Premier League Darts Night Ten: Betting Odds & Prediction

(Featured image: Alamy Images)

Written by: Stuart Pike

Premier League Darts returns on Thursday with Night 10 of the series at Manchester’s AO Arena.

Teenage sensation Luke Littler chalked up his maiden event victory last time out in Belfast to close behind world champion and fellow competition debutant Luke Humphries, who triumphed in the previous three Premier League sessions. Michael van Gerwen, who also has a trio of nightly wins, is third, with Night 9 runner-up Nathan Aspinall rounding off the top four.

Tournament Format

Eight of the best darts players face-off in a mini tournament with quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final all taking place in one night. The Premier League takes place across 16 nights in total, with this week’s being the tenth. Each match will be played over the best of eleven legs.

Players will be rewarded with ranking points each night - five to the winner, three to the runner-up and two to the players who lose in the semi-finals. Points will be added up across the 16 weeks, with the top four players proceeding to the tournament play-offs in May. 

Quarter-Final Lineup:

Nathan Aspinall vs Rob Cross 

Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen 

Luke Humphries vs Michael Smith 

Gerwyn Price vs Peter Wright

Nathan Aspinall vs Rob Cross

The only player that Rob Cross (16/19, vbet) is yet to beat in this year’s Premier League is nemesis Nathan Aspinall - following four successive losses. 

The Stockport darter (27/25, BetUK and BETMGM) edged sixth-placed ‘Voltage’ in the final leg of quarter-final matches on both Night 7 and 8, having earlier won semi-final and final meetings 6-4 and 6-2, respectively. 

‘The Asp’, who lost 6-4 to Luke Littler in last week’s final after victories over Peter Wright and Gerwyn Price, has been growing into this year’s Premier League, reaching four finals in the last six weeks. Only the Lukes - Littler and Humphries - have beaten the Night 5 champion in the Premier League since 22 February.

Out-of-sorts Cross has not earned a point since Night 6 and will surely need to improve on his 86.29 average in last week’s dismal 6-3 reverse to Wright if he is to vanquish Aspinall at the fifth time of asking. 

Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen 

The pick of the ties sees Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen resume their rivalry for a second week running. Separated by a point in second and third place, the pair have shared their four Premier League meetings, with the teenager (3/4, vbet) taking the last two.

After a glorious hat-trick of nightly wins in February, inconsistent MvG’s 6-4 victory over Michael Smith last week was the defending champion’s solitary Premier League match win of a miserable March. The seven-time Premier League winner (23/20, various) hit fine form to reach Monday’s German Grand Prix final, only to be taken apart 8-1 by Luke Humphries. The Dutch darter will hope his remarks about Littler ‘not convincing’ in their recent matches do not backfire.

Having overcome the other three members of the top four, ‘The Nuke’ could not have faced a tougher route to his first Premier League night win. After a thrilling 6-5 opening victory ended Luke Humphries’ nine-match winning streak, the 17-year-old disposed of van Gerwen 6-3, before ousting Nathan Aspinall. Littler, who has enjoyed Easter away from the oche after missing out in qualifying for the second Euro Tour event, has notched an unrivalled seven quarter-final wins in this year’s series.

Luke Humphries vs Michael Smith

Luke Humphries (4/9, various) arrives in Manchester in fearsome form, having lifted the German Grand Prix title without ever being seriously tested. He won 75% of his legs played over five rounds and averaged 112.66 in his final drubbing of Michael van Gerwen.

It also took a three-figure average from Luke Littler last week to finally end Humphries’ imperious Premier League run. ‘Cool Hand’, who is four points clear at the top of the table, has so far emerged unscathed from a trio of matches against Michael Smith - including finals in Nights 6 and 8.

Fifth-placed Smith (9/4, StarSports) began this year’s competition in perfect style in Wales, but he has now sprinkled eight defeats amongst his eight wins. ‘Bully Boy’, who relinquished his German title with a third-round exit to Josh Rock on Easter Monday, has fallen at the first hurdle on five of the last seven league nights. However, the 2023 world champion remains a dangerous animal when he gets going; he has won three of his four semi-finals and only lost the other on a deciding leg to an MvG masterclass.

Gerwyn Price vs Peter Wright

The bottom two go head-to-head in dire need of points if they are to revive remote hopes of reaching the latter stages. Gerwyn Price (4/9, several outlets) is fancied to extend his four-point lead over struggling Peter Wright (9/4 StarSports) in just their second encounter of the campaign. The Cardiff player has earned four of the pair’s combined six match wins from 24 attempts.

Price will be frustrated having gone to a deciding leg four times in the last three weeks - including a Night 9 quarter-final defeat to Nathan Aspinall - yet only winning one of those contests. ‘The Iceman’ has produced strong scoring performances of late and reached Monday’s Munich semi-finals - aided by a 6-4 second-round victory over Wright - before being frozen out by ‘Cool Hand’.

Double world champion Wright picked up his second match win of a dispiriting campaign against Rob Cross in Belfast, but he remains yet to defeat a player in the current top five. ‘Snakebite’ will, however, take some solace from a 6-5 victory over Price which finally got him on the board in Night 7.

Prediction

A possible final face-off in Manchester between Luke Humphries and Luke Littler is a tantalising prospect. Humphries is, in fact, still awaiting a victory after the duo’s previous three Premier League duels.

However, given his sublime performance in Munich and a 100% record against the three opponents blocking his potential path to Thursday’s final, the league pacesetter looks the smart bet for a fourth series victory.

OddsNow's Pick: Luke Humphries to win Night 10 (11/5 @ bet365)

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