Premier League Darts: Night one predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and Sky Sports TV time

The 19th edition of Premier League Darts kicks off in Belfast tonight, as eight players begin a hectic 17-week roadshow battling for points, prize money and a place in the season-ending play-offs at the O2 on May 25.

Unsurprisingly, the announcement of the line-up earlier this week upset quite a big handful of players who felt they'd done enough to deserve a crack while there was plenty of disagreement about the selection among fans and pundits alike.

But ultimately leaving it all until after the Masters always runs the 'risk' of throwing a cat amongst the pigeons and on this occasion Chris Dobey was indeed that opportunist cat, leaping above 13 other players who are ranked higher, including world number five Luke Humphries!

Jonny Clayton went on to win this title after winning the Masters in 2021, Joe Cullen missed match darts to pull off the same feat last year, so could we about to see Dobey continue his own Hollywood story?

Darts betting tips: Premier League night one

1pt six or more 180s in Van den Bergh v Clayton at evens (Paddy Power)

1pt MVG to win and Smith to hit most 180s at 3/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt Michael van Gerwen to win night one at 11/4 (Paddy Power)

SL Acca: Clayton, MVG, Wright and Price all to win at 11/2 with Sky Bet

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Thursday February 2: Night one

• TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
• Format: Quarter-Finals, best of 11 legs

Dimitri Van den Bergh (11/10) v Jonny Clayton (8/11)

• Head to Head: 8-5 (TV: 5-4)
• 2022 Head to Head: 2-2 (TV: 2-1)

You can't say either of these players earned their spots in the line-up based on exceptional 2022 seasons, considering how they won just three titles between them and all of those came on the World Series tour.

Neither reached a major final unlike five of players who missed out - Danny Noppert, Joe Cullen, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Rob Cross and Ross Smith - but past achievements, reputations and marketability proved decisive factors on this occasion.

Jonny Clayton may have lost their World Championship quarter-final but since then he's started the new season slightly better than Dimitri Van den Bergh, showing decent consistency during the two World Series events and the Masters last weekend.

Whereas the Belgian crashed out in round one to Gary Anderson with a 90 average, Clayton managed almost 100 in a 10-3 thrashing of James Wade before posting almost 98 in a 10-6 defeat to Peter Wright.

Not much to write home about - certainly by his high standards - but he also found his 180s range across those two matches, firing in 10 across those 29 legs (0.34 per leg) while Van den Bergh can usually be relied upon to rack up a fair few. In fact he's landed 25 in his 56 legs so far this season at 0.44 per leg despite only winning two of his five matches.

If we can get nine legs or more in this one then 6+ total maximums has a very good chance at evens.

Scoreline prediction: 4-6

• CLICK HERE to back six or more 180s with Sky Bet

Michael Smith (6/5) v Michael van Gerwen (4/6)

• Head to Head: 13-37 (TV: 8-17)
• 2022 Head to Head: 4-5 (TV: 4-5)

Does anyone need reminding what happened when these two last met. No, but let's watch it again for the 501st time...

Since that unforgettable night at the Ally Pally, Michael Smith continued to ride the crest of his wave to win the Bahrain Darts Masters before a couple of semi-final runs in Copenhagen and then Milton Keynes this past weekend.

His results during the Masters were seemingly pivotal in finalising the Premier League selection - beating two players who were on the cusp of being picked before losing to the eventual champion who sneaked in!

After battling past Luke Humphries 10-7, he put Danny Noppert to the sword 10-5 with a superb average of 103 but you could say he was running on empty during his 11-7 defeat to Chris Dobey, managing just 90.

And that's completely forgivable when you consider he's simply not stopped for a month compared to many others who have been able to get some rest and recharge the batteries. There's not too much time to do that in the darting calendar, especially for the Premier League contingent over the coming months.

Michael van Gerwen hasn't exactly fired on all cylinders since his comeback in Copenhagen, where he narrowly lost to eventual champion to Peter Wright in the quarter-finals.

However, he averaged an impressive 98 before upping that to an impressive 105 during a 10-7 victory over Jose de Sousa at the Masters before his surprising 10-7 defeat to Rob Cross with a 99 average.

There's very little to split these two but I'm giving the edge to MVG due to his desire to make a statement but I'd still expect Bully Boy to weigh in with most 180s. He managed 47 during 137 legs this season (0.34 per leg) although in the last two tournaments it's 36 from 94 (0.38) while MVG managed 23 in 62 (0.37 per leg).

Scoreline prediction: 4-6

• CLICK HERE to back MVG to win and Smith hit most 180s with Sky Bet

Peter Wright (4/9) v Chris Dobey (13/8)

• Head to Head: 4-2 (TV: 0-0)
• 2022 Head to Head: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)

This time last week, Chris Dobey was merely dreaming of winning a maiden major title and the prospect of a lucrative Premier League spot, but now it's become a reality.

I think more people would be in favour of the Masters champion getting an automatic spot in the Premier League if there were more players involved - but when it's 'just' eight and the winner is ranked outside the world's top 20 like Dobey is, there's obviously going to be a lot of debate about the selection process.

This competition is meant to be about the extreme 'elite' of the darting world and while Hollywood has been threatening to become a big-time champion for quite some years now, can he produce his best level on such a consistent basis?

Dobey's Masters triumph came courtesy of crucial victories over Joe Cullen, Luke Humphries, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Michael Smith and then Rob Cross, but his tournament average was only around the 95 mark, with a best of 97 against the Rockstar in round one.

Peter Wright twice averaged 101 before losing a last-leg decider to Rob Cross in a high quality semi-final in which he posted 97 while he'd also won the previous week's Nordic Darts Masters with victories over MVG, Michael Smith and Gerwyn Price.

This is Snakebite's first televised meeting with Dobey and having put a disappointing end to the 2022 campaign firmly behind him, I'd expect him to come through this test relatively comfortably.

Scoreline prediction: 6-3

Nathan Aspinall (6/4) v Gerwyn Price (1/2)

• Head to Head: 9-11 (TV: 6-2)
• 2022 Head to Head: 2-1 (TV: 1-0)

Nathan Aspinall will have breathed a sigh of relief following his inclusion but you can't really argue too much with his selection considering he reached two of the biggest major finals in 2022 and is always a big crowd pleaser.

The Asp didn't get his campaign off to a flyer as he averaged just 92.6 during a first round defeat to Stephen Bunting at the Masters but he'll have hit the practice board hard this week to gear up for Gerwyn Price, who is the 'defending champion' in Belfast having hit two nine darters in one night here 12 months ago!

The Iceman has put in some impressive performances over the past month since his ear defender disaster at the Ally Pally, reaching two World Series finals in Bahrain and Copenhagen before an early Masters exit to Dirk van Duijvenbode.

However, his preparation for latter tournament was hit by illness so we can perhaps draw a line through that one and expect him to be back on song in Belfast.

Although Price has the superior head-to-head record overall, Aspinall has won six of their televised meetings and you can put much of that is down to how the crowd respond so differently to both players, especially when up against each other.

Who can forget their meeting at the World Championship a few years ago?

I still fancy Price to come through this quarter-final if he can get close to his A-game and set up another instalment of his rivalry with Peter Wright.

Scoreline prediction: 4-6

Who will win the night?

Based on my early predictions, I'm expecting the semi-final line-up to be Jonny Clayton v Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright v Gerwyn Price.

Of those four I'd be more confident of MVG ending up in the final, with the other last-four encounter just too close to call based on the early season evidence.

On that basis - plus the fact he's been warming up nicely performance-wise - he seems a nice bet to hit the ground running at around the 10/3 mark in places.

• CLICK HERE to back MVG to win the night with Sky Bet

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