Premier League Darts: Finals Night
Published:
Remaining four will be whittled down to one
We have a dramatic night of Premier League darts on Thursday as this year’s tournament is played to a conclusion at the 02 Arena in London. The semi-finals has Michael van Gerwen take on Gary Anderson, before Peter Wright and Phil Taylor do battle.
You can follow every throw live on Sky Sports, and bet throughout the night as we get the remaining four players down to the 2017 champion. Click here to back your match markets, including winner, most 180s and handicap, or pick your outright king of the oche.
Great Scot! Gary to pull off an upset
Competition favourite Michael van Gerwen faces Gary Anderson in the first semi-final, and many followers of the sport believe the winner of this match will go on to lift the title outright. That remains to be seen, but Coral traders have Mighty priced as a 4/7 nailed down jolly to bank the prize money, against Anderson’s 5/1.
It’s little surprise, with that in mind, to see van Gerwen a dominant favourite to beat Anderson in game one, 3/10 the current offer, but we are going to take that on with Anderson’s chunky 5/2. The Scot finished fourth in the Premier League table, losing 7-4 to the Dutchman in Aberdeen, but that match didn’t count for too much on the night, and we expect to see a different animal here.
We’ve watched the fav play some very shaky darts in recent weeks, when under pressure too, but one thing you’ll get with Anderson is a consistent player who has no problem getting himself motivated for the big nights. He loves the game, and I make this a lot closer than the betting does. Therefore, Anderson is the value play to win the match at 5/2.
End of the road for Taylor
We all love a fairytale ending in sport, but it really doesn’t look to be on the cards here. Phil Taylor has done fantastically well to reach this stage of the competition, especially after looking out of it in the early exchanges, but he’ll get no second chances against Peter Wright.
Snakebite goes down as the most-improved player in the darting world at the minute, and goes to London as the form pick of the bunch. He finished up second, just a point behind MVG in the leaderboard, having lost three of his 16 starts. The 7-1 hammering of Raymond van Barneveld last time out would’ve done nothing but encourage the performer.
He has been knocked up as a 4/1 second favourite to end as champion, with unlikely hero Phil Taylor a 10/1 outsider. It would be fantastic to see The Power do it once again, but he’s double-figure odds for a reason. 8/15 on Wright looks the smart play in the match betting, or those happy to sit on the fence can get 4/6 on him hitting most 180s. We’re having Peter to win the match, on-route to claiming the title.
