Premier League Darts: Night 16 predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and Sky Sports TV time
Our guide for the final night of the Cazoo Premier League Darts regular season includes match-by-match statistics, predictions, best bets and an acca.
So after 103 matches, 15 nightly winners, two nine-darters and 501 180s we've finally reached the end of the regular season, where there's only one play-off spot up for grabs.
Jonny Clayton and Michael van Gerwen have secured their places as league leader and runner-up respectively while James Wade will finish either third or fourth. The final place at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin on June 13 will be either Joe Cullen or Peter Wright...
You can find stats for all four quarter-finals below, with match previews and tips.
Darts betting tips: Premier League night 16
1pt Clayton to win, hit over 2.5 180s and a checkout of over 99.5 at 3/1 (Sky Bet)
1pt Wright to win, hit over 2.5 180s and a checkout of over 78.5 at 2/1 (Sky Bet)
1pt Price and Wade to hit a 100+ checkout at 3/1 (Sky Bet)
1pt Smith to win the night at 12/1 (Paddy Power)
Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook
SL Acca: Clayton, Wright & Smith all to win with Sky Bet
Thursday May 26: Night 16 quarter-finals
- Venue: Utilita Arena Newcastle
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
- Format: Best of 11 legs
Jonny Clayton (2/7) v Gary Anderson (5/2)
- Head to Head: 6-10 (TV: 4-3)
- Meetings in 2022: 2-1 (TV: 2-1)
- Tournament Average
Clayton: 98.24 (33 games)
Anderson: 93.93 (18 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Clayton: 87 (308 legs, 0.28 per leg)
Anderson: 40 (168 legs, 0.23 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %:
Clayton: 168/401 (42%)
Anderson: 72/171 (42%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout:
Clayton: 21 (12.50%)
Anderson: 11 (15.27%)
Jonny Clayton is guaranteed top spot and Gary Anderson is guaranteed to finish bottom. If it wasn't for the £10,000 prize for the nightly winner then there really wouldn't be anything but pride to play for.
The Ferret has plenty to be proud about considering the way he's played this season whereas the Flying Scotsman's pride will be hurting a lot as he heads to Newcastle with just five wins to his name from 18 matches. And three of those came on one night.
Clayton confirmed Gerwyn Price's elimination en route to his seventh final of the season last week and although he missed out on his fifth title when losing to Joe Cullen, I'd fancy him to go on another lengthy run.
The Welshman has hit more 180s than anyone this season with 87 (0.28 per leg) and has also managed 21 ton+ checkouts, so I quite like the look of Sky Bet's Player Performance market where you can get 3/1 on him winning, hitting over 2.5 maximums and managing a finish of 100 or higher.
Scoreline prediction: 6-3
Joe Cullen (11/8) v Peter Wright (8/11)
- Head to Head: 6-23 (TV: 1-10)
- Meetings in 2022: 1-3 (TV: 1-3)
- Tournament Average
Cullen: 92.05 (24 games)
Wright: 96.68 (26 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Cullen: 72 (213 legs, 0.33 per leg)
Wright: 65 (237 legs, 0.27 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %:
Cullen: 109/296 (37%)
Wright: 112/287 (39%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout:
Cullen: 13 (11.92%)
Wright: 13 (11.60%)
It's somewhat of a shame that the only important factor to be decided on the final night of the regular season will be decided in the second match.
After that, the rest of the evening will lack a bit of meaning and intensity - unless anyone can produce some electrifying darts - which might make some people wonder if the scoring system and format allowed too big a gap to emerge between the players.
If we imagine, for example, everyone played one match a night like the old days - albeit with no draws - this is how the table would look based on their quarter-final results. The top three would still be safe but one of those would be Peter Wright, who has only managed to win two of his nine semi-finals in this format while there would be three players battling for the final spot. I know it's all very circumstantial and unreliable given nobody had the mindset of playing one match per week, but I just thought it would make relatively interesting reading.
- Clayton 11 wins, 22 pts
- MVG 9 wins 18 pts
- Wright 9 wins, 18 points
- Wade 8 wins, 16 points
- Cullen 7 wins, 14 points
- Smith 7 wins, 14 points
- Price 6 wins, 12 points
- Anderson 3 wins, 6 points
If nothing else, I guess it emphasises how good Snakebite has been at getting his nights off to a flying start, with only Clayton winning more quarter-finals.
Cullen, by contrast, has only actually won five quarter-finals on merit when you consider two of his seven have come via walkovers and while it would be unfair to assume he would have lost them both - against Price and Wade - I think we can say he's got rather fortunate to come into the final night sitting in fourth.
He has the lowest average out of all eight players with 92.05 compared to Wright's third-placed 96.68 while his finishing is the worst with just 37%.
The Rockstar did show true fighting spirit to keep alive his hopes by winning all three matches last week but crashed out of the weekend's European Tour event by losing 6-1 to Rowby-John Rodriguez whereas Peter Wright thrashed Jonny Clayton by the same scoreline with a 103 average and then managed 111 in a 6-1 quarter-final win over Danny Noppert.
A breathtaking performance from eventual champion Luke Humphries ended his run but I think the evidence points to Wright sealing his play-off spot in Birmingham.
Snakebite has been finding his range with the 180s so I'm heading for the Player Performance market in this one as well.
Scoreline prediction: 3-6
Michael van Gerwen (4/9) v Michael Smith (13/8)
- Head to Head: 37-10 (TV: 17-5)
- Meetings in 2022: 5-1 (TV: 5-1)
- Tournament Average
Van Gerwen: 99.33 (30 games)
Smith: 96.30 (24 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Van Gerwen: 85 (283 legs, 0.30 per leg)
Smith: 67 (224 legs, 0.29 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %:
Van Gerwen: 160/414 (39%)
Smith: 106/253 (42%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout:
Van Gerwen: 22 (13.75%)
Smith: 13 (12.26%)
When some darts fans complain about watching the same fixtures too many times, Michael van Gerwen v Michael Smith is probably very close to the top of their list!
This is the fourth week running they've played each other and the sixth this season but at least Bully Boy finally broke his 2022 duck against the Dutchman seven nights ago even if it did prove to be in vain as far as play-off qualification was concerned.
The scorelines for the six matches so far have been 6-2, 6-4, 6-5, 6-5, 6-5, 5-6 so there's rarely very little in it and fans do get there money's worth unless it's a fixture they really don't want to see again for a while.
Regular followers of this column will know I've backed Smith to win the last three nights only to see two of those runs foiled in narrow semi-final defeats.
Although he's only got pride to play for I may as well give it one last shot because I still stand by the fact he's in a false position and hasn't enjoyed the fortune his performances have deserved.
Apart from running into van Gerwen six times out of 24 games this season - including three semi-finals and one final - his other three last four appearances have been against table topper Jonny Clayton!
If he can get past MVG then an 'easier' semi-final awaits and maybe, just maybe, he'll finally win his night at the very last opportunity.
Scoreline prediction: 4-6
James Wade (6/5) v Gerwyn Price (4/6)
- Head to Head: 14-8, 1 draw (TV: 6-2, 1 draw)
- Meetings in 2022: 4-1 (TV: 4-1)
- Tournament Average
Wade: 94.49 (27 games)
Price: 96.49 (22 games) - Tournament 180s (180s per leg)
Wade: 43 (248 legs, 0.17 per leg)
Price: 42 (203 legs, 0.20 per leg) - Tournament Checkout %:
Wade: 124/281 (44%)
Price: 99/257 (39%) - 100+ Checkouts and % legs won with a 100+ checkout:
Wade: 20 (16.10%)
Price: 16 (16.10%)
At the start of the season Gerwyn Price was 3/1 favourite for the title and James Wade was the 20/1 outsider.
If you were told back then that Price would be playing Wade in a week 16 quarter-final, you'd have been forgiven for predicting it would be a case of top v bottom!
Instead, it's the Machine who has already booked his place in the play-offs with a game to spare and the Iceman who is bowing out with a whimper.
In hindsight, the format was perfect for Wade, who has rarely been blown away in these short matches despite his average of 94.5 being among the lowest of the eight. He just hung in many of his matches and used his superior finishing (44%) to pick off his rivals on a consistent basis throughout the season. He plays to a level which doesn't deviate much across multiple short matches in one night compared to several others who have been more erratic with their range of standards and ultimately he's made the most of it.
Price showed flashes of brilliance earlier in the campaign but since his memorable two nine-darts in Belfast way back on February 17, he'd only managed three match wins before going all the way in Sheffield a fortnight ago.
He's only posted two 100+ averages in his last 14 Premier League games - and two of those game when winning in Sheffield - so he doesn't have much to be fired up about.
That said both players have been firing in 100+ checkouts at an incredible rate this season - winning over 16% of their legs that way - so I'm taking the Sky Bet 3/1 special on them both to hit one or more apiece.
Scoreline prediction: 6-4
Premier League Table & Format
Each night will see quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final played over the best of 11 legs (first to six). Each player will meet the other seven players twice over the course of the season in a quarter-final game, plus two further nights (Night Eight and Night 16) will feature additional fixtures in the same format. Those fixtures will be a draw bracket based on how the league table looks at the time. So, whoever is top will face the eighth-placed player in the first round.
- Night Winner - 5 points + £10,000 bonus
- Runner-Up - 3 points
- Semi-Finalists - 2 points
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