2024 Premier League Darts

The 2024 Premier League Darts, also known as the BetMGM Premier League Darts for sponsorship reasons, was a darts tournament, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation – the twentieth edition of the tournament. The event began on Thursday 1 February 2024, at the Utilita Arena in Cardiff, and finished with the play-offs, at The O2 Arena in London on Thursday 23 May 2024.[1][2]

2024 BetMGM UK Premier League Darts
Winner
 Luke Littler
Runner-up
 Luke Humphries
Score
11–7
Dates
1 February – 23 May 2024
Edition
20th
Number of players
8
Venues
17
Nine Dart Finish
 Gerwyn Price
 Luke Littler
Premier League Darts
< 2023 | 2024 | 2025 >

Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion, after beating Gerwyn Price 11–5 in the 2023 final.[3] However, he lost 10–5 to Luke Humphries in the semi-finals.

Luke Littler won his first major title and his first Premier League title on debut, beating Luke Humphries 11–7 in the final.[4] He became the youngest player to win a major PDC tournament. Littler also hit a nine-darter in the final.[5]

On night 10, Gerwyn Price also hit a nine-dart leg during his semi-final match against Michael Smith.

Format

edit

The 2024 Premier League Darts remained an eight-person knockout bracket every night, with each of the seven matches played as the first to six legs. The players were guaranteed to meet each other once in the quarter-finals throughout the first seven weeks, and once in the quarter-finals in weeks 9–15, with weeks 8 and 16 being drawn based on the league standings at that point. Players received two points per semi-final finish, three points per runner-up finish, and five points per final win.

Following the league phase, the top four players in the table contested the two knockout semi-finals with 1st playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd.

Venues

edit
Locations of the 2024 Premier League venues in the UK and Ireland.
Other locations of the 2024 Premier League venues in Europe.
  Cardiff   Berlin   Glasgow   Newcastle
Utilita Arena Cardiff
Thursday 1 February
Mercedes-Benz Arena
Thursday 8 February
OVO Hydro
Thursday 15 February
Utilita Arena Newcastle
Thursday 22 February
       
  Exeter   Brighton   Nottingham   Dublin
Westpoint Arena
Thursday 29 February
Brighton Centre
Thursday 7 March
Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
Thursday 14 March
3Arena
Thursday 21 March
       
  Belfast   Manchester   Birmingham   Rotterdam
SSE Arena Belfast
Thursday 28 March
AO Arena
Thursday 4 April
Utilita Arena Birmingham
Thursday 11 April
Rotterdam Ahoy
Thursday 18 April
       
  Liverpool   Aberdeen   Leeds   Sheffield
M&S Bank Arena
Thursday 25 April
P&J Live
Thursday 2 May
First Direct Arena
Thursday 9 May
Utilita Arena Sheffield
Thursday 16 May
       
  London
The O2
Thursday 23 May
 

Prize money

edit

The prize money for the 2024 tournament remained at £1 million, including a £10,000 bonus to each night's winner.

Stage Prize Money
Winner £275,000
Runner-up £125,000
Semi-finalists (x2) £85,000
5th place £75,000
6th place £70,000
7th place £65,000
8th place £60,000
Weekly Winner Bonus (x16) £10,000
Total £1,000,000

Players

edit

The format introduced in 2022 continued, which would encompass eight players, each playing against each other in a knockout tournament each night. The winner of each night received an additional £10,000 towards their prize money. Those who make it out of the last 8 each receive 2 points, the runner-up received 3 points and the winner received 5.

The top 4 players on the PDC Order of Merit automatically qualified. The remaining 4 were announced on 4 January 2024.[2]

Player Appearance in
Premier League
Consecutive
Streak
Order of Merit Rank on 1 February 2024 Previous best performance
  Luke Humphries 1st[a] 1 1 Debut
  Michael van Gerwen 12th 12 2 Winner (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023)
  Michael Smith 7th 3 3 Runner-up (2018)
  Nathan Aspinall 4th[b] 2 4 Runner-up (2020)
  Gerwyn Price 6th 3 5 Runner-up (2023)
  Rob Cross 5th 1 6 Runner-up (2019)
  Peter Wright 11th 11 8 Runner-up (2017)
  Luke Littler 1st 1 31 Debut
  1. ^ Humphries had previously appeared as a one-off challenger in both 2019 and 2020.
  2. ^ Aspinall had additionally appeared as a one-off challenger in 2019.

League stage

edit

The fixtures were released on 23 January 2024.[6]

23 May – Play-offs

edit

The top four players of the league stage contest in the play-offs to decide the champion of the Premier League.

  The O2, London

Score
Semi-finals (best of 19 legs)
100.30 Luke Littler   10 – 5   Michael Smith 95.17
101.71 Luke Humphries   10 – 5   Michael van Gerwen 97.18
Final (best of 21 legs)
105.60 Luke Littler   11 – 7   Luke Humphries 102.47
Night's Total Average: 100.55
Highest Checkout:   Luke Littler 144
Most 180s:   Luke Littler 14
Night's 180s: 30
Nine Dart Finish:   Luke Littler

Standings

edit

Five points were awarded for a night win, three points for the runner-up and two points for the losing semi-finalists. When players are tied on points, nights won is used first as a tie-breaker and after that overall matches won.

The top four players after 16 nights advanced to the play-offs.

Pos Name Nights Matches Legs Scoring
Pts W RU SF QF Pld W L LF LA LD LWAT 100 140 180 A HC CR C%
1   Luke Littler (C) 40 4 2 7 3 35 23 12 183 153 30 63 359 174 114 99.20 170 183/468 39.10%
2   Luke Humphries (RU) 36 4 2 5 5 33 21 12 169 129 40 66 279 190 107 100.46 170 169/408 41.42%
3   Michael van Gerwen 29 4 1 3 8 29 17 12 144 136 8 53 277 138 79 98.10 152 144/347 41.50%
4   Michael Smith 29 2 3 5 6 31 17 14 148 150 –2 45 299 155 93 96.45 170 148/377 39.26%
5   Nathan Aspinall 25 2 3 3 8 29 15 14 143 139 4 47 315 205 74 95.73 170 143/394 36.29%
6   Rob Cross 17 0 3 4 9 26 10 16 115 130 –15 34 272 164 55 97.38 144 115/280 41.07%
7   Gerwyn Price 12 0 2 3 11 23 7 16 95 122 –27 29 197 144 65 98.41 170 95/234 40.60%
8   Peter Wright 4 0 0 2 14 18 2 16 61 104 –43 18 190 100 43 93.02 156 61/172 35.47%

(C) Champion
(RU) Runner-up
(E) Eliminated
(Q) Qualified

As of 16 May 2024

Streaks

edit
Player Nights
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Play-offs
  Luke Littler SF RU QF SF QF W RU QF W SF W
  Luke Humphries QF SF RU QF SF W QF SF QF SF W RU RU
  Michael van Gerwen QF W QF SF QF W QF SF QF RU SF SF
  Michael Smith W SF QF RU QF RU QF SF RU QF SF W SF
  Nathan Aspinall QF RU W QF RU SF RU SF QF W SF QF DNQ
  Rob Cross SF QF SF RU SF QF RU QF
  Gerwyn Price RU QF SF QF SF QF RU QF SF QF DNP QF
  Peter Wright QF SF QF SF QF
Legend: DNQ Did not qualify DNP Did not participate QF Lost in Quarterfinals SF Semi-finalist RU Runner-up W Night winner

Positions by week

edit
Player Nights
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
  Luke Littler 3 2 3 5 2 1 2 1
  Luke Humphries 8 6 4 5 6 2 1 2 1 2
  Michael van Gerwen 5 2 1 2 3 4 3 4 3
  Michael Smith 1 2 5 6 4 5 4
  Nathan Aspinall 6 7 4 6 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 5
  Rob Cross 4 5 6 4 3 4 5 6 7 6
  Gerwyn Price 2 4 5 6 7 6 7
  Peter Wright 7 8

References

edit
  1. ^ Phillips, Josh (21 September 2023). "2024 Premier League schedule & ticket information confirmed". PDC. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b Gorton, Josh (4 January 2024). "Premier League: Humphries & Littler headline 2024 BetMGM Premier League line-up". PDC. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  3. ^ Gorton, Josh (25 May 2023). "Van Gerwen powers past price, to win a record seventh Premier League title". PDC. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Premier League Darts: Luke Littler hits nine-darter on way to victory over Luke Humphries in final". Sky Sports. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Luke Littler powers to Premier League Darts title with nine-dart delight". Guardian. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  6. ^ Gorton, Josh (23 January 2024). "2024 Premier League Fixtures Confirmed". PDC. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Gorton, Josh (1 February 2024). "Premier League Darts: Super Smith sinks Price to claim Night One victory in Cardiff". PDC. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "2024 Premier League Event Stats". Darts Orakel. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  9. ^ a b c "Premier League darts: Michael van Gerwen beats Luke Littler in night two final in Berlin". BBC Sport. 8 February 2024.
  10. ^ a b c "Premier League Darts: Michael van Gerwen wins in Glasgow after Luke Littler is beaten in thriller". Sky Sports. 16 February 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  11. ^ a b c "Premier League Darts: Michael van Gerwen secures third night win in a row with victory over Nathan Aspinall in Newcastle". Sky Sports. 22 February 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  12. ^ a b c "Premier League Darts: Nathan Aspinall wins night five in Exeter". BBC Sport. 29 February 2024.
  13. ^ a b c "Premier League: Luke Humphries beats Michael Smith in Brighton final after Luke Littler's semi-final exit". Sky Sports. 8 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  14. ^ a b c "Premier League Darts: Luke Humphries secures second night win in a row as Luke Littler comes close to nine-darter". Sky Sports. 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  15. ^ a b c "Premier League Darts: Luke Humphries demolishes Michael Smith in Dublin for third win in a row". Sky Sports. 21 March 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  16. ^ a b c Wellens, Megan (3 April 2024). "Premier League Darts: Luke Littler fights back against Nathan Aspinall to seal epic Premier League night win in Belfast". Sky Sports. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  17. ^ a b c "Premier League Darts: Luke Littler secures back-to-back night wins as Gerwyn Price hits nine-dart finish". Sky Sports. 5 April 2024. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  18. ^ a b c Matthews, Callum (11 April 2024). "Premier League Darts: Luke Littler beaten by Michael van Gerwen in night 11 final in Birmingham". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  19. ^ a b c Wellens, Meg (19 April 2024). "Premier League Darts: Nathan Aspinall boosts play-off hopes with Rotterdam win over Michael Smith". Sky Sports. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  20. ^ a b c Wellens, Meg (26 April 2024). "Premier League Darts: Luke Littler moves clear at top of table with 6-2 Rob Cross demolition in Liverpool". Sky Sports. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
edit