Premier League Darts 2023: Night two predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and Sky Sports TV time
The Cazoo Premier League Darts season continues on Thursday so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match guide to the action.
Darts betting tips: Premier League night two
1pt Jonny Clayton to win and Michael Smith to hit most 180s at 4/1 (Sky Bet)
1pt Peter Wright to win and hit most 180s at 13/8 (Sky Bet)
1pt Chris Dobey to hit more 180s than Gerwyn Price at 13/10 (Betfair)
2pts Michael van Gerwen to win night two at 7/4 (General)
SL Acca: Clayton (+1.5 legs) , Wright, Dobey (+1.5 legs) & MVG all to win at 6/1 with Sky Bet
Thursday February 9: Night two
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
- Format: Quarter-Finals, best of 11 legs
- Venue: Cardiff
Michael Smith (1/2) v Jonny Clayton (6/4)
- Head to Head: 12-10 (TV: 7-7)
- 2022 Head to Head: 4-7 (TV: 3-6)
- PL Average: 100.84 - 101.04
- PL 180s per leg: 0.22 - 0.25
- PL checkout percentage: 37.50% - 22%
Michael Smith had to wait until the fourth week of the 2022 Premier League season so he'll be eager to avoid another slow start following last week's 6-3 defeat to Michael van Gerwen.
Bully Boy averaged just over 100 so it's not as if he played poorly and he'd have enjoyed a bit of rest after such a hectic January before the schedule gets a whole lot busier in the coming weeks.
In week two of year's Premier League he lost 6-3 to Jonny Clayton, who went on to win the night in Liverpool seven days after losing the final to Peter Wright in front of his Welsh fans in Cardiff.
The Ferret averaged 101 last week but was punished for his sloppy doubling by Dimitri Van den Bergh and he'll need to get that right if he's to get the Cardiff crowd going in the opening match of the night.
Clayton got the better of Smith in seven of their 11 meetings in 2022 but as far as their six Premier League exchanges were concerned, it finished three apiece.
I'm going to plump for the the home hero in this one but throwing in Smith to hit the most 180s despite him not firing on all maximum cylinders last week enhances the price very nicely.
Scoreline prediction: 5-6
Nathan Aspinall (11/8) v Peter Wright (8/15)
- Head to Head: 8-5 (TV: 5-2)
- 2022 Head to Head: 1-1 (TV: 1-0)
- PL Average: 93.73 - 103.77
- PL 180s per leg: 0.30 - 0.44
- PL checkout percentage: 34.48% - 33.33%
Peter Wright averaged almost eight points higher than Chris Dobey with 103.77 last week but the debutant's superior doubling inspired a 6-3 victory that paved the way for an opening night triumph.
Nathan Aspinall also fell victim to Dobey in the semi-finals after missing 15 of his 19 attempts at doubles despite hitting six out of 10 against a lacklustre Gerwyn Price in his opening match.
The Asp has a very good record against Snakebite and has won five of their seven televised matches - although they did only meet twice last year, including the Grand Slam of Darts group stages which he clinched 5-2.
Wright has started the season with a lot of confidence however, winning the Nordic Darts Masters before a fine run to the Masters semi-final which he lost 11-10 to runner-up Rob Cross.
He averaged over 101 in both of his matches before that and I'd expect him to come through and also hit the most 180s. He's generally a superior maximum hitter and he's already found his range this season with four in nine legs last week.
Scoreline prediction: 3-6
Gerwyn Price (1/2) v Chris Dobey (6/4)
- Head to Head: 7-2 (TV: 2-0)
- 2022 Head to Head: 0-0 (TV: 0-0)
- PL Average: 91.29 - 96.24
- PL 180s per leg: 0.10 - 0.36
- PL checkout percentage: 44.44% - 43%
Gerwyn Price will finally have a crowd on his side tonight in Cardiff although it didn't make much difference here last year, losing 6-3 to James Wade in round one with an 89 average.
The Iceman also struggled to find his rhythm last week as he suffered a 6-4 defeat to Nathan Aspinall and averaged just 91 so it's hard to back him at 1/2 against a player with such confidence as Chris Dobey.
As Paul Nicholson pointed out in his recent column, the Masters champion has been incredibly consistent over his career-changing couple of weeks, averaging between 94.05 and 96.94 in his last eight matches. Over a long period of time this level of consistency - and doing the right things at the right times - will earn him plenty of points in such a short format tournament.
Obviously if Price can pull out one of his blockbuster performances then Dobey is in trouble but it's hard to predict when those are coming at the moment. He managed 100+ averages in two of his three final-day matches at the Nordic Darts Masters recently but illness contributed to an early Masters exit a week later.
While I'm only tentatively edging towards a Dobey victory, I'm more confident about his chances of hitting more maximums at 6/5.
He managed 0.36 per leg over his three matches last week which is very impressive while last season in all competitions he managed 0.31 compared to Price's 0.27.
Scoreline prediction: 5-6
Michael van Gerwen (2/7) v Dimitri Van den Bergh (5/2)
- Head to Head: 13-1, 1 draw (TV: 5-0, 1 draw)
- 2022/2023 Head to Head: 6-0 (TV: 4-0)
- PL Average: 101.92 - 95.96
- PL 180s per leg: 0.23 - 0.27
- PL checkout percentage: 50% - 41.66%
As much as it was a great story and moment when Chris Dobey beat Michael van Gerwen with a 160 checkout to win the opening night of the Premier League, it did cost followers of these tips!
That hasn't dented my enthusiasm for backing MVG again because he did produce highly impressive levels in his other two matches last week - averaging 102 against Michael Smith and 106 in a surprisingly close 6-4 triumph over Dimitri Van den Bergh considering the Belgian managed just 91.61.
After spending much of January recharging his batteries, van Gerwen is starting to find the destructive A-game again and he didn't really play badly in last week's final either, averaging 97.41.
The short format does make it dangerous backing anyone at short prices but if he does find his 100+ consistency as much as he did towards the end of the 2022 season, then he might be even shorter than 7/4 prices in future weeks.
Scoreline prediction: 6-3
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