Darts….darts…darts! The arrow slinging action returns on February 6 with the start of the Premier League Darts competition and the opening night all set for the SSE Arena in Belfast.
Luke Littler faces an instant reunion with Michael van Gerwen, less than a month after his incredible win in the Paddy Power World Darts Championship, alongside three other cracking quarter finals on the night.
Our tipster Ben Smith has fired off three top picks for the first round of action.
Premier League darts tips
Night 1 Winner – Nathan Aspinall
Night 1 Straight Forecast – 1st Nathan Aspinall, 2nd Rob Cross
Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries – Over 9.5 Legs
*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.
Premier League Darts – Week One
WHEN: Thursday 6th of February, 7pm
WHERE: SSE Arena, Belfast
TV: Sky Sports+ and Sky Sports Showcase
Night 1 Winner – Nathan Aspinall
Nobody will be more determined to perform well in this year’s Premier League than Nathan Aspinall, whose inclusion has been questioned ever since the announcement was made in the first week of January.
He’s blown hot and cold in recent months, but the Asp is gradually combating his ‘dartitis’ by working with a sports psychologist and utilising hypnotherapy which he insists is ‘working absolute wonders’.
“It’s not fully gone, it’s not fully there,” said Aspinall when asked about the condition, but having reached the quarter finals in back-to-back televised ranking tournaments, there is optimism he can find the consistency that saw him reach a career-high ranking of fourth in 2024.
Despite his dartitis struggles last year, Aspinall won two Premier League nights and was runner up three times. He also won one of his two final appearances in 2023, narrowly missing out on the playoffs.
It would be a big surprise if Littler or Luke Humphries did not top the table at the end of the 16-week regular season, but since the format was changed in 2022, nobody has won more than four nights throughout the competition. Peter Wright was the only participant not to reach multiple Premier League night finals in 2024, and with the short best-of-11 leg setup lending itself to upsets, there will be opportunities for Aspinall and the other less-fancied players to scoop the £10,000 bonus on any given night.
The Asp’s elbow injury may be factored into the odds, but it still looks huge considering he won two matches at the World Masters, one of which was with an average of 103.77.
Night 1 Straight Forecast – 1st Nathan Aspinall, 2nd Rob Cross
Since we’re backing Aspinall, let’s go even further and embrace the unpredictability of Premier League nights, by also betting on the joint-biggest outsider in the straight forecast market.
Rob Cross is the biggest price of anybody in the top half of Thursday’s draw to make the final, and while that’s somewhat understandable given his form in the back end of 2024, his Dutch Darts Masters triumph was much more like it. The first-round exit at the hands of William O’Connor in Milton Keynes can be somewhat disregarded, as Voltage averaged 103, but the Irishman’s timing was immaculate.
Aspinall beat Cross in the night five final in Exeter in 2024, as they saw off Humphries and Littler respectively to get there. That was one of three final defeats for Cross throughout the Premier League season, and he can emerge from a wide-open section of the draw in Belfast, to reach another.
Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries – Over 9.5 Legs
All 10 meetings between Aspinall and Humphries since the latter became world champion in 2024 have been played over a best of 11, and six of those games have seen 10 or more legs played.
None of those were tighter than their latest match-up in Bahrain, where the Asp missed a match dart, before Humphries cleaned up a 123 checkout to prevail in the decider.
Cool Hand will be on a high after his World Masters success, but a determined Aspinall, whose average is just over three points worse off than Humphries’ in 2025, can keep it close.
Premier League darts tips
Night 1 Winner – Nathan Aspinall
Night 1 Straight Forecast – 1st Nathan Aspinall, 2nd Rob Cross
Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries – Over 9.5 Legs
*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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