Pete’s Darts Betting Tips
- Michael van Gerwen to win and claim a 6-0 whitewash @ 16/1 with bet365
- Van Gerwen is only 8/1 at bet365 to land a 170 checkout
- Jonny Clayton to win and Michael Smith to hit the most 180s @ 4/1 with bet365
- Peter Wright to win, produce the highest checkout and hit the most 180s @ 10/3 (boosted) with bet365
- Chris Dobey to hit more 180s than Gerwyn Price @ 6/5 with bet365
- Michael van Gerwen to win night two @ 2/1 with bet365
Note that these betting lines were correct at the time of this posting. Please check Bet365 for the latest betting lines.
Less than a week since he landed his first-ever televised PDC major, Chris Dobey won the opening night of the 2023 Premier League of Darts in Belfast. Hollywood stunned Michael van Gerwen with a superb 160 checkout in the final and deciding leg to win the opening night of the Premier League Darts season at the SSE Arena.
Making his tournament debutant, Dobey earned his place among the DPL 8 thanks to winning the Darts Masters at the back end of January and kicked off the night by proving he deserves to be here among the best in the world by putting an end to Peter Wright’s night with 104 average and a 6-3 victory.
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The North Easterner then moved on to a hard-fought 6-4 win over Nathan Aspinall before meeting up with Michael van Gerwen in the final. Mighty Mike himself had already beaten world champion Michael Smith 6-3 with a 102 average, a mark that was raised to 106 in his second game of the evening, a 6-4 defeat of Dimitri Van den Bergh.
After initially going a leg down, Dobey produced magnificent 170 checkout in the second leg to restore parity and before long had gone 3-1 ahead against the defending champion. MVG managed to bring things back level in a race to six and the rest all went with the throw leading to a deciding set.
Dobey had the throw in the leg and made full use of it, closing out the win with a blockbuster 160 finish that sent the crowd wild.
The Premier League of Darts roadshow now moves on to Cardiff for Night Two.
Michael Smith v Jonny Clayton
Much was expected of Michael Smith a week ago so it was very disappointing to see him knocked out in the first-round match against Michael van Gerwen. Last year, the Bully Boy was the last man in the tournament to pick up a night win and he won’t want that to happen this time around.
The world number one goes into this match as the heavy favourite in spite of a poor performance in Northern Ireland. bet365 are giving 8/15 for the Bully Boy to make it through to the semis and are clearly not expecting it to be a particularly close contest. But then nobody thought that his MVG match last week would have been so one-sided. Smith even averaged over 100 so it’s not as if he played that poorly.
On night two of this year’s Premier League, Smith lost out to this week’s opponent Jonny Clayton, succumbing to a 6-3 defeat leaving the Ferret to win the night in Liverpool a week after losing the final to Peter Wright in front of his loyal Welsh fans in Cardiff.
Not many hang on in there quite like Clayton and even when he is seriously up against it, the Ferret can dig some big numbers out of the bag, so I don’t see this one as being as clear-cut as the odds suggest. Clayton was also knocked out in his first match on night one and he too will be hoping to improve and rediscover the winning formula that made him champion in this event a few years back.
The Welshman had climbed as high as seventh in the world rankings back then but after a bumper 2021 he has gone somewhat off the boil, hence the 6/4 offered by bet365 to win this tie. He is also 12/1 to win the night outright but, unless he can bring his A game in this opener it might be tough for him in what will be a home fixture in the Welsh capital.
Clayton averaged 101 seven days ago but was punished for his dodgy doubling by Dimitri Van den Bergh. It is also worth noting that the Welshman has got the better of Smith in seven of their 11 meetings in 2022.
However, as far as their six Premier League meetings is concerned they couldn’t be split winning three apiece and while I expect Smith to pin the higher amount of 180s, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the local hero prevail.
Nathan Aspinall v Peter Wright
The second of the evening’s quarter-finals sees Nathan Aspinall take on Peter Wright in another match-up between a pair that will be hoping to improve on their previous round’s performance which saw neither man reach the last two, both being shot down by Chris Dobey.
Snakebite actually outgunned Hollywood last week, averaging close to eight points higher with 103.77 but the debutant was stronger on the doubles which paved the way for an opening-night triumph.
Despite putting in a poor show seven days ago and getting knocked out in the first round, Peter Wright is the much shorter of the two in the betting at 8/13 to claim the win, making Nathan Aspinall the underdog at 13/10, even though he made it to the semi-final.
Snakebite will be looking to bank his first points of the new season and judging by how well he’s been playing since the start of 2022, last week not included, it shouldn’t be too long before he recovers from this dip in form.
It was Aspinall who dumped the Scotsman out of the Grand Slam of Darts at the group stage in November, however, so Wright will need to push his recent loss to the Asp out of his head if he is to progress to the next round in Cardiff. Wright has a good chance of winning here if he can find his top level and sustain it for long enough and could even make it to the final and win the night outright, something that bet365 have priced him up to do at 11/2.
Of course, Aspinall will have something to say about that, and we have seen him play at his best on a number of occasions this year, so he can’t be written off completely and at 11/8, he offers good value and a punt that is far from hopeless. It is also worth noting that the Asp actually has a very good record against Snakebite and has taken five of their seven televised matches.
Gerwyn Price v Chris Dobey
Playing in Cardiff should mean that Gerwyn Price will finally have a crowd on his side. However, that didn’t seem to make much of a difference last year when he lost 6-3 to James Wade in round one with a low 89 average. The Iceman was also unable to find his rhythm last week as he lost out to Nathan Aspinall in a 6-4 first-round defeat in which he averaged just 91.
Despite this, bet365 have put an 8/15 price on his head to overcome Chris Dobey, who is oozing confidence right now. That’s not particularly good value giving the way that Hollywood is performing at the moment. Dobey has been incredibly consistent of late, averaging between 94.05 and 96.94 in his last eight matches.
Of course, if the Iceman can conjure up another one of his blockbuster performances then Dobey could well find himself in trouble but it is hard to see where those are coming from at the moment. Based on last week, Dobey is favoured to come through his opener.
Michael van Gerwen v Dimitri Van den Bergh
Michael van Gerwen narrowly missed out on first place last week and will back himself to go one place better this time around. Understandably, he is the favourite to win night two outright at 9/5 and as thin as 3/10 to win his match against Dimitri Van den Bergh and progress to the semi-final for the second Darts Premier League night in a row.
MVG did produce massively impressive levels in his other two matches last week where he averaged 102 against Michael Smith and 106 against this week’s opponent Dimitri Van den Bergh, who could only manage 91.61. His Belgian opponent is 5/2 to take the win but looking at his recent form where he has lost four of his last six matches, he will certainly have to dig deep against the Dutch 148-time PDC title winner.
Bet365 Darts Premier League Betting Odds Night One: Belfast
- Michael Smith (8/15) v (6/4) Jonny Clayton at 19:15
- Nathan Aspinall (11/8) v (4/7) Peter Wright at 19:45
- Gerwyn Price (8/15) v (6/4) Chris Dobey at 20:15
- Michael van Gerwen (3/10) v (5/2) Dimitri Van den Bergh at 20:45
2023 bet365 Premier League Darts Outright Odds
- Michael van Gerwen @ 9/5
- Michael Smith @ 7/2
- Gerwyn Price @ 5/1
- Peter Wright @ 11/2
- Jonny Clayton @ 12/1
- Nathan Aspinall @ 14/1
- Dimitri van den Bergh @
- Chris Dobey @ 14/1
2023 Premier League Darts Table
Player | Nights Won | Games Won | Leg Difference | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chris Dobey | 1 | 3 | +6 | 5 |
Michael van Gerwen | 0 | 2 | +4 | 3 |
Dimitri van den Bergh | 0 | 1 | +3 | 2 |
Nathan Aspinall | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Gerwyn Price | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
Peter Wright | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 |
Michael Smith | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 |
Jonny Clayton | 0 | 0 | -4 | 0 |
2023 Premier League Darts Schedule
- Night 1 – The SSE Arena, Belfast – Thursday February 2 (Winner: Chris Dobey)
- Night 2 – Cardiff International Arena – Thursday February 9
- Night 3 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow – Thursday February 16
- Night 4 – 3Arena, Dublin – Thursday February 23
- Night 5 – Westpoint Exeter – Thursday March 2
- Night 6 – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool – Thursday March 9
- Night 7 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham – Thursday March 16
- Night 8 – Utilita Arena, Newcastle – Thursday March 23
- Night 9 – Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin – Thursday March 30
- Night 10 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham – Thursday April 6
- Night 11 – The Brighton Centre – Thursday April 13
- Night 12 – Rotterdam Ahoy – Thursday April 20
- Night 13 – First Direct Arena, Leeds – Thursday April 27
- Night 14 – AO Arena, Manchester – Thursday May 4
- Night 15 – Utilita Arena, Sheffield – Thursday May 11
- Night 16 – P&J Live, Aberdeen – Thursday May 18
- Play Offs – The O2, London – Thursday May 25
QUICK GLANCE AT THE 2023 PREMIER LEAGUE OF DARTS NIGHT ONE
Venue: Cardiff International Arena
Dates: Thursday February 2nd – Thursday May 25
Format: Best of 11 legs
Current Champion: Michael van Gerwen
Where To Watch: Sky Sports Main Event HD & Sky Sports Arena HD
When To Watch: 19:00 UK