Premier League of Darts 2019 Winner Odds & Predictions

MVG aims for fourth straight Premier League title

Darts Betting

Michael van Gerwen will kick off the new season of the Premier League of Darts as the 1/2 odds-on favourite to lift the title* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 4th, 2019 at 4:52 pm). If he does come through in May to win the competition, then it will be the fourth straight Premier League crown for him. Will it be MVG ruling the game once again after having made a powerful start to 2019?

Premier League of Darts 2019 odds*

Michael van Gerwen 1/2
Michael Smith 15/2
Rob Cross 9/1
Peter Wright 10/1
Mensur Suljovic 18/1
James Wade 25/1
Daryl Gurney 25/1
Raymond van Barneveld 40/1
Gerwyn Price 40/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 4th, 2019 at 4:52 pm)

Format and Participants

There are no players making their debut in the Premier League this season. So all nine players entering this year have all had a taste of it before. Joining the reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in action are Rob Cross, Peter Wright, Daryl Gurney, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, James Wade, Mensur Suljovic and Raymond van Barneveld.

The Premier League of Darts usually has ten players. This season there was a late withdrawal by two-time winner Gary Anderson because of injury. That means that for each of the nine weeks of the first phase of the regular season, a replacement player will step in. It will be a different player each week. After the first nine weeks, the bottom player of the nine will drop out.

The second phase then will see the eight players play each other once. So all players get seven extra games. At the end of that, the top four in the table will move through to the Finals night in May where it is a straight knockout with two semi-finals and then the final.

Anderson replacement(s)

Scotland’s Gary Anderson won’t be taking part then. He has been replaced by nine players. They are Chris Dobey, BDO World Champion Glen Durrant, Steve Lennon, Luke Humphries, John Henderson, Nathan Aspinall, Max Hopp, Dimitri van den Berg and Jeffrey de Zwaan.

Each will make one appearance. None of these will earn any points in the competition if they win (or draw). But their opponents (one of the main Premier League players) will collect any points earned against these replacement players.

Four in a row for MVG?

It has been three seasons of dominance in the Premier League by Michael van Gerwen so far. Will it continue? The Dutchman cruised past Michael Smith in last season’s final to make it a three-peat for himself. Now with Anderson, regarded as his biggest threat, out of the way, then that just further strengthened his position at the head of the market.

The fact that he is at 1/2 odds-on shows just what kind of grip that he has on darts at the moment* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 4th, 2019 at 4:52 pm). It’s been a stellar year from him already having won the World Championship on January 1st and then he just wrapped up another Masters title.

Challengers

The Premier League is a little different because of the way that it’s spread out. There’s a lot of travel involved. A lot of time between matches for things like inconsistency to creep in. It’s not like getting up ahead of steam in a competitive tournament week at all. Michael Smith is the 15/2 second favourite on the back of his great run last season* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 4th, 2019 at 4:52 pm). That was just his second appearance in the competition after a miserable 2016 debut when he finished 10th.

Former world champion Rob Cross made it through to the Final night but lost his semifinal match against Van Gerwen. But like Smith, there was a great understanding of the balance needed to compete over such a long period of time from Cross. With Cross at 9/1 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 4th, 2019 at 4:52 pm), he and Smith are the only other two players in the field other than MVG in single digits in the Premier League outright winner market.

Other Former Winners

Besides Van Gerwen, the only other two men to have won the Premier League on more than one occasion are Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson. Taylor has, of course, retired. Anderson has withdrawn from the tournament. So besides Van Gerwen, there’s little track record in the tournament of anyone else taking part this year. The only two players in the field who have won it before besides MVG is James Wade and Raymond van Barneveld.

Venues

Newcastle – February 7th
Glasgow – February 14th
Dublin – February 21st
Exeter – February 28th
Aberdeen – March 7th
Nottingham – March 14th
Berlin – March 21st
Rotterdam – March 27th/28th (Judgement Night)
Belfast – April 4th
Liverpool – April 11th
Cardiff – April 18th
Birmingham – April 25th
Manchester – May 2nd
Sheffield – May 9th
Leeds – May 16th
London – May 23rd (Finals Night)

Van Gerwen v The Field

Who basically have eight players in opposition to Michael van Gerwen, and they are termed as “The Field”. Combined they are 7/5 odds to find a way to stop Van Gerwen from winning the title again this season* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 4th, 2019 at 4:52 pm). Those are pretty remarkable odds really. Again, the fact that the Dutchman is odds-on here against the entire field sums up just what a monumental task it is going to be for someone to actually step and stop him. Especially with the form that he has shown in the last two major tournaments.

Predictions

This may not be about who wins as much as who can take some personal satisfaction in reaching the semi-finals. This is a good alternative market where we like the chances of Michael Smith and Rob Cross both getting into the picture. They both seemed to adapt really well last season, particularly Cross on his debut.

The one with a bit of meat on the bone in this market is Daryl Gurney who looks like the best of the bunch to potentially fill the void that Anderson has left behind by reaching the final four.