Premier League Darts: who will be champion in 2020?

Free darts tips, best bets and analysis for the Premier League 2020 season.

Best bets

Gerwyn Price
2pts each-way 7-1 general

Nathan Aspinall
1pt each-way 20-1 Betfred, Betway

Rob Cross to finish bottom
1pt 15-2 bet365

Gerwyn Price most 180s
1pt 10-1 BoyleSports

Michael van Gerwen has already handed two trophies back in the first few weeks of 2020 and he’s going to have an almighty job on his hands hanging on to a third, the Premier League.

Three-and-a-half months of competition starts on Thursday evening in Aberdeen with nine players beginning the jostle for top-four honours and a spot in the playoffs at London’s O2 Arena on May 21.

Van Gerwen, heading into his eighth Premier League, has never failed to make the semis and is bidding to make it four wins in a row.

But at odds-against in places Mighty Mike is a bigger price than he has been for four years and it’s easy to see why.

The Dutchman has already relinquished his world championship title this year and on Sunday the man who deposed him, Peter Wright, also took the Masters off him.

The fact that it wasn’t Wright but 16th seed Jonny Clayton who beat Van Gerwen in Milton Keynes will have had the great man’s army of fans wondering if their hero, now getting used to new arrers following a change of manufacturer, might be losing his super-human powers.

That said, if he is enduring teething problems with his new hardware this isn’t the worst tournament to make adjustments given that it goes on so long and it beggars belief that he won’t be in the top four in the spring.

Best bet

The usual suspects are lined up against the world number one and two with stronger claims than usual.

Wright, obviously, has to feel pretty much unbeatable given what has happened to him over the last few weeks and he is certainly a worthy world champion.

But Gerwyn Price, second best player on the planet at the end of 2019 - or best player on the planet according to the Welshman at the time - is a tough man to take down and appeals more.

He was tenth in his debut campaign and fifth 12 months ago, so the improvement is obvious, and he finished last year better than he started it with a trio of wins including the Grand Slam, before going on to reach the world semis.

He had an off day at the Masters, where he lost in round two to Gary Anderson, who just might be coming back to his best although he is a bit too inconsistent and his enthusiasm for this event and the constant travelling may well evaporate faster than he can chuck a 180.

Next best

Rob Cross is making adjustments galore to his lifestyle and throw and is in transition which leaves four others – Michael Smith, Daryl Gurney and debutants Nathan Aspinall and Glen Durrant – to consider.

Gurney made the semis last year, Smith the final the year before while Duzza and The Asp enter the event after each had a great year.

Aspinall looks to have the best chance. He is a player whose boyish hunger for all these new parties he keeps getting invitations for makes him a player to want on your side.

Semi-finalist at the last two worlds, he went on to win the UK Open in March and then romped to World Series glory in the States on his debut. He’s here to stay.

Best of the rest

Raymond van Barneveld looked far and away the weakest link in the field last year and duly finished bottom, but that battle looks harder to call this time.

Daryl Gurney is favourite this time, 12 months after making the semis, and there’s probably some value elsewhere.

All is not well with Rob Cross and while the suspicion is that he’s too good a player to be down for long, he might struggle to get going this year.

Cross was runner-up last year but has faded over the past few months. His throw mechanics suddenly stopped looking quite right and at last weekend’s Masters he averaged a wretched 84 in defeat to Adrian Lewis.

Van Gerwen heads 180s betting which is fair enough but he wasn’t banging them in that freely at the worlds and is now throwing with new tungsten.

It looks wise to go with someone who’s going to make the playoffs so given Gezzy is the shout there and he hit 54 maxes last year, he's the one to back.

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