2023 Night 8 Premier League of Darts Preview & Tips – JP
2023 Night 8 Premier League Darts Preview
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2023 Night 8 Premier League Darts preview.
Last week’s PL betting was much more successful. Two winners from three bets, including a 9.50 correct score bet. That resulted in a 5.75 point profit and moves the tournament score to +3.40 points. More of the same would be nice.
More of the same is the theme for this evening as the line-up tonight is EXACTLY the same as last week’s quarter finals. This is one of the weaknesses of this eight man, mini tournament format. It is repetitive.
I could just do a copy and paste job, or say I refer you to the preview I wrote last week, but I’ll see if there are any reasons to try something different this week.
Home Advantage Hollywood
Tonight’s venue is Newcastle and a big home crowd advantage for Chris Dobey. Hollywood had an interesting trip to Germany earlier this week. The airline lost his luggage, including his darts and he still had not been reunited with it before his return flight. I’m sure he will have a spare set of his own darts to play with tonight and we can’t read too much into his form at PC7 & 8.
Michael van Gerwen vs. Peter Wright
This was the goldmine last week. MVG won 6-1, landing the correct score and covering the -2.5 point handicap. Nothing much has changed, except the fact that MVG won PC7 on Sunday. Peter Wright again declined to play, and we are not getting the same odds as seven days ago.
Snakebite is not really interested right now. The PL is just a contractual obligation that he would rather not have to do. That may change, but every year there is a player who just gets beaten about the head and it is harsh on the player and not great for the show. MVG, on the other hand, just wants to win as much as he can and he will take advantage of any opportunity presented to him, as he should.
MVG Flying
Van Gerwen has now won nine of his last ten matches, he has won all six of his matches vs. Wright since the PL format moved to this 8 man mini tournament format. MVG has won the last three 6-1, and four of those six ended 6-1. The others were 6-0 and 6-3.
Wright has lost six of his last ten matches, seven with sub 93 averages. His experiment with the short, bomb darts hasn’t worked and if he turns up with them again, it is hard to see anything changing.
Van Gerwen Odds On
Michael van Gerwen is the 1.35 favourite, Wright 3.45. I think we are better off looking at the handicap and correct score markets again.
I am surprised to see that another 6-1 win for MVG is 9.00. It was 9.50 last week. That has been the score in four of their six PL matches under the new format and has been the score in their last three and twice in the last two weeks. I am happy to drink from that well once again.
It owes us nothing and the odds are good. Likewise, covering a -2.5 handicap remains attractive. Last week it was 2.25, this week 2.15. That margin has been covered in all six of their matches in this format in the PL.
2023 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 2 points MVG to win -2.5 legs @ 2.20 with Betfred
2023 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 0.5 point MVG to win 6-1 @ 9.00 with Betfred, Fitzdares
Nathan Aspinall vs. Dimitri van den Bergh
This was last week’s losing bet. We backed The Asp to win but he contrived to lose a match that was there to be won. There was nothing particularly impressive about Van den Bergh’s game, he won the first leg in 23 darts, had a couple of 14 dart legs to 3-0 and then it was nip and tuck, with Aspinall missing doubles to make it 4-3. He got it to 5-4 but lost to a 14 darter to go down 6-4.
Their H2H record was pointing to a Van den Bergh win and so it went. Van den Bergh has won their last ten matches in a row and won all four PL matches. In 2023 the cumulative leg score is 12-5.
Mental Block
Aspinall declined to play in the players championship events in Germany and his recent form is six wins from ten. He had been playing well going into last week’s match, hitting plenty of ton plus averages, but it seems that he has a mental block when facing Dimitri.
Van den Bergh has played a lot of darts in 2023 and he did go to Germany to play PC 7 & 8. He reached the quarter final of PC7 and along with a Euro Tour qualifier, he won nine of eleven matches played. It wasn’t completely consistent but there was some good stuff, and he comes here in better form than a week ago.
2023 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point Dimitri van den Bergh to win @ 1.90 with SpreadEx
Gerwyn Price vs. Jonny Clayton
This was no bet last week but is another where the H2H record makes for interesting reading. Overall, it is 17-10 to Price but more recently Price has won their last five in a row, including all three in 2023. Last week Price was the 6-4 winner in a fairly close match, and he has won eight of his last ten matches.
Jonny Clayton continues to tread water, not able to find his 2021 form, and he has lost five of his last ten. He isn’t playing particularly badly but just lacking that final part of the jigsaw. He wasn’t great in Germany earlier in the week, losing two of his four matches and given his recent record against his pal, he is hard to fancy.
I don’t like betting on matches played between friends and while Price looks the more likely winner, odds of 1.65 make little appeal. No bet.
2023 Night 8 Premier League Darts Tip: No Bet
Michael Smith vs. Chris Dobey
Saving the local lad till last of the quarter finals. Dobey played as a Contender here in the PL in 2019, drawing 6-6 with Mensur Suljovic and hitting six 180s. He ended a run of five straight PL quarter final defeats last week, beating Smith 6-4, and followed that up by thrashing MVG 6-0, before losing 4-6 to Gerwyn Price in the final.
Hollywood has played better than his results suggest, and he has the second highest average in the PL. He travelled to Germany earlier in the week, but with his darts in his lost luggage he struggled, but still managed to qualify for another Euro Tour event.
Dobey has won six of his last ten, despite that bump in the road in Germany. Making the final last week has kept his chances of making the playoffs alive, up to 6th in the table, three points outside of the top 4.
Close H2H
Their H2H record is close, 5-4 to Smith, and Dobey has won both their matches in 2023, including the 6-4 win last week. Smith had the higher average, hit the most 180s and higher checkout rate, but still lost.
Michael Smith did not travel to Germany as he was still suffering from an illness he picked up in Minehead at the UK Open. Since he picked up the bug, he has lost half his matches, but his scoring hasn’t exactly crashed. I have no idea how he is feeling today, but I am not expecting a poor performance, maybe just not a top class one.
Will the home advantage be an advantage for Dobey? Inevitably, so long as he doesn’t get too excited.
Smith is the 1.62 favourite with Dobey 2.50. There is some value in Dobey’s odds given their H2H record, especially in 2023. Smith may still be just that little bit off his game and that can be the difference.
