Barely a month after a thrilling World Championship concluded with Luke Littler lifting the trophy on stage at Alexandra Palace, another of the year’s darting highlights is gearing up for action.
The Premier League gets underway at SSE Arena in Belfast on Thursday for the hotly-anticipated first night of a 17-week pan-European roadshow.
Littler, who turned 18 less than three weeks after he became the youngest-ever PDC World Darts Champion, is the pre-tournament favourite.
He took the Premier League title in thrilling fashion last May, beating his big rival Luke Humphries 11-7 in the final after finishing four points clear of the rest in the standings.
The top four players on the PDC Order of Merit — Humphries, Littler, Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross — automatically qualified with former Premier League runners-up Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price keeping their places.
But there will be no Scottish involvement this year for the first time since 2010 with Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey replacing Peter Wright and Michael Smith.
- LUKE HUMPHRIES TO WIN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
- LUKE LITTLER TO FINISH TOP OF THE LEAGUE
- LUKE HUMPHRIES TO WIN WEEK 1
Humphries to Be Crowned Champ
Littler begins the competition as the man to beat and he clearly has everything required to win it all again.
He began slowly last season, winning only seven of his opening 15 matches before finally clinching his first final win on Night 9 in Belfast.
He didn’t look back from there, taking another three finals and losing only four more times.
Humphries will be a man on a mission to avenge his overall final defeat by Littler last year and he will also be motivated by the manner of his world title surrender at Alexandra Palace.
It’s easy to forget that, although he had played one Premier League match as a ‘contender’ in 2019, Humphries was new to the Premier League in 2024.
But the PDC Order of Merit leader looked at home on the big stage and was unaffected by the extra burden of travelling and competing on a weekly basis throughout the spring.
Cool Hand Luke has won four of his last five matches against Littler and looks to be the value in the market to come out on top this year.
LUKE HUMPHRIES TO WIN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
Littler To Dominate Regular Season
Littler will be the crowd favourite in almost every one of the 17 venues this year and his incredible consistency makes him hard to oppose to finish top of the standings once more.
The teenager won 183 legs last season, 14 more than Humphries, and outscored his rivals by producing more 180s and more tons than anyone else.
What could make the difference at the top of the table is how each of the likely winners performs when they are not at their best.
Littler suffered only three early exits last season while Humphries didn’t make the
semi-finals five times and Van Gerwen lost eight of his quarter-final matches.
And from what we already know about the world champion, he looks best placed to pick up points when he may have left his A game at home.
LUKE LITTLER TO FINISH TOP OF THE LEAGUE
Humphries To Grab Opening Win
Humphries goes into Week 1 off the back of a terrific performance at the World Masters.
The World number one charged into a 5-2 lead and on his way to the £100,000 top prize in Milton Keynes, although he had to survive a Jonny Clayton comeback in a sudden-death leg.
With the darts in hand, Humphries hit back-to-back 140s before eventually winning the title on tops.
His Premier League rivals all failed to make much of an impact in the event with Littler losing to Clayton in the quarter-finals and Van Gerwen falling at the second hurdle.
Humphries averaged 104 in his quarter-final win and over 100 in the final, so should be in great shape come Thursday.
LUKE HUMPHRIES TO WIN WEEK 1
