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Premier League Darts 2024: Night two predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and Sky Sports TV time

By Chris Hammer

21:27 · THU February 08, 2024

The Cazoo Premier League Darts regular season continues in Berlin on Thursday night so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match guide to the action.

Darts betting tips: Premier League night 2

1pt Michael van Gerwen to beat Nathan Aspinall and hit most 180s at 6/4 (Sky Bet)

1pt Smith v Price to have over 8.5 legs, highest checkout to be over 100.5 and over 5.5 total 180s at 11/8 (Sky Bet)

1pt Littler v Cross to produce most 180s in the quarter-finals at 9/4 (Sky Bet)

1pt Luke Humphries (-3.5) to beat Peter Wright at 11/10 (General)

SL Acca: MVG (-1.5), Smith (+1.5), Littler & Humphries (-1.5) at 9/2 with Sky Bet

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Thursday February 1: Night Two

TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
Format: Quarter-Finals, best of 11 legs
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin

Nathan Aspinall (5/2) v Michael van Gerwen (2/7)

Head to Head: 7-15, 1 draw (TV: 4-11, 1 draw)
2024 PL Average: 88.99 - 97.14
2024 PL 180s per leg: 0.2 - 0.45
2024 PL checkout percentage: 36.36% - 45.45%
2024 PL legs won with 100+ C/O: N/A - N/A

Michael van Gerwen heads to Berlin licking his wounds from a second final defeat in the last three majors but there were still plenty of positives to take from Milton Keynes as he bids to pick up his first Premier League points of the season.

MVG, who also lost the climax of the Players Championship Finals back in November, was extremely gracious in losing to the brilliant Stephen Bunting on Sunday and didn't do a lot wrong against a fan favourite who averaged 102.5 to lift his maiden PDC major.

Michael van Gerwen going back to Stephen Bunting to congratulate his son 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/iqVFVREobs
— Chris Hammer (@ChrisHammer180) February 4, 2024

Van Gerwen averaged around 99 across his four matches, which included thrashings over Dimitri Van den Bergh, Dave Chisnall and Chris Dobey, and also fired in an impressive 17 maximums across his 59 legs (0.28 per leg).

Aspinall did well to reach the semi-finals but stats-wise his performances were in line with what we've seen from him so far this season, averaging 89.73 and only managing 10 maximums in 46 legs (0.22 per leg).

This could well be a one-sided win for the Dutchman and on current 180 hitting form, he should dominate that area of the game too.

Predicted Scoreline: 3-6

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

ALSO WATCH: NEW TOURNAMENT IDEAS IN DARTS

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Michael Smith (11/10) v Gerwyn Price (8/11)

Head to Head: 24-21, 1 draw (TV: 15-11, 1 draw)
2024 PL Average: 96.58 - 97.82
2024 PL 180s per leg: 0.33 - 0.12
2024 PL checkout percentage: 46.15% - 38.89%
2024 PL legs won with 100+ C/O: 16.66% - 33.33%

Michael Smith thrashed Gerwyn Price 6-2 to win the opening night of the Premier League season but still finds himself marginal underdog to repeat the feat when the duo collide in this quarter-final clash in Berlin.

We can't compare their form at the Masters because Price pulled out at the last minute for family reasons while Bully Boy suffered a disappointing 10-6 defeat to Dimitri Van den Bergh despite averaging a superior 95.31 and pinning six of his nine darts at doubles.

Smith's 180 hitting was pretty prolific last week and although the Iceman surprisingly struggled to find his range in front of his home fans in Cardiff, we can usually expect him to be around the 0.32 per leg mark.

I feel this will be close enough to expect plenty of maximums while they also combined for seven 100+ checkouts in their matches last week, so I'm going to incorporate another of those into my selection.

Predicted Scoreline: 6-4

CLICK HERE to back over 8.5 legs, checkout over 100.5 and over 5.5 180s with Sky Bet

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Luke Littler (2/5) v Rob Cross (7/4)

Head to Head: 1-0 (TV: 1-0)
2024 PL Average: 103.08 - 95.21
2024 PL 180s per leg: 0.42 - 0.12
2024 PL checkout percentage: 50% - 26.67%
2024 PL legs won with 100+ C/O: N/A - 12.5%

For the first time in 2024 we had a weekend of darts that wasn't about Luke Littler but that's only because he wasn't involved.

That said, considering the way Stephen Bunting played, even Littler may have struggled to compete for headlines and the trophy!

Hopefully we'll see many future major battles between the two current 'People's Champions' but as far as Thursday night is concerned, the 17-year-old is a warm favourite to see off a player he destroyed in the World Championship semi-finals.

Since then, Littler has continued to dazzle on the World Series and also on his Premier League debut last week when he averaged over 103 and agonisingly missed a match dart to reach the final.

However, we shouldn't underestimate Rob Cross, who has consistently been producing high levels of performance for several months now and even looked pretty sharp in a marginal defeat to Damon Heta at the Masters on Saturday.

I can see this one having around 9-10 legs and given the rate at which Littler hits 180s, it could be in with a very strong chance of producing the most maximums.

Predicted Scoreline: 6-4

CLICK HERE to back a Littler v Cross producing most QF 180s with Sky Bet

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Luke Humphries (1/7) v Peter Wright (4/1)

Head to Head: 3-6 (TV: 1-1)
2024 PL Average: 93.26 - 83.78
2024 PL 180s per leg: 0.37 - 0.00
2024 PL checkout percentage: 16.67% - 33.33%
2024 PL legs won with 100+ C/O: 50% - N/A

Peter Wright is failing to silence his doubters at the moment with his performances on the oche - and he's not winning any new fans with his comments off it.

Having upset a lot of people in the world of darts for 'not caring' about those outside the world's top 16, he then slammed Chris Mason for claiming Chris Dobey should have been picked ahead of him in the Premier League, saying :"What's he won? He won a Masters, a Mickey Mouse tournament. It's all he's won. Has he won a European Championship? Has he won a major? A proper major? No, he hasn't. Yes he was a better player last year, but so what? I won two World titles, two World Cups, two European Championships and a Matchplay."

Wright did later apologise on social media, claiming: "It wasn't meant to be a dig at him personally, it was about being picked for the Premier League and the criticism about being picked over Chris Dobey" but the damage has been done. To belittle anyone's achievements like that - especially when Dobey hadn't even involved himself in the row - is as poor as throwing a big 12 with your first dart of the season.

Former world darts champion Peter Wright opens up his 2024 premier league campaign with a big 12

He is unbelievably washed 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/7aSiYebX2y
— Josh (@joshpearson180) February 1, 2024

After averaging 83.78 in his Premier League opener last week, he managed to up it to 90 against Krzysztof Ratajski in the second round of that 'Mickey Mouse' event at the weekend before plummeting back down to 83 in a crushing 10-2 defeat to eventual champion Stephen Bunting.

Now there's a yet another player who should be in the Premier League ahead of him.

Luke Humphries was another of the Bullet's victims in the previous round but at least he averaged 99 in a 10-7 loss and should arrive in Berlin full of confidence of picking up his first win of the Premier League season.

The world champion should win by a wide margin.

Predicted Scoreline: 6-2