The 2014 Premier Leage

Posted: 31.01.14 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

Roll up, Roll up, the annual darts show is about to begin!

This Thursday the Premier League kicks off again. If it matches the excitement already generated from guessing who would take part, the PR blunder of Wade’s omission and the aftermath of who was and wasn’t picked then we should be in for a great few weeks of darts!

With regard to Wade the PDC were under no obligation to pick him as he hadn’t landed in one of the automatic qualification places. James has had a slightly volatile relationship with the PDC in recent times and has picked up a fine along the way so maybe it was a slap, an expensive slap for Wade for that?

Another bizarre one was Wes/Wez. He got relegated last year! Again though the PDC haven’t breached their own rules, there is nothing to say a relegated player can’t play the next year. In fact there is nothing to say the two relegated players can’t play either, as Anderson is back too!

The PDC see the Premier League as a darts show, it’s not a sporting event we should take too seriously is the message I think. In the end other than the omission of Wade it was all fairly predictable. Snakebite got his spot after his good run of form, he deserves that. Perhaps the PDC could have taken a bit more of a risk? They could have perhaps thrown Michael Smith in to the mix?

We have though ended up with the top 9 of the top 10 PDC Order of merit (Wade is in the top 10) and the only outlier is the Flying Scotsman who is currently 18^th in the table. Anyway putting the bizarre selection procedure and Unicorn players’ conspiracy theories away for another year we do have ten fine dart players ready to put on a show!

The first week is in the Liverpool Arena on Thursday 6 February:

Dave Chisnall 11/8 v Robert Thornton 7/5  Draw 4/1
Peter Wright 10/11 v Wes Newton 9/4  Draw 4/1
Raymond van Barneveld 11/8 v Gary Anderson 6/4  Draw 4/1
Phil Taylor 11/8 v Michael van Gerwen 11/8  Draw 15/4
Simon Whitlock 9/4 v Adrian Lewis 9/10  Draw 9/2

In the Outright betting MVG ( 15/8) is a narrow favourite over The Power (2/1). Lewis is next at 5/1.

In the relegation market Newton (8/11) is favourite for the drop with the bookies looking at Wright (5/2) to suffer a drop of first season syndrome although Anderson and The Thorn are all around the 5/2 mark as well.

We will post some tips up next week!

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