Michael van Gerwen Wins Darts Premier League For Third Time

World number one Michael van Gerwen was crowned the winner of the Darts Premier League for the third time in five years.

Darts Premier League finals

The conclusion of an epic evening at The O2 Arena saw the brilliant Dutchman gifted a get out of jail free card by a generous Peter Wright.

Final: Michael van Gerwen vs Peter Wright

Mighty Mike fought back from a 3-0 deficit and then a 7-2 deficit to steal an 11-10 victory over Wright, who once again dropped much-needed double shots – in this case a horribly frustrating six (six!) championship darts.

Heartbreak for Snakebite fans came in the 20th leg when Wright failed to land a double 16 before incredibly missing two more shots, then another three on his next visit.

Van Gerwen, who has now made the final of every Darts Premier League, is not the man you want to let back into a game. The Dutchman duly capitalised, taking full advantage and landing a double 10 before closing with a 12-darter to claim the £250,000 first prize.

Semi-final: Michael van Gerwen vs Gary Anderson

Earlier on Thursday, we also watched the semi-finals play out. The first match of the day allowed MVG to despatch the twice World Champion Gary Anderson 10-7 courtesy of a pivotal MVG break of throw late on in the match.

Anderson had taken the opener, and the game remained a tight, tense match until van Gerwen’s decisive snatch in the sixteenth leg.

Semi-final: Phil Taylor vs Peter Wright

Elsewhere, the Darts Premier League said goodbye to crowd favourite (and the greatest darts player of all time) Phil “The Power” Taylor as he gave way to Peter Wright.

Both The Power and the crowd had been hoping the six-time winner could claim a seventh before retirement but Wright wasn’t reading from the script and eliminated Taylor in a 10-9 victory.

Wright had romped into a 4-0 lead before Taylor showed his true class to bring the game level, preceding a break of throw that sent The Power into an amazing 9-8 lead and within touching distance of a final spot. Sadly, though, it wasn’t to be as Taylor missed a match-winning dart to allow Wright to take the final place.

Darts betting tips for Dubai Masters

Both MVG and Wright will turn out again this Wednesday in the Dubai Masters where the former is an outright winner’s price of 4/6 across the board – but for which Wright is an intriguing best price of 5/1 with SkyBet.

Phil Taylor will also be making an appearance in the Middle East this week. Bet365 are offering 14/1 on an outright win for The Power.

Dave Chisnall, who will make his World Cup debut for England next week, is an overall price of 22/1 in the same sportsbook, while James Wade can be selected for an outsider’s price of 33/1.

Anderson, for those interested, can be picked up for a Dubai tournament win for 11/2 at Betway where you will also find Raymond van Barneveld at 25/1.

Dubai Masters schedule

Wednesday’s Dubai Masters order of play is as follows:

Peter Wright takes on Dave Chsinall before MVG meets RVB in an all-Dutch clash.

This preceds a match between Anderson and Taylor before James Wade meets Gerwyn Price, 80/1 at Betway, to close the night’s opening round.

More PDC tournaments in 2017

  • Betway World Cup of Darts – Frankfurt, June 1-4
  • World Matchplay – Blackpool, July 22-30
  • Champions League of Darts – Cardiff, September 16-17
  • World Grand Prix – Dublin, October 1-7
  • European Championship – Belgium October 26-29
  • World Series of Darts Finals – Glasgow, Nov 4-5
  • Grand Slam of Darts – Wolverhampton, Nov 11-19
  • PDC World Championship 2018 – Alexandra Palace
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Phil Taylor Reaches Darts Premier League London Finals

After more than three months of top darts action, we have whittled the field down to the final four for this year’s Betway Darts Premier League.

We now know the not-so-surprising names of the players who will step out at London’s O2 Arena this Thursday and compete for the 2017 Darts Premier League title.

Darts Premier League: the last step to the final

Of course, world number one “Mighty” Michael van Gerwen heads to London having topped the table following a victory over world number two Gary Anderson, himself a qualifier, albeit in fourth place.

Anderson’s countryman Peter Wright, one place lower in the world rankings, heads into the semis as League runner-up, while the old master and six-time champion Phil “The Power” Taylor makes up the numbers as the third-place qualifier.

Phil Taylor vs Adrian Lewis

In his retirement year, Taylor made sure of a London spot, his twelfth in thirteen years, following his dismissal of fellow Englishman and Stoke local, Adrian Lewis 7-5.

It might have been different, with “The Power” finding himself 5-3 down to “Jackpot” early on. However, the old veteran was relaxed enough to claim four legs on the spin and bring the game back under his own control to condemn his rival to bottom spot.

Dave Chisnall vs James Wade

In truth, there was no pressure left on Taylor by the time he stepped up to the oche after fifth-placed Dave Chisnall failed to get the victory he needed against James Wade in the night’s opener, claiming only a disappointing tie instead.

Michael van Gerwen vs Gary Anderson

The battle between the world’s top two saw Michael van Gerwen defeat Gary Anderson, playing in front of a home crowd, 7-4. While Mike had assured qualification prior to a dart being chucked this week, he did require victory in order to bag league leader’s bonus of £25,000 for the fifth successive year.

It was a victory that was never really in doubt as the Dutchman averaged 103.56 and hit four 180s on his way to a thrilling 124 checkout on the bullseye, after which he played in cruise mode, damage very much done.

Peter Wright vs Raymond van Barneveld

The night’s biggest winning margin was chalked up Peter “Snakebite” Wright who put a tiring Raymond van Barneveld to bed 7-1. Averaging 97.27, Wright showed a deadliness that can sometimes go missing from his game as Barney consigned himself to another one of those weeks.

Darts Premier League Final Betting Tips

Now that we have reached the end of the tourney, it’s hard to look away from Mighty Mike, collector of almost every PDC trophy last year.

Even when he’s off form you need guts to bet against the imperious Dutch master. That said, sport is nothing without surprises and Peter Wright has posted some impressive recent results against the champion, not least a whitewash in the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen two weeks ago.

The semis line up in order of qualifier seedings, meaning MVG meets Gary “The Flying Scotsman” Anderson before Peter Wright and Phil Taylor square off in the second match of the night.

A double on MVG and Wright to win at Bet365 returns almost evens and as such is very enticing.

The latest outright betting sees a best price of 1/2 on MVG which you can claim at Betway, who are also currently posting the best price on Peter Wright too at a reasonable 9/2.

Over at SkyBet, Gary Anderson finds his best value at 11/2, while for the romantics, Taylor is 11s across the board.

Betway are offering 15/8 on the tourney winner being a Scotsman which, with half of the competitors throwing under the Scottish flag, is tempting.

I like the look of the following request-a-bet from SkyBet: Michael van Gerwen & Peter Wright both to win, hit the highest checkouts and score the most 180s in their semi-finals all for 10/1.

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Van Gerwen Crushes Lewis To Reach Premier League Finals

Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright both booked their places in the finals of the Darts Premier League with wins in Birmingham last Thursday.

Betway Darts Premier League: week 13 reports

Michael van Gerwen vs Adrian Lewis and Dave Chisnall

The world number one brutally dismissed Adrian Lewis with a 110.75 average, hit without a reply in a classy whitewash – the first in the League this year. This was Mighty Mike’s second match of the evening, having earlier tied with Dave Chisnall in a match where he found himself trailing 6-3.

This was the third 7-0 win in MVG’s Premier League career and sent him three points clear at the top of the table – ahead of Peter “Snakebite” Wright, himself guaranteed a place at the London finale on May 18.

Adrian Lewis vs James Wade

Lewis’s London participation now hangs in the balance having played two, lost two last week when his MVG embarrassment was preceded by a 7-4 defeat to James Wade.

This was a match in which Jackpot failed to land 12 of his 16 double shots and has now lost three on the bounce following his nine-darter in Liverpool.

Peter Wright vs Phil Taylor

Snakebite’s qualification came courtesy of a 7-3 win against Phil “The Power” Taylor, a six-time League winner who now stands fourth in the table. He clings onto hope of a playoff appearance in the face of this week’s upcoming clash with Mighty Mike.

The match was all square after four legs before Wright took over and saw it out to a 6-2 victory, landing checkouts of 116, 104, 96 and 78.

Gary Anderson vs Raymond van Barneveld

That defeat means Taylor switches League positions with Gary Anderson, who moves up to third following his 7-4 victory over Raymond van Barneveld. The world number two averaged 105.47 and closed with a 161 checkout.

Premier League week 14 darts betting tips

Just the four matches this week!

Peter Wright vs Adrian Lewis

The first of these matches pairs Peter Wright and Adrian Lewis in a fight for survival for the latter. Lewis has been on terrible run of form since hitting a nine-dart finish a fortnight ago. The smart money must surely go on Peter Wright here.

Raymond van Barneveld vs Dave Chisnall

Fifth-placed Barney still has hopes of making it to the O2 (likely in place of Taylor) but needs to overcome an improving Dave Chisnall to do so which is far from guaranteed. Given the defeat he suffered last week in Birmingham, a win for the Dutchman looks sound enough.

James Wade vs Gary Anderson

James “The Machine” Wade steps out with Gary “The Flying Scotsman” Anderson in the night’s fourth game. Third-place Anderson will be looking to cement his playoff position with a win, a result he is likely to get. SkyBet are offering a great treble on Anderson to win the match, hit the outright highest checkout and score more 180s than Wade which, at 13/8, looks a steal.

Phil Taylor vs Michael van Gerwen

Phil Taylor has the unenviable task of getting a result against Michael van Gerwen, fresh off the back of dishing out a whitewash to Adrian Lewis.

In the likelihood of an MVG win, the final place – assuming Anderson wraps up third place this week – should boil down to Taylor who meets Lewis and RVB who meets Wright next week.

The best price on Anderson to win the League championship is a very decent 11/2 across the board with Bet365, Betway and SkyBet. Taylor, on the other hand, can be picked up at 20/1 in the same rooms.

Premier League accumulator

The week’s four-fold accumulator is Wright, RVB, Anderson and MVG which pays out 8.12 but might be worth insuring slightly with a Lucky 15.

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