avoided elimination and has won three of his six matches behind closed doors, although he needs snookers – and plenty of them – to advance to the next round.
His purpose now looks likely to be as a spoiler, and with Anderson, Price, Aspinall and van Gerwen all on the agenda, Gurney may look forward to causing some havoc.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
