AFTER 16 grueling nights and matches played across Europe, the Premier League darts campaign comes to an end with a thrilling finals night at the 02 this Thursday.
We’re down to our final four after last week’s dramatic night in Sheffield and now Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith do battle for the £275,000 jackpot.
Find The Sun’s betting publishing principles here
Teenage sensation Littler topped the Premier League table with 40 points – four clear of fellow debutant Humphries.
But it’s the world number one and current world champion who is the favourite with the competition’s sponsors BetMGM to win the Playoffs in the capital this Thursday.
Four players remain in this year’s Premier League Darts after a dramatic 16 weeks of action.
Luke Littler (40pts) topped the table having won four nights in total and 23 matches along the way.
Luke Humphries was four points behind him having also won four of the nights and winning 20 of his matches in the competition.
It was then a drop down to 27 points to find both Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith, who won four nights and just two nights, respectively to book their spot at the 02.
Finishing top, Littler will face Michael Smith in the semi finals, with Humphries and MVG in the other.
Nathan Aspinall, Peter Wright, Rob Cross and Gerwyn Price are the four players to miss out.
He might have topped the table after the 16 weeks but Luke Littler is NOT the bookies favourite to lift the title.
Littler goes into the playoffs in second favourite spot behind Luke Humphries, who is the 6/4 market leader with sponsors BetMGM.
Littler isn’t a million miles away at 7/4 and might well be seen by many as the value in the outright markets.
Michael van Gerwen (7/2) and Michael Smith (9/2) are the two outsiders to win those semi final matches and thus are a bigger price to win.
Funnily enough, we had a dress rehearsal when these four all met in the semi final stage at Sheffield in night 16.
On that occasion Smith ran out a 6-5 winner over Littler, having only confirmed his play off spot earlier that night.
Luke Humphries then swept aside Van Gerwen 6-3, before losing to Smith by the same scoreline in the final.
Despite that, Smith goes into his best of 19 legs match-up with Littler as the 17/10 underdog with BetMGM to progress to the final, with the teen 11/25.
It’s a similar story in the other semi with Humphries (12/25) backed to reach the final against MVG (8/5) in what looks like mirroring odds.
BetMGM: Get £40 in free bets when you stake £10 – CLAIM HERE*
Humphries and Littler have been excellent this last six months and their finish in the Premier League table highlights that.
As debutants, they’ve shown they can handle it and in Littler’s case, his showing in the world championship as a debutant further highlights that.
But on this occasion I don’t think you can disregard experience and I’m siding with MICHAEL VAN GERWEN (7/2) to win the playoffs on Thursday.
He’s not fully been at it in this year’s tournament yet no player has more nightly wins that he does and how often have we seen him turn it on when he needs to?
The seven time champion has won the last two years of this and swatted aside Gerwyn Price with an incredible 105.43 average in last year’s final.
The next bet is in the 180s market in the first semi final between Littler and Smith, with OVER 13.5 180s at 9/4 the selection.
No player hit more 180s than Littler’s 114 during the group stage at an average of 3.26 per match he played.
Smith was third in that regard, hitting 96 180s having played three games less and an average of 3.00. In these best of 19 legs – up from best of 11 in those group matches – these two have the capability of scoring highly.
In the other semi final, we’re looking at the bullseye checkout market and fancy 2+ bullseye checkouts at 7/2.
Expect fireworks in this match-up and we can already see some mad checkouts.
Odds with BetMGM
BetMGM: Get £40 in free bets when you stake £10 – CLAIM HERE*
*BetMGM. New cust only. 7 days to place a qualifying bet to receive 4x Free Bets: 1 x £10 Horse racing, 1 x £10 Free Bet Builder, 1 x £10 Acca and 1 x £10 Football. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned. T&Cs apply.
A responsible gambler is someone who:
Find our detailed guide on responsible gambling practices here.
For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to www.gamstop.co.uk
