Thursday’s Darts Tips
7:15pm – Rob Cross v Michael Smith – Over 9.5 Legs
7:45pm – Michael van Gerwen v Peter Wright – Both Players to Hit 2+ 180s Each
8:15pm – Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries – Over 9.5 Legs
8:45pm – Gerwyn Price v Luke Littler – Luke Littler to have the most 180s & Win Match
- An acca with these selections pays at approximately 22/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD TO YOUR BETSLIP.
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
With the Players Championships getting back underway this week, the darts is officially off and running in 2024. No prizes for guessing who picked up the first PC title of the year, throwing in a 9-darter for good measure. That’s right, it was Luke Littler.
The lesser-known upstart Gary Anderson clinched the PC2 title the following day, but no-one was paying any attention once Littler got knocked out anyway.
The Premier League continues to command the attention of the darting world, though, and that’ll be no different in Glasgow on Thursday night. Let’s take a look at the line-up for Night Three.
Rob Cross v Michael Smith – Over 9.5 Legs
Last week saw the most legs of darts on a single night since the new Premier League format was introduced, with every game having at least 10 legs. Michael Smith has gone to a decider in four of his five matches so far and it looks difficult to split these two on Night Three.
Despite victory on Night One, Smith hasn’t looked completely convincing and would be unlikely to blow Rob Cross away. Voltage hasn’t really got going in this year’s Premier League but his consistency makes him so difficult to pull away from. There’s not much to choose between them in the match odds, but at least 10 legs looks like a very good price here.
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Michael van Gerwen v Peter Wright – Both Players to Hit 2+ 180s Each
After the first few weeks of the season it looked like this would be a very long Premier League for Peter Wright, but he seems to have discovered some sort of form recently. He gave Luke Humphries a bit of a scare last week in Berlin and reached the semi-final of Tuesday’s Players Championship, losing to the eventual winner Gary Anderson.
His scoring appears to have returned as well, hitting two 180s against Luke Humphries last week, and 13 on his run to the semi-finals on Tuesday. MvG has scored impressively in the Premier League so far, hitting at least three 180s in each of his games.
Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries – Over 9.5 Legs
Nathan Aspinall will still be wondering how he surrendered 3-0 and 4-1 leads against van Gerwen last week. The Asp appeared to be running away with it before five consecutive MvG legs snatched the two points away. No bother, Nathan, just go again next week against the World Champion and World Number One.
Fortunately for Aspinall, Humphries appears to be struggling for form, winning just one game in the Players Championships in midweek and with only a win over Peter Wright to show for his Premier League efforts so far. The World Champ has still produced some impressive averages but has been frustrated by the outer ring at times.
Humphries is rightly favourite for this one, but Aspinall looks a bit of value at 9/4. Rather than taking the Aspinall (+2.5) handicap, I’ll turn to the Total Legs market and back both players to win at least four legs, something which The Asp has done in every best-of-11 he’s played since the start of the Premier League.
Gerwyn Price v Luke Littler – Luke Littler to have the most 180s & Win Match
The Luke Littler hype train will no doubt be calling at Glasgow this week, and what better excuse to get behind the 17-year-old than up against pantomime villain, Gerwyn Price. Price didn’t help his reputation midweek, complaining about ‘less than amateur’ conditions in Wigan due to the cold, an irony which hopefully wasn’t lost on The Iceman.
It’s not much fun tipping Luke Littler to win darts matches anymore, but he doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. The youngster romped home at the first time of asking in the Players Championships, hitting an absurd 0.5 180s per leg en route to victory. Price has hit more than two 180s only once in the Premier League so far (3 v Rob Cross), so expect Littler to outscore the Iceman, which should be enough to see him to a third straight QF win.
Should Littler win, he’ll set up a semi-final with either Humphries or Aspinall. The 17-year-old seems to have the upper hand over Humphries in the Premier League at the moment, so I wouldn’t bet against a repeat of last week’s final at 11/4. Littler had darts at double 10 to win it in a last-leg decider and is 13/2 to go one better this week and beat MvG in the final.
Premier League Darts Tips
7:15pm – Rob Cross v Michael Smith – Over 9.5 Legs
7:45pm – Michael van Gerwen v Peter Wright – Both Players to Hit 2+ 180s Each
8:15pm – Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries – Over 9.5 Legs
8:45pm – Gerwyn Price v Luke Littler – Luke Littler to have the most 180s & Win Match
- An acca with these selections pays at approximately 22/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD TO YOUR BETSLIP.
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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