Premier League Darts - Night Two Tips
The new Premier League season started with world number one Luke Humphries stamping his authority on Night 1 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, taking maximum points following victories over Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwen and Chris Dobey.
Night 2 sees the players head to the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, where Humphries will meet last week’s final victim Dobey in his opening assignment.
Cool Hand Luke avoids teenager phenomenon Luke Littler and Van Gerwen until the final and will have high hopes of going two from two in this season’s Premier League.
Tip 1: Rob Cross +2.5 legs on handicap vs Luke Littler @ 10/13
It has been a strong start to the year for Rob Cross, who won the Dutch Darts Masters at the end of January before taking the Players Championship 1 title in Wigan on Monday.
Voltage failed to fire in Belfast last week, losing 6-4 to Dobey in the semi-final following a victory of the same scoreline over Stephen Bunting, but he is playing well enough to give Littler a scare.
The Nuke dominates this personal series with Cross, leading 8-2, but he can take time to warm to his task and last week’s 6-5 defeat to Van Gerwen in the quarter-final shows he is beatable over this shorter format.
Tip 2: Michael van Gerwen to beat Stephen Bunting @ 7/10
Van Gerwen will see last week’s opening night in Belfast as a missed opportunity, having defeated Littler 6-5 in his quarter-finals before squandering a 4-3 lead to lose 6-5 in his semi-final showdown with Humphries.
However, averages of 105.91 and 101.51 show that the World Championship runner-up remains in rude health and he should have the beating of Bunting, who was below-par in last week’s 6-4 quarter-final defeat to Cross.
Bunting, back in the Premier League after a 10-year absence, will be feeling pressure to show he belongs in this eight-player elite event and Van Gerwen has won 18 of their previous 20 meetings.
Tip 3: Gerwyn Price -1.5 legs on handicap vs Nathan Aspinall @ 49/50
Aspinall and Price will both be desperate to get off the mark, having each endured a quarter-final defeat on Night 1, and the Welshman looks most likely to deliver the goods.
While still a long way below his peak level, Price is showing plenty of promising signs of a resurgence, and his recent averages have been consistently higher than those of Aspinall.
Price defeated Littler in his opening assignment in Glasgow last season and he has won six of his last seven meetings with Aspinall, so take the Iceman to cover the handicap.
Tip 4: Luke Humphries -2.5 legs on the handicap vs Chris Dobey @ 49/50
Having won the World Masters earlier this month and followed up on Night 1 in Glasgow, Humphries has lost only one of his last 14 matches and this looks a daunting prospect for Dobey.
Hollywood was brushed aside 6-1 by Humphries in last Thursday’s final, and that was despite Cool Hand Luke averaging only 95.86.
Humphries has won five of their last six meetings over this best-of-11 leg format, and three of those successes were by at least four legs, suggesting that he should win this 6-3 or better.
View all darts betting markets
Odds correct at time of publication but subject to fluctuation