2026 Premier League Darts Betting Preview – JP
2026 Premier League Darts Betting Preview
The 2026 Premier League Darts campaign will start in Newcastle on Thursday the 5th of February, with the final league matches being in Sheffield on the 21st of May. Then, four qualifiers will head to the O2 Arena for the playoffs a week later on the 28th.
Format
The format sticks to the one introduced in 2022. It is an eight-person knockout bracket every night, with each of the seven matches played as the first to six legs. Players are guaranteed to meet each other once in the quarter-finals throughout the first seven weeks, and once in the quarterfinals in weeks 9–15, with weeks 8 and 16 being drawn based on the league standings at that point.
The players will receive two points per semi-final finish, three points per runner-up finish, and five points per final win, with the weekly night’s winnerlanding a £10,000 bonus.
playoffs
The top four players after week sixteen will contest the playoffs, with the player at the top of the league playing the player in fourth and second and third playing for the other place in the final. Semi-finals are played as a best of 19 leg format, the final best of 21 legs. The two finalists play for the first prize of £350,000. All prizemoney is non-ranking.
This year sees one change of venue, with Exeter being replaced by Antwerp in Belgium, now the third venue on mainland Europe.
There are two players making their Premier League debuts. The new world number three, Gian van Veen, is an automatic qualifier and Northern Irelands Josh Rock was a PDC pick. Jonny Clayton, our 21.00 winner form 2021 makes his return. The other three former winners are Michael van Gerwen, Luke Litter and the defending champion, Luke Humphries. Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting complete the field.
2026 Premier League Darts: The Players
1 Luke Littler – W/RU
Odds 1.80
Has made the final in both his appearances, winning on debut in 2024 and runner up last year. The format suits the best player in the world and that is Littler, by some way. He will be VERY hard to beat week in, week out, but like last year, he can lose a match, even in the final. Littler was the 2.34 favourite this time last year so he is an even stronger favourite this year, but that is for a reason.
2 Luke Humphries – RU/W
Odds 6.00
Like Littler, Humphries has made the final in both his years as a full competitor. On both occasions he has played Luke Littler. If it is going to be a third time, the whole Premier League thing is going get rancid, rather than its current status of stale. Humphries was our pick at 4.00 last year, this year he is a 6.00 shot, a fair reflection of him dropping behind Littler in 2025.
3 Gian Van Veen – Debut
Odds 7.50
I am a big fan of Van Veen and he has made great strides in the last few months. He made steady progress before that, rather than the explosive career of Luke Littler.
By making the final of the World Championships his ranking skyrocketed, thanks to the big prize money increase. Had he not made the top 4 automatic qualifying places, would he have got a pick?
He is the European Champion, and back-to-back World Youth Champion, but he is still very young and the PDC are reluctant throw youngsters into the PL. He might do just fine, but it is a whole new game, a lot more travel and there is a risk he might struggle.
That said, I think he is the second best player out there and it seems as though he does have his head screwed on.
4 Michael van Gerwen – W/RU/RU/W/W/W/W/6/SF/W/W/SF/5
Odds 17.00
The Dutch number two. It is a long time since that was the case. 2025 was only the second time in thirteen years that MVG didn’t make the playoffs. Can that all be blamed on his off the oche problems?
His win rate has dropped every year since 2016, but it fell off the cliff last year, down to just 55%. If he can turn things around, he might make the playoffs, but the likes of Littler and Humphries are more consistent these days, and he just doesn’t intimidate players anymore.
Has MVG, a seven time PL winner, ever been as big as 17.00 to win a PL? It is a sign of the times.
5 Jonny Clayton – W/SF/SF/-/-
Odds 41.00
The 2021 winner, Jonny Clayton, rates the Premier league as his favourite event, and his record in it is good. He has played in three PLs and reached the playoffs on each occasion, winning once.
Having the right attitude for the event is important. Some players thrive in the PL, others drown. Last year we backed Nathan Aspinall to make the playoffs at 4.00. He was dismissed out of hand by the market, but he was another player who loves the tournament and it was a nice winner.
Solid B-Game
Players need to be able to take the inevitable knocks, the dips in form, but not letting the setbacks derail them. Clayton can do that. He has a good A game, but maybe more importantly, he has a good B game, and nicking points when not in great form is a great help.
The biggest problem for Clayton is that the opposition is tougher now than it was in 2021-2023. When Clayton had his three years in the PL there was no Luke Humphries in the line-up, and no Luke Littler. It will be much harder for Clayton to reach the playoffs this time.
He was a 21.00 shot when we backed him to win in 2021, but odds of 41.00 this year reflect that he is not playing as well as he was back then, and that the competition is much stronger.
6 Stephen Bunting – 8/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/8
Odds 51.00
Perhaps the most controversial pick in this year’s PL. Bunting has played in two previous PL’s and finished 8th in both. The first was in 2015 and at least 8th wasn’t last in those days.
He avoided the two-man cut which was in effect in those days, but he was plumb last in last year’s PL. He has never won a ranking Major Championship but he has over 460,000 followers on Tik Tok, and that seems to be enough to put him ahead of the likes of Aspinall and Noppert.
Bunting played a lot of good darts in 2025, but he lost eight consecutive matches to start his 2025 PL campaign and won just seven matches in total. His 2025 season petered out and his 2026 season hasn’t started well. Out in round three at Ally Pally and out in the second round at the World Masters.
Bunting is the 51.00 outsider of eight. If he can pick up some early points, I suspect he will settle better this time and perhaps avoid picking up the wooden spoon, but his form and tournament record justifies his outsider status.
7 Josh Rock – Debut
Odds 17.00
The second of the debutants in this year’s PL. Van Veen got in on merit, an automatic selection for being the world number three. Rock, on the other hand, was a pick.
He is regarded as a top player, a big 180 hitter and a future star, but he hasn’t really cracked it yet. He had two major semi-finals in 2025 and two other quarter finals. Winning the World Cup was the highlight of his year, and that is a pairs event. He is joint fifth favourite, which is about right.
8 Gerwyn Price – 10/5/5/-/7/RU/7/SF
Odds 15.00
Every pantomime needs its villain and Price has his place in the PL for life if he wants it. He has worked hard to be more fan friendly these days and he doesn’t get the same level of abuse as a few years ago, but he is never going to be a fan favourite.
Price has played in seven previous PLs and has a best finish of runner up in 2023, but he has only made the playoffs twice, 2023 and last year. Not a great record for a player of his standing. He definitely has the game to make the playoffs, and maybe now that he is not getting the same hard time from the fans, he will.
2026 Premier League Darts: Summary
The Premier League is not my favourite tournament, especially with this format. The same eight players playing every week for sixteen weeks before we finally get to the playoffs. It just gets stale.
The Premier League is a product. A travelling circus to fill big arenas, sell a lot of expensive tickets and it appeals to the ‘a good night out’ brigade. It does what it says on the tin.
It is an exhibition format, just at sixteen different venues before we get to the real knockout stage. There will be some great matches along the way, but it is really a live event, not a great TV event.
Long Tournament
The sheer length of the tournament, seventeen weeks for the four semi-finalists, means that a lot can happen to the players along the way. Most will have peaks and troughs in their form and it will be the players who can be consistent, and consistently good, that will make the final. I think we know at least two of the semi-finalists before a dart is thrown.
Players can, get ill, players can get injured, players’ real lives can affect their form, way more than in a one-off event. In last year’s preview I made a flippant comment that a player’s wife could run off with the milkman. I don’t know if she did, but MVG’s wife got a divorce from him and at that time it was not known that he was enduring that stress in the background.
Van Gerwen also injured himself during the league phase. He hurt himself putting on a t-shirt and missed night nine. That meant no points for him and a free pass into the semi-final for Gerwyn Price (he went on the reach the final). At the end of the sixteen weeks, MVG missed out on the playoffs by four points to Price. How expensive was that t-shirt?
The Semi-Finalists
The two Lukes have won eleven of the last twelve ranking Major Championships. Only Gian Veen has been able to break that run. The two Lukes have also won the last two Premier Leagues and have played each other in the final of the last two.
That is a 100% record in the two years that they have played in the PL. It is a fairly safe bet that the other six players are playing for a place in the semi-finals, and no more than that. Littler is 1.08 to make the playoffs, Humphries 1.50. Littler is 1.80 to win the Premier League, Humphries 6.00.
Playoff Hopes
So who might join them at the O2 Arena for the playoffs?
Gian van Veen is the most likely according to the market. He is just 1.53 to reach the semi-final and 7.50 to win the PL. Josh Rock is also odds on to make the semis at 1.84. The market is putting a lot of faith in the two debutants. Price is 2.00, MVG also 2.00, Bunting 3.50 and Clayton 4.35.
Consistency is the key and it is worth looking at the players’ win rates. We are barely into 2026, so I will look at last year’s win rate and this year’s (in brackets).
Littler 81% (93%), Van Veen 72% (69%), Humphries 69% (60%), Price 70% (70%), Clayton 68%(33%), Rock 68% (67%), Bunting 66% (50%), Van Gerwen 55% (78%).
Littler Top Dog
There are not many surprises there. Littler is miles ahead of the pack and the rest pretty much in a bunch. The one that stands out is MVG’s win rate. It was alarmingly low in 2025. No doubt that his marriage break up was a large part in that.
In 2024 his win rate had been 68% but it has been on the slide since 2016. The question is, can he turn things around in 2026? When will his ‘new normal’ life kick in? When it does, he should be able to start winning more matches, but it is an imponderable. He is not the same player he was even a couple of years ago and it is hard to get back to the level he was once at.
Tricky To Call
My selections for the semi-finals are Littler, Humphries as a given. Who will join them is trickier to call.
Price make sense, he wins plenty of matches and plays at a high level. He doesn’t win as many big titles as he used to, but despite an underwhelming tournament record, a league format should suit him.
He was his own worst enemy in years gone by but eventually, the penny dropped. Maybe it was better to have the crowd not baying for your blood every Thursday night. He will still get some abuse as the crowds at the PL are there to get smashed and they are not necessarily ‘real’ darts fans. The casual PL ticket buyer wants a good night out and that includes giving some players a hard time, but Price is not quite the villain he once was.
Van Veen Still Learning
Gian Van Veen certainly has the game to make the playoffs. The downside is that he is still learning the ropes. The PL roadshow will be new to him. He may take to it like a duck to water, but he could find it hard work. I think he can cope, but his odds are getting thin on value these days.
Josh Rock is in the same boat, but has he got the character to thrive? He does strike me as a player who gets frustrated a bit too easily, and that can lead to a bit of a spiral. He can also lose his form a bit more easily than the likes of the Lukes and Van Veen and it is a long tournament.
Ferret A PL Specialist
Jonny Clayton is interesting. He is a tournament specialist. He really WANTS to play in the PL, and that is not always the case with some players, especially ones who have tried and failed.
The Ferret has always made the playoffs in his three events, so he knows the ropes and he knows he can do it. Maybe he can do what Aspinall did last year. The Asp was dismissed at 4.00 to make the playoffs, but he is another who really wants to play in the PL and he was able to up his game and made it to the O2.
Stephen Bunting has not enjoyed his PL experiences. He is a very good player, but despite getting help from sports psychologists, I have my doubts as to his mental strength.
He has said that he still finds playing darts for a living very hard, but he is good at it and it provides a good living. The Bullet doesn’t win big tournaments and the pressure of playing this format week in, week out might just be too much for him.
MVG Fear Factor Gone
That leaves Michael van Gerwen. The seven times winner and eleven-time semi-finalist. With outright odds of 17.00, it is clear that he is not seriously fancied to win it again. He is 2.00 to make the playoffs and that looks on the short side to me.
There isn’t a player in the league who will now really fear MVG. It is true that Van Veen still pays him too much respect, but they were 3-3 in 2025. It is true that Bunting still struggles against him, but they were 1-1 in last year’s PL. MVG can’t bully his competitors anymore and he knows it.
2026 Premier League Darts Selections
We backed Littler to win the Grand Slam at 3.00, The Players Championship finals at 3.25, to play Van Veen in the final of the World Championship at 11.00 and to win the World Masters at 2.30, so he has been a nice earner, but his odds get smaller by the win.
He is a best price of 1.80 to win the 2026 Premier League. Given that he has played two, won one and runner up in the other, as well as winning eight of the last ten ranking Major Championships, his odds remain a touch generous. Value? Yes, but it is starting to get thin.
Effectively, unless something really strange happens and he doesn’t make the playoffs, you are getting 1.80 for him to win two matches, long format matches, at the O2 Arena on May 28th.
The first Premier League was played in 2005. Of the twenty-one played so far, MVG has won seven, Phil Taylor six. Gary Anderson two, and one each for Wade, Barney, Durrant, Clayton. Littler and Humphries.
Big Beasts Dominate
The two Big Beasts of the Period, Taylor and MVG have won 62% of the titles. We are now in the Littler era. He is the big Beast going forward.
Luke Humphries gave him a tough match in Sunday’s final of the Masters, and said afterwards that he thinks Littler is the best darts player of all time, and he is just 19. He has the ability to match, and break, the records of Taylor and MVG.
I guess that the odds of Littler winning the semi-final and final would yield you around 1.70 – 1.80, maybe shorter, if you rolled up your semi-final winnings into the final. You could avoid the risk that he gets struck by lightning or something during the League phase, but for the sake of this preview, I will strike the blindingly obvious bet.
2026 Premier League Darts Tip: 3 points, Luke Littler to win the 2026 Premier League @ 1.80 with Bresbet
Who might Littler face in the final? Well, he has played Humphries in the last two years. The only realistic threat would seem to be Gian Van Veen to make the final, and there is not much in it odds wise. A Littler vs. Humphries final is 4.00, Littler vs. Van Veen 4.35. Humphries’ previous experience of the Premier League gets him the nod over Van Veen.
2026 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point Littler to play Humphries in the final @ 4.00 with Livescorebet
I will go again with Clayton to reach the semi-finals. He landed a huge win for us in 2021 and we had him for the semi-finals in 2023. He has the right attitude and still has the game to compete with the best. Winning the title is asking a bit much given the competition, but making the top four of eight plyers? His odds are generous.
2026 Premier League Darts Tip: 1 point Jonny Clayton to reach the semi-finals @ 4.35 with Unibet
In the ‘To Finish Last’ market, you can get 501.00 on Littler, but I wouldn’t advise that. Jonny Clayton is the 2.38 favourite to finish last, but I wouldn’t advise that either. His tournament record is head and shoulders above most in the event. Stephen Bunting’s tournament record on the other hand does suggest that he is right in the frame at 2.50.
However, I will take a flyer and go for MVG to finish last. Based on his 2025 form, he is the weakest link. In 2025, of these eight players, he had the lowest win rate, by a margin, the second lowest average, the lowest checkout rate and the lowest 180 per leg rate.
Unless he improves his game in 2026, he could be in trouble. I suspect he will do enough. His worst ever finish was sixth, and he managed fifth last year, but I think he will struggle and at the odds, I will have a small interest.
