2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Preview

This Thursday the Premier League roadshow rolls into Chris Dobey’s hometown of Newcastle, can he make home advantage count? Check out James Punt’s 2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts preview below.

Night 7 Reflections

Night 7 finally saw a negative result. It was a 1.40 point loss and brings the running tally down to +2.40 points.

Night 8 is the halfway point and the order of play is the top of the table player, Luke Littler, playing the bottom of the table player Stephen Bunting. Second place player, Luke Humphries plays second from bottom Chris Dobey and so on.

Newcastle is the host city for Night 8, so home advantage for Chris Dobey. Although it is debatable as to how much advantage playing ‘at home’ gives a player. Sadly for our bet, it didn’t help Gerwyn Price in Cardiff last week.

Third Time Lucky?

Dobey has played here twice. In 2019, he was one of the ‘contenders’, guest players who played for one night only in their home city and Dobey got a draw with Mensur Suljovic. In 2023, Dobey beat Michael Smith in the first round but lost to Gerwyn Price in the semi-final.

Michael van Gerwen won here last year, Gerwyn Price in 2023 and Michael Smith in 2022.

Luke Littler has opened up a seven point lead after winning his third night title in Cardiff last week, hitting another nine dart leg in the final. It was 6-4 win over Michael Van Gerwen.

MVG moved up to third place, Humphries, who suffered his third semi-final loss in a row, remains in second place and the final qualifying spot is occupied by Gerwyn Price. Stephen Bunting remains in last place and yet to score a point.

Luke Littler vs. Stephen Bunting

Bunting did not travel to Germany for the weekend’s European Darts Trophy. He had taken to social media after last week’s PL defeat to Chris Dobey, apologising to his fans for his poor performances. The unrelenting nature of the PL can really get to players and losing seven straight matches has destroyed his confidence.

Having to play Luke Littler is the last thing Bunting needs right now. They last met on night four, and while Bunting averaged 104.89, he lost 3-6. That was as well as Bunting had played in the first seven nights, and he was swatted away by Littler who averaged 112.3.

Rested

Littler also took last weekend off, but just to give himself a rest. Littler has lost three of his last ten matches, so he can be beaten, but a seasonal win rate of 80% tells us that he doesn’t lose very often. Their H2H record is 3-2 to Littler and on stage it is 2-1. Bunting knows that he has and can beat Littler but he will not have faced him in such a poor mental state.

Bunting has won five of his last ten matches, and outside of the PL Bunting has won seven of his last ten matches. His performance against Dobey last week reeked of desperation. Both players were extremely nervous as both realised that the bottom of the table clash was their best chance to get a much needed win. Bunting lost his ability to fight for the win first, and it was left to Dobey to take a 6-2 win.

Let It Go

The best thing for Bunting to do is to just give up and let it go. Give up any thoughts that he could still make the playoffs. Accept that the game is up and that he has nine more nights of playing in front of packed venues.

Just treat them for what they are, exhibition nights. Try and entertain the crowd, maybe try a blind 180 or something. He may then relax. Bunting has tried his best, played some excellent darts, but lost every match. Last week, he just couldn’t play as he was so tight. If he continues to try to win matches, he will get tighter and the torture will continue.

Littler is the 1.18 favourite, Bunting 5.30.

Long Losing Run

Bunting is not the first player to suffer a long losing run at the start of a PL campaign. Last season, Peter Wright lost his first six matches but beat Gerwen Price on Night 7. Price was the second worst player at that time, so it was very much like Bunting vs. Dobey last week. The win didn’t help Wright as he only won one more match and finished in last position.

In 2023 it was Wright who lost his first five matches, and again he beat Gerwyn Price, this time on Night 6. Again, it didn’t make any great difference. Wright finished last. If anything, it galvanised Price who went from 4th place to top the table.

In 2021, under the old league system, it was Glen Durrant who lost all nine of his matches and he was relegated. That ended his torture. Bunting is contractually obliged to play all sixteen league nights.

Game Is Up

The game is up for Bunting. If he can just give up and not put any pressure on himself, he will eventually win a match. However, these are professional players, and pride is at stake. That means that just giving up is hard.

It would be ironic if his first win was against the runaway leader. There is always a chance that Littler will just think that he is getting a bye into the semi-final and take Bunting for granted. It is still a first to six leg match. The puncher’s chance is still there.

At odds of 5.30 it is almost worth having a small bet on Bunting. The only thing stopping me is just how well Littler is playing. Ten consecutive ton plus averages and he has lost just one of his last twenty matches on stage. I am afraid to say this has been a long journey to get to a no bet call.

2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: No Bet

Gerwyn Price vs. Rob Cross

A chance for revenge? Rob Cross hit a 170 checkout to knock Price out at the quarter final stage in Cardiff last week. He was the ultimate party pooper. The home fans were denied seeing their man progress and maybe win the night, and we were denied a chance to win our outright bet.

Price is not getting much return on some very good darts. After Thursday’s disappointment he went to Germany for the European Darts Trophy. He averaged 103.74 in a 6-4 win over Ryan Searle, 110.83 when beating Nijman 6-3, and 107.40 in a 4-6 loss to MVG.

Difficulty Winning

There is one feature of Price’s game in the last fifteen months or so that has come to the fore – difficulty finishing the job. He has won just two ranking titles, PC2 in 2023, and PC2 in 2025. Price is playing as well as ever but is finding it harder to win titles.

The same can be said of Cross, MVG and pretty much all of the ‘top’ players not called Luke. Price is the only player who is beating Littler on a regular basis, which makes that lack of titles more surprising.

Cross is not playing at quite the same level as Price, but he is not far off most of the time. He has won six of his last ten matches, Price seven. Their H2H record is 14-12 to Price, but Cross is 2-0 in 2025. Price is the 1.73 favourite, Cross 2.20. The odds make no appeal and I am happy to pass on any Rob Cross matches.

2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: No Bet

Luke Humphries vs. Chris Dobey

Chris Dobey won his bottom of the table clash with Bunting last week, but it was a pretty meaningless win. He is still in seventh place and seven points off the playoff places. He needs to win nights, not a match. Hollywood only averaged 90 in that very low quality match. Dobey has lost seven of his last ten matches and he is playing with a high level of inconsistency.

Luke Humphries still looks in good shape to make the playoffs. But after three winless weeks, he needs to get a grip and start adding some points to his tally. Humphries has lost four of his last ten matches and the gloss has come off his A game. That said, he is still playing at a high level, with a low average of 96.07 in those last ten and four ton plus averages.

Cool Hand Should Win

It is the kind of match that Humphries really should win, and he needs to, which can make things more difficult.

Their H2H record is 10-7 to Humphries and he has won both their matches in 2025, 6-1 and 6-4. Humphries is the 1.40 favourite, Dobey 3.10.

I expect Dobey to play better than he did last week. That was a must win match and both he and Bunting were very tight. Dobey can go into this as the underdog with nothing to lose. The pressure is on Humphries.

Four of their last five best of six leg matches have seen over 9.5 legs and they usually bring the best out in each other.

2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point Luke Humphries to win -1.5 legs @ 1.73 with Livescorebet

2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 0.5 point Humphries to win 6-4 @ 6.00 generally available

Michael van Gerwen vs. Nathan Aspinall

Van Gerwen was in good form last week, making the final in Cardiff, losing 4-6 to Luke Littler, and he played well on the Euro Tour in Germany, making the semi-final. That is not good enough by his standards, but such has been his form, that we can consider that a much better week for MVG.

He has lost four of his last six matches, so he remains some way off his best, but he does seem to be playing a bit better. There are still too many duff performances, like an 89.91 average and a 3-6 loss to Nico Springer, and he only managed a 91.53 against Dobey last week, but he can beat Dobey in his sleep, and he got away with that one.

Big Win For Asp

Nathan Aspinall was over the moon to win the European Darts Trophy at the weekend. It required deciding leg wins against Edhouse, Wattimena and Anderson, before beating Ryan Joyce 8-4 in the final. He had not been in great form going into the event and it was a surprise outcome. It was his first ever Euro Tour title, and his first ranking title since the summer of 2023.

He now has to back it up with a quarter final against MVG. They played two weeks ago and Van Gerwen won that 6-4. It was a poor performance from Aspinall who only averaged 89 that night.

Their overall H2H record is 20-8 to MVG, who has won eight of their last ten. In 2025 it is 1-1. In their last ten best of eleven leg matches, eight have seen over 9.5 legs and half finished with a 6-4 score line. Seven of them by MVG.

MVG is the 1.55 favourite, Aspinall 2.60.

2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 2.00 with Betfair, Boylesports

2025 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 0.5 point MVG to win 6-4 @ 6.00 generally available

-JamesPunt