Premier League Darts 2024: Play-off Night predictions
(Featured image: Alamy)
After an epic 16 weeks of action across the UK and Europe, the 2024 Premier League darts concludes at the O2 Arena this Thursday evening.
Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith are the four players battling it out to become champion and scoop a tasty £275,000 first prize.
How do the Premier League darts play-offs work?
Only the top four players from the competition’s 16-week league phase will feature in play-offs night, meaning Nathan Aspinall, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright have already been eliminated.
On the final night, two semi-finals and a final take place to determine the competition’s overall winner. The semis are first to 10 legs, while the final is a race to 11 legs.
The 2024 Premier League darts semi-final fixtures are as follows:
Luke Littler vs Michael Smith
Luke Humphries vs Michael van Gerwen
The final will be played on the same night, roughly 30 minutes after the second semi-final.
Semi-final #1 - Luke Littler vs Michael Smith
Littler’s meteoric rise to sporting stardom shows no signs of slowing any time soon.
The teenage sensation secured top spot in the league phase in his maiden Premier League campaign, making a mockery of those who suggested the brutal schedule would be crippling for the Warrington-born star.
Littler won four of the 16 nights and a whopping 23 matches overall — three more than nearest rival Humphries and six more than his semi-final opponent Smith.
Meanwhile, Bully Boy only just sneaked into the top four having surged late to usurp his good friend Aspinall.
Back-to-back victories over the World Matchplay champion in weeks 15 and 16 proved crucial, with Smith adding a morale-boosting cherry on top by reigning supreme in the final round of league action.
"HE'S 17, HE DOESN'T GIVE A CRAP!" | Smith expects FEARLESS Luke Littler despite his winning record
— Darts Now (@DartsNow_) May 16, 2024
Michael Smith has beaten the teenager FIVE TIMES in this year’s Premier League, but the Bully Boy doesn’t think this will affect The Nuke
🎥FULL INT.👇🏼https://t.co/JR1XP5vNPH pic.twitter.com/m4Wnskt2Gx
Fireworks can be expected here with this pair both averaging north of three 180s per match throughout the entire competition, with Humphries the only other man to do so.
Littler is a general 4/9 shot with Smith a best price of 2/1, which feels simply too big for what is a one-off contest under the lights between two of the world’s best.
Though nothing seems to phase the youngster, this is Littler’s play-off debut while Smith has a wealth of experience — both good and bad — to draw on from previous visits to this venue.
If both bring their best, Littler should theoretically progress but the longer format feels like a feather in the cap of the relative veteran Smith, who can grind out a victory to upset the odd and the bulk of the crowd.
OddsNow's prediction - Luke Littler 7-10 Michael Smith
Semi-final #2 - Luke Humphries vs Michael van Gerwen
Humphries enters the night as a narrow favourite for glory despite missing out on top spot to his fellow world championship finalist Littler.
That is largely due to the immense consistency shown by Cool Hand, who is the only one of the eight players to boast a three-figure tournament average heading into finals night.
At times this season, it has been hard to find a fault in the world No1’s game. Relentless scoring, clinical finishing and an elite mindset are making for a deadly combination and amazingly, he seems to still be improving.
Van Gerwen, by his own high standards in this tournament, has been far from his best since completing a ruthless hat-trick of wins in February.
MVG secures THIRD place in the Premier League!
— Darts Now (@DartsNow_) May 16, 2024
New darts for Michael van Gerwen inspired him to victory over Rob Cross which sees him wrap up third place in the table
It ends a three-match losing streak to Voltage as the reigning champion averaged 105.70 pic.twitter.com/D2PHvBya58
The eight-time Premier League winner so often lifts his game at the O2 Arena but he will certainly need to, having been comprehensively outplayed by Humphries in just about every facet over the last 12 weeks.
In fact, the only stat he leads his semi-final opponent on in this year’s tournament is checkout percentage and it feels like MVG will have to better his 41.5% ratio if he is to conquer Humphries here.
History tells us it is unwise to rule out the great Dutchman on this night in particular but all logical signs point to the favourite simply being too good.
Odds Now score prediction - Luke Humphries 10-5 Michael van Gerwen
Who will win the 2024 Premier League darts?
Should Smith and Humphries meet in the final, it would be a repeat of week 16’s showpiece where the former averaged 100.16 en route to a 6-3 success.
However, the stakes would be somewhat higher on this occasion, coupled with a longer format which puts more onus on consistency.
Smith is a marvellous player to watch in full flow but has always been prone to peaks and troughs, sometimes enduring spells of three or four legs where nothing seems to click.
Meanwhile, Humphries is the master of reliability. His good legs are great and his bad legs are still pretty good. Breaking him is hard work and even if it happens, he so often breaks straight back.
All things considered, it is so hard to oppose the world champion and at 7/4, he is a very fair price to capture the first of many Premier League titles this week.