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Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are making their Premier League Darts debuts

Why the Premier League Darts format needs shaking up and possible solutions to make the event more exciting

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Tue January 30, 2024 · 10M ago

This could be the last year of the current Premier League Darts format according to Paul Nicholson, who believes the tournament needs to be shaken up to reignite interest.

The Asset offers some solutions and ideas in his latest column while he also gives his verdicts for each of the eight players in this year's line-up, including Luke Littler...

Is there more interest in the Premier League than ever before?

There's one of two ways of looking at this. We've got Luke Humphries in the Premier League for the first time as world champion and world number one. We've got Luke Littler involved which is like dropping a mentos into cola bottle in a good way because the sport has exploded media wise and we're being seen by mainstream networks on a more regular basis, like the BBC and other worldwide networks as well. This is fabulous.

However, after speaking to many fans and personalities within the game over the past few weeks, I haven't had one person say that they're that excited about it. This is not my personal opinion. This is me asking the people what their excitement level is for the Premier League over the next three months. Everybody replies with things like “I might watch the first night”. That's it. Now that's a problem.

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I know the PDC want the fans on each individual night to have a great experience - and they will - but there needs to be some attention brought to the viewing audience at home as well, of which there are many more.

Matt Porter is not stupid. He’ll have his ear to the ground in many different ways and if this is what he's hearing as well, something will be done about it.

Could this be the last Premier League in its current format?

I wouldn't be surprised if it is. The Premier League has been running for 20 years. We’ve seen Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor dominate the event down the years but with every generation of events comes the possibility of evolution.

If you were to somehow measure the excitement level of the start of the Premier League compared to other big majors like the World Matchplay, there is absolutely no contest between the two.

However, this is a non-ranked showpiece – with a crucial goal of putting darts out there into the public eye, we may now need to address the fact that the Premier League is not as exciting as it once was.

How can the Premier League be shaken up to make it more interesting?

Many darts fans feel the format is also a bit stale and repetitive – and this is just the third season of its current structure.

How about, for example, having a different format every fourth week to keep it varied for fans and players alike?

We could have a double-start week and a best-of-three sets week for example, which would shake things up without adding any confusion. There’s also some other concepts I recently discussed in a Sporting Life video, such as 1001 Shoot Out, Master In/Out and Cricket – although admittedly they might not be ideal for the Premier League.

If we did something like that then the Premier League champion would also be seen as the best all-rounder.

These weekly 501 knockout tournaments with the same eight players week in, week out has become monotonous and they’re playing the ‘safe card’ by keeping things the same. But by doing that there’s a risk of losing the audience.

People fear change – and I get that – but I feel we’re approaching a point where a risk or two may need to be taken to get everyone really excited about the Premier League again.

Small tweaks can make big differences and open up doors to exciting ideas. Other sports have dabbled in different formats such as golf bringing in doubles events and mixed events – both of which were very popular and created a lot of headlines. There are shotgun starts and team tournaments in LIV Golf too.

Darts – and the Premier League – should take more risks because the people want something fresh.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone who has a ticket will have a great time, but will darts fans at home be on the edge of their seat every week?

So come 2025, which will be the 20-year anniversary of the Premier League starting, it will be an excellent opportunity to try and do something new.

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Location location

Then there’s the location side of things. What about going to more countries rather than just Britain, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands? Stick one in Hungary, stick one in Austria, stick one in Sweden. This is where the event can cast the net a bit wider and that little bit of evolution might just do the trick.

There are certain venues at the moment such as Glasgow which is a guaranteed sell-out because you’d have to drive at least three hours to get to the next available one. But there are other venues like Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham which are very close to each other. Do we need them all?

You could cut some of the venues that are in close proximity to each other and make it more of a European-wide event.

When you think of all the majors held in Britain – such as the Players Championship Finals and the UK Open which are staged at the same venue in Minehead – we’re generally capturing the same people in the same places.

How will this year’s line-up fare?

LUKE HUMPHRIES (1)

Luke is the first player to come into his debut Premier League campaign as world number one and it won’t be a shock to the system at all given what he’s achieved recently. I don't think the extra traveling will be a problem for him either. Over the past two years he’s taken constructive breaks to maintain his winning momentum all-season round and I’m sure he'll have sat down with his management and with his family to map out the next six months.

Expect him to miss some ranked events at weekends between now and May to ensure he doesn’t work himself too much in his first PL campaign. My expectations are high. I just think he'll plot his three or four months better than most, even though he’s going up against people who have done it before.

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN (2)

Michael is a Premier League machine. We know that he won it last year and his ability to plot his way through a campaign consistently is better than anyone – including Phil Taylor. Even when he's not playing his ultimate stuff, he can still provide enough points in the campaign to get into the playoffs and still win it - which is exactly what he did last year.

It’s just the mark of the legend that is MVG that people looked at his 2023 as not that great but he still won the Premier League. I don't have any worries about Michael and obviously winning the Dutch Darts Masters was a nice little boost before the campaign.

MICHAEL SMITH (3)

There are doubts about Michael, because he hasn’t won a title for over six months. This whole argument about the equipment will rage on but I don't want to go on about that. I think Michael just needs a good start to the season. The last thing he needs is to be eliminated in the first round of Cardiff, Berlin and Glasgow so his first three weeks are going to be really important just to make sure that he keeps himself in the mix. However, if he's in the bottom two, pointless after the first three weeks, I will worry for him.

This time last year everyone expected him to dominate, potentially win this title for the first time, and also extend his lead at the top of the world rankings throughout 2023 but he’s already down to three after 12 months.

He’s got to get his fight and hunger back – which I feel he’s lost a bit – and he needs to put in the hard work to realise his potential again.

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NATHAN ASPINALL (4)

Well, we haven't seen a great deal of Nathan in the last four months. I think it might have been 15 games at most played, which is his choice. He made his decisions, we accept them and we don't criticise him for the choices that he makes. Now that he's moved house and settled, I think now is the time for him to really start putting in some graft. It would be really constructive if he does that with Michael Smith, because that's who he was practicing with before the World Championship. They could help each other. If they can work off each other, the next three or four months could be really good.

Based on what we've seen so far this year, the prospect of a good season doesn't look that encouraging but give him time and we may see those performances and confidence that helped him win the World Matchplay.

Like Smith, it could just be a case of confidence. It takes a lot of time to build up confidence, but it can be lost in a heartbeat.

GERWYN PRICE (5)

If anything, the defeats to Luke Littler will probably make him stronger and hungrier to show everybody what he can do again. I fiercely believe he’s going to have a great season and he looks in a good place. I think he can feed off the fact that he's not going to be booed out of the building like he was for the majority of the first six months of last year.

I think he can go and enjoy this campaign a little bit better because he made last year's final. Plus, historically he didn't like the Premier League. That’s what he said about double-start but he since made finals of the World Grand Prix.

ROB CROSS (6)

It’s great to see Rob back in the Premier League and he’s playing superbly well at the moment – and over the past few months. He’ll be relishing this and I see him being an immensely strong participant this time around and potentially making the play-offs.

I think the way he played well throughout 2023, including a European Tour title for the first time and back-to-back World Series crowns in Australia and New Zealand as well as a run to the World Championship semi-finals before running into Littler. I see him managing his time perfectly and being a great competitor this year.

PETER WRIGHT (8)

Where do we start? This is hard for me to say because Peter is a friend of mine, but the majority of people I've spoken to don't believe he should be in it, and if you were to ask Peter honestly, does he feel he warrants his spot? It would make for a very interesting answer.

Most of the people I've asked opinion of think that Chris Dobey deserved a spot instead.

Peter has been doing this for 10 years straight. How many other people have done that? Not many at all. Gary Anderson, Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen. Elite guys from the last 50 years. Some say Gary would have been more deserving than Peter.

It might have been better for his sake to be left out as it may have stoked the hunger back for him to try and return next year. If he’s not confident with his game or approach, he could get badly beaten up in this campaign and nobody wants to see that.

LUKE LITTLER (31)

Luke Littler is not only having a hugely positive impact on darts as a sport – but also on the top players he keeps beating. His explosive emergence will make them work harder because they won’t want to be shown up by this outrageous talent every Thursday night.

As far as his own prospects are concerned, this is going to be an incredible experience for him and we should all be grateful he’s injected such excitement into the sport.

He’s the main reason people want to watch this Premier League and if he goes out there and does his thing, then the fans in the arena will love it – and the positive media attention will continue to grow.

At this stage I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t in the Play-Offs but a lot can happen in four months so we should just let him enjoy it and not put too much expectation on his shoulders.

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