Premier League Darts: Predictions & betting tips for Gary Anderson v MVG and more from three-time world champion John Part
John Part has 6/1 treble for Thursday's Premier League Darts plus predictions for five matches including Gary Anderson v Michael van Gerwen.
The Premier League Darts heads to Newcastle for the third round of fixtures and three-time world champion John Part brings you his insightful match-by-match predictions and betting tips.
Scroll further down for those, which include a 6/1 treble, but you can also listen to him on episode three of the Sporting Life Darts Podcast (available for FREE on itunes and soundcloud) in which he's praised for his upcoming return on the televised darts stage at the UK Open while he answers YOUR questions about how to hit 180s and the issue of sportsmanship at the oche!
Click here to listen to episode three of the Sporting Life Darts Podcast for free!
John Part's Week Three treble & best bets
TREBLE: Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld and Michael Smith at 6/1 - click here to back it at Sky Bet!
- Michael Smith to beat Mensur Suljovic - Back it at 11/8 with Sky Bet
- Smith to win match, most 180s and high checkout - 9/2 with Sky Bet
- Daryl Gurney to beat Gerwyn Price - 4/5 with Sky Bet
- Peter Wright to beat Rob Cross - 6/5 with Sky Bet
- Wright to win, score over 2.5 180s and have a checkout over 81.5 - 11/4 with Sky Bet
- MVG to beat Anderson, hit the most 180s and the highest checkout - 7/2 with Sky Bet
- Raymond van Barneveld to beat Simon Whitlock, hit the most 180s and highest checkout - 9/2 with Sky Bet
Scroll down for his full rundown of each match & bet explanation
Mensur Suljovic (11/8) v Michael Smith (11/8), draw 3/1
Michael Smith is on a great roll and on top of the table while Mensur is in the quite opposition situation. It's interesting though because Mensur beat Michael in the Masters just before the Premier League season started and he generally has a better head-to-head record.
So there's conflicting information to take in - but I'm going with the most recent information.
Because on current form Michael Smith is hot - he won one of the UK Open qualifiers and did pretty well in the rest whereas Mensur's absence from these six events to concentrate on the Premier League has backfired somewhat. He's not getting any practice of winning matches. Instead, the only thing he's done in two weeks is lose matches.
You need to keep your confidence high and have the consistent feeling of hitting match winning doubles, so the situation he finds himself in he may regret not playing at least one of these weekends.
I'm going to back Michael at 11/8 but also take the Price Boosted treble for him to win by also hitting most 180s and have the highest checkout at 9/2.
Scroll down for more predictions
Daryl Gurney (4/5) v Gerwyn Price (5/2), draw 3/1
This game is pretty important for both of these guys because whoever wins would get right back in the early mix after earning just one point each so far.
I kind of like Gurney here in this one although just the standard win bet of 4/5.
With both players underperforming slightly, I'm not sure about predicting their performance lines but with Gurney reaching a UK Open qualifying event final on Sunday, he has the better immediate form.
Gerwyn is spluttering and not living up to his potential at the moment in these floor tournaments which means, like Mensur, he's not building up his confidence for the big stage.
Price is comfortable against Gurney and beat him at the Masters earlier this year but I'm backing the Northern Irishman to turn it around.
Peter Wright (6/5) v Rob Cross (13/8), draw 3/1
I don't trust Rob on the Premier League stage right now.
Last week he missed a number of doubles against Simon Whitlock and that's where he's having his problems on TV. At these moments he's probably thinking a bit too much and trying too hard to live up to being the world champion.
It could all snap in and have a perfect week but at this point he's under pressure.
Peter Wright capitalised on MVG missing doubles last Thursday and although he lost to Cross at the weekend, I reckon he'll march on in the Premier League with another win and I like him at 6/5.
I'm also going for the low Player Performance line for Peter which is for him to win the match, score over 2.5 180s and have a checkout over 81.5 at 11/4. I would expect him to need to hit those targets if he's to win the match.
Gary Anderson (7/2) v Michael van Gerwen (8/13), draw 3/1
I think MVG will bounce back - he was a little off at times against Peter but the 170 checkout also shows us he wasn't all that bad!
Gary still has some question marks in his head over his fitness and although he did win a tournament at the weekend, I'm not sure those kind of floor tournaments help a man of his experience so much. He knows it's apples and oranges.
He can use his timing more against 'lesser players' so to speak, like he did against Gerwyn Price last week, but I'm not sure he believes in his head that he's ready for Michael - but that's just a guess.
Michael is world number one and you can't get out of dodge city too many times against him with just good timing. You need to be really good all the way through and have good timing. Peter Wright did it last week but I don't think Gary is up to it yet.
MVG is in the better position and I'm going to back him in the match treble market (win, most 180s, highest checkout) at a Price Boosted 7/2, which sounds really good.
He can live with Gary on the 180s and the high finish so it's a very tempting bet at that price.
Simon Whitlock (5/2) v Raymond van Barneveld (4/5), draw 3/1
Raymond is looking good on three points and he'll be looking to go top of the table if he beats Simon and Michael Smith doesn't take two against Mensur at the start of the night. He's in the hunt and he's been playing pretty steady.
Both players have a long history, with Barney just a bit ahead on head-to-head records but the key question here is how long can Simon keep winning matches on this stage?
To me he was fairly fortunate last week against Rob Cross despite winning 7-1. He did a job, yes but I don't think he commanded it. The match was there to be taken and he took it.
Simon has momentum but you have to go against it once in a while - momentum swings, right? It's a guide, but how long can a run last.
Raymond on the other hands seems so elegant at the moment and his game is pretty close to his best so I think it will be his week again.
The price on the match treble has been boosted to 9/2 and with Raymond good on all categories, I'm happy to back him in that market.