Premier League Darts 2018 Betting: Week 5
The PDC Premier League Darts competition broke new ground last weekend as it left British shores for the first time and took the roadshow to Berlin. For week 5, we’re back to the relatively sedate setting of Exeter but we can expect another round of high drama in the West Country.
The table is yet to settle down and it’s particularly tight at the bottom where a number of players are battling to avoid elimination so let’s firstly see where the outright betting stands before taking a look at the latest set of matches.
Outright Options
After four rounds, Michael Smith is the only player with a perfect record but needless to say it’s the other Michael - Van Gerwen - who leads the betting at this stage in the tournament. MVG is available at 4/6 with Sun Bets after breezing past Daryl Gurney last time out.
After a slow start to the competition, PDC World Champion Rob Cross has won his last two games and now comes in as second favourite at a best price of 13/2 with Sun Bets once again. In third place is Peter Wright who drew 6-6 with Gary Anderson in a thrilling climax to the evening in Berlin and ‘Snakebite’ is now quoted at best odds of 9/1 with Winner Sports and 10Bet.
Anderson follows at odds of 12/1 with SkyBet while Michael Smith continues to shorten after that perfect start. Raymond Van Barneveld sits at 40/1 with Boylesports while Simon Whitlock, who suffered his first defeat of the season to Smith last week, is on offer at a top price of 50/1 with Ladbrokes and Coral.
Completing the outright market are three players who are in most danger of being eliminated at the end of the regular season. Daryl Gurney is available at 100/1 with Winner Sports while Mensur Suljovic, who finally got off the mark against Gerwyn Price, is at 150/1 with Betway.
Finally, Price himself brings up the rear at a distant 300/1 with 10Bet and Sport Pesa. If any of those players can get into the knockout phase, anything could then happen but based on early season form those numbers look to be correct.
Week 5 Matches
We’ve an absolute cracker of a game to start things off as Gary Anderson and Rob Cross compete in a tight betting market. Flying Scotsman Anderson is ahead here at best odds of 31/21 with Cross following behind at a top price of 8/5 with Unibet.
Voltage Cross has enjoyed the marginally better start to the season with four points to Anderson’s three so the draw may well appeal to punters here at a best of 10/3 with William Hill and MarathonBet.
Next up is Daryl Gurney versus Peter Wright and in this one we have an odds on favourite with Wright on offer at best odds of 4/5 with Sport Pesa. Victory for Gurney comes in at a top price of 100//30 with Betway while the draw completes this market at 15/4 with Unibet and Winner Sports.
Wright’s record so far includes two drawn games but Gurney appears to be on the slide and currently sits at the bottom of the table so the odds setters have probably called that one correctly.
Tournament Favourite
Michael Van Gerwen now enters to do battle against Mensur Suljovic who lifted himself off the bottom of the table with that win over Gerwyn Price last time out. Suljovic has actually played OK, averaging high scores and only really looking poor when going down to Michael Smith in week three.
It will be tough for the Austrian to get anything from this game however and Van Gerwen is the hot favourite for the win at just 1/4. A win for Suljovic is available at best odds of 13/2 with Betway while the draw completes this one at a top price of 17/2 with MarathonBet and Boylesports.
League leader Michael Smith now steps up to the oche as he faces Raymond Van Barneveld, looking to extend his winning run to five straight games. The bookies are starting to take Smith a little more seriously but most have these two locked at the same win price. Meanwhile, 188Bet have the best price on Barney at 6/4 while the same bookie has Smith just a fraction shorter at 31/21.
If you agree with that market assessment, maybe the draw could come into play at its top price of 10/3 with Winner Sports.
Rounding Off
Simon Whitlock and Gerwyn Price have the honour of finishing off the night in Exeter and despite suffering his first Premier League defeat of 2018, Wizard Whitlock is out in front here at best odds of 6/5 with Unibet and BetFred. A victory for Price is available at 45/23 with 188Bet and the draw is out to 7/2 with Betway.
If Whitlock returns to form, he should breeze this and that odds against figure gives us some real value.
Verdict
We actually have some good prices in the result betting this week and we’re therefore going to take Whitlock as our first tip. He seemed he might be here just to make up the numbers but those three opening wins, coupled with Gerwyn Price’s poor showing so far, makes him decent value at that 6/5 figure.
It’s also very tempting to get involved with the Smith versus Van Barneveld match where both players are so tightly bunched in the betting. We’ve called Smith correctly at odds-against prices in the last two games and although we may be pushing our luck to make it three, we have such good odds here once again.
Smith is our second tip and rather than look at side markets we’ll add in Rob Cross to beat Gary Anderson. After a stuttering start, the World Champion is throwing his best darts again and has the momentum to beat a surprisingly lacklustre Anderson.
In the other games, Van Gerwen and Wright should emerge as winners but we’ll avoid them as the odds on favourites for their respective matches and look instead to these three tips.
Best Bets:
- Simon Whitlock to beat Gerwyn Price at 6/5 with Unibet
- Michael Smith to beat Raymond Van Barneveld at 31/21 with 188Bet