Betting Tips For Darts Premier League: The Wright Choice

Just days after winning the UK Open, Peter Wright beat James Wade to go one point clear at the top of the Premier League, a move that saw SkyBet bring him in slightly to 5/1 for the outright tournament win.

“Snakebite” carried his UK Open form into the night’s second match and instantly chucked himself into a 5-1 lead which, despite a decent attempt at a comeback from Wade, was enough to see the Scotsman home as he finished off a 7-5 in Glasgow.

Darts Premier League reports

Earlier in the evening, Adrian Lewis inflicted a surprise defeat on Phil Taylor, giving The Power first loss of the season. Meanwhile, Michael van Gerwen just about made a winning return from injury at the SSE Hydro.

Jackpot’s 7-4 victory, by far the biggest shock of the night, gives his survival hopes a lift. Even though he was unlikely to get drawn into the bottom scrap, his form has fallen short enough at points this season that relegation remained a threat. Now a mid-table finish looks more likely.

Michael van Gerwen returned this week following a back injury that saw him withdraw from week six and the UK Open. He found the going tough however as Kim Huybrechts proved a tough nut to crack. Crack he did though as MVG eventually ran out the 7-5 victor to move a point behind Wright in the table with a game in hand.

The Glasgow crowd helped roar Gary Anderson to a 7-3 win in the fourth match of the evening. Anderson now moves into the table’s third slot following his dispatch of Dave Chisnall. Chizzy was outclassed on the night (and almost on the embarrassing end of a whitewash) but, thanks to help from the other matches taking place remains three points clear of the drop zone.

Thursday’s last match saw Raymond van Barneveld produce a brilliant fightback after finding himself 4-1 down to Jelle Klaasen. Seemingly out of nowhere, Barney dug deep and threw a checkout of 154 to launch a run of five straight legs which led him to victory and banish Klassen to the bottom of the table.

The best darts bets for this week

James Wade steps out for the night’s opener against bottom-placed Jelle Klaasen. Save for last week when he was neatly put down by an increasingly impressive Peter Wright, Wade has looked in fine form this season and there should be no reason whatsoever that he won’t return to winning ways here.

It’s actually Wright that is next out on Thursday as he looks to play in another near-certain game against Dave ‘Chizzy’ Chisnall. Chizzy showed something of his better game a fortnight ago when he won two in one night. Because he has played a game extra (courtesy of MVG’s back injury), he gets next week off and so will want to enter hiatus on a high, meaning this could be more complicated than it first looks. That said, I’ll be sticking with Snakebite for game number two.

The first of two big hitter encounters is up next when Raymond van Barneveld meets Gary Anderson. Barney is a hard one to call these days whereas Anderson has barley dropped a shot all league long. There will always be a part of me reluctant to go against the Dutchman and, given home crowd advantage, I’ll err on the side of caution on this one and call it a draw.

At Bet365, you can pick up 94/4 on Barney being the first player to break his opponent’s throw. While I am calling the match a draw, given Barney’s skillset, I definitely think that price is too good to turn down.

Second from bottom Kim Huybrechts takes on Adrian Lewis next with Jackpot fresh from taking the scalp of Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor a week ago. Lewis has found himself hanging just above the relegation zone over the last few weeks and, even with a game in hand over Chisnall, his safety looks less than certain. Should he win here, and I think he will, then he should be able to breathe a little easier.

Finally, the night closes on a classic matchup between Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen. The champ returned to action with a narrow win last week and now boasts the only unbeaten record in the league. He also sits three points off the top of the table with a game in hand and, with the Dutch crowd behind him, will be looking to see off the old rival one more time.

Taylor, though, has won the last three meetings between the two and often raises his game when pride is at stake. For this week’s accumulator bet, I’m going with one line on Wade, Wright, Draw, MVG and Lewis.

This pays out at 43.17/1 at Betway so is obviously well worth considering!

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Peter Wright Wins First PDC Event

Before we recap last week’s Premier League action, lets rejoice in Peter Wright breaking his duck and finally claiming his maiden televised PDC event. That’s right, Snakebite took down the UK Open at the Butlins Minehead Resort last Sunday and with it lifted an enormous monkey from his back.

 

On the night, he defeated Gerwyn Price 11-6 to avenge the previous two years where he has twice come runner-up to Michael van Gerwen. This time there were no such problems for the world number three as he produced a display and a tournament win that we all knew was coming and, if anything, was long overdue.

The popular 46-year-old produced a tournament average of 101 and a final average of 100 as he won the final three legs to seal victory, finishing the match on the bull in an 85 checkout.

Speaking after the match, an emotional Scotsman said simply: “It feels great to win my first one. The fans have given me fantastic support, not just this year but also for the last two years.”

Darts Premier League summary

Wright’s victory here followed a win on Thursday night in the fifth week of the Darts Premier League, another tournament where Snakebite is flying high. Wright beat Adrian Lewis 7-2 in the penultimate battle of the night. In truth it was a one sided affair as Lewis, who has been out of form for too long now, couldn’t keep up with Wright who, in contrast, is in the form of his life.

The night began with an upset, however, as Dave Chisnall won 7 legs to Raymond van Barneveld’s 2, meaning my acca was blown apart inside the first half hour. I’m sure I wasn’t alone. This was followed by an unsurprising 6-6 tie between Jelle Klaasen and Kim Huybrechts before an equally predictable 6-6 was played out by the world number two, Gary Anderson, and retiring legend, Phil Taylor.

In the final match of the night, Chizzy was wheeled out once more to replace an injured Michael van Gerwen who dropped out in the hope his back injury would improve. Chizzy, suddenly alive with form, beat James Wade 5-7 and leaves the Dutchman needing to play two games in week eight in order to catch up.

Premier League Darts betting tips and hints

Play now moves on to The SSE Hydro in Glasgow where another action-packed Thursday night awaits. The Stoke pair of Jackpot Lewis and Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor open up the action at around about 19:00 with the points looking likely to head to the 16-time world champion.

This match is followed by James Wade coming up against Peter Wright where I will stick to Wright stretching his run further still. That said, this is the toughest to call this week with the very capable Wade always a threat.

Huybrechts and MVG are up next and, providing the World Champion’s back holds up, this should be a coast for Mighty Mike. Slightly tougher to call is the Klaasen versus Barney match that follows; it depends on which Raymond van Barneveld turns up on the night. Should the real Barney stand up, it’s a no-brainer win for elder stateman of Dutch darts.

Finally, Chizzy meets Gary Anderson who will fancy his chances – which is why I’m tempted to pick the line of Taylor, Wright, MVG, RVB and Anderson. However, not being brave enough to put on a single acca, I will opt this week for a Canadian instead at just over 11/1 for the five-fold with Betway.

I will also be backing James Wade to make the highest checkout, with odds worth 6/5 available at SkyBet. Plus, given the form he has started to show at long, long last, I’m going to lay some money on an outright win on Snakebite himself. The best I have found for this is by far and away at Bet365 where he is almost twice as good as value as anywhere else.

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Four draws in Darts Premier League as Chizzy loses again.

In a great week for bookmakers, four out of last week’s five Premier League matches ended in a 6-6 tie. What this means is that things remain pretty much unchanged at the top of the table where Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor and James Wade are all unbeaten as we reach the quarter point of the League stage.

The only result that finished definitively was the fight out between Dave Chisnall and Jelle Klassen which ended positively for the Dutchman leaving Chizzy’s short-lived revival hanging by a thread. The Englishman was unable to avoid the cut last year and could well suffer the same fate this year after dropping the points in Klassen’s first win of the campaign.

Darts Betting Tips

So, it’s on to the Westpoint Arena in Exeter for week five where Chizzy is up first and, with Klassen and Huybrechts meeting in the follow up fixture, he will need nothing short of a win. On the previous two nights that he has competed in the opening match he has lost and is unlikely to break that habit here given that his opponent is Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld. Barney has come out on top five out of their last six meetings and should be stretching that record further.

This is followed by a match that will surely help to shape a relegation battle that looks increasingly likely to include these two, Klaasen and Huybrechts, plus Chisnall. Kim was one of last week’s drawing players in a match against Phil Taylor, while Klassen was last week’s only winner after seeing off Chizzy and so goes into this clash with the most momentum. Even in his defeats he has looked in good shape and this was against MVG, Gary Anderson and Snakebite Wright so I think he has enough to drop Huybrechts here.

The night’s most interesting game comes third when Gary ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson takes on ‘The Power’, who is yet to lose a match this campaign. Taylor, at 5/2 with SkyBet to win the tie, is worth looking into, purely as he has the weekend off, something that cannot be said for Anderson who is the better player these days but will be turning out in the UK Open, the only major tournament that interrupts the Premier League season. There is a quick note about the Open below, but we already know that Thursday will likely impact on some of the weekend’s performances. Even so, this is tough one to split so we’ll put this one down as a draw.

The unbeaten pair of Michael van Gerwen and James Wade step up in match four and, while MVG is the superior talent, James ‘The Machine’ Wade is looking very strong right now. When you filter in the fact that Wade won this tie last season and that Adrian Lewis took points off of the world number one Dutchman last week, any heavy backing on van Gerwen could potentially come back and sting you. Of course, in all likelihood it won’t, this being Michael van Gerwen n’all.

Adrian Lewis and Peter Wright close out the night and with Jackpot losing to Wright in their last three meetings he will be feeling the pressure tomorrow night. While two-time World Champion Lewis has the by far the better career CV, he has been in terrible form of late which is in contrast to his Scottish opponent, Wright who has been steadily improving and is always self-confident if a little too self-critical. Either way I expect it to be all Wright on the night for a Snakebite win.

My Betway treble for the week is Klaasen, van Barneveld & Wright all to win at 9.25/1

Matchday Five, Westpoint Arena, Exeter: TV Coverage: Sky Sports 1 (1900 GMT)

  • Dave Chisnall v Raymond van Barneveld
  • Jelle Klaasen v Kim Huybrechts
  • Gary Anderson v Phil Taylor
  • Michael van Gerwen v James Wade
  • Adrian Lewis v Peter Wright

UK Open

One day after Matchday 5 of the Premier League, the players, well, some of them, will be heading off to Butlins in Minehead for the UK Open. Yes, this Friday, the only major tourney to interrupt the DPL, begins before climaxing on Sunday where Michael van Gerwen is 4/7 at Bet365  to win outright. The event will be shown live on ITV 4 and would be a shock if the Dutchman was not to win but hopeful bettors can pick an outright selection from Anderson (6/1) and Wright (12/1) with the rest drifting from 22’s onward at Bet365, where, interestingly, James Wade is on offer at 33/1.

Watch live on Sky Sports from 7pm GMT as well as worldwide through the PDC‘s series of broadcast partners.

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