Featured Image Credit: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Topics: Darts, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Littler, Luke Humphries
Ben McCrum
Topics: Darts, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Littler, Luke Humphries
The CEO of the Professional Darts Corporation has announced that changes are coming to the Premier League format.
On Thursday night, the 2026 Premier League darts season got underway inside Newcastle's Utilita Arena as eight of the best players in the world looked to start the season off with a win.
Of course, only one man could win the opening night, and that was three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen, who beat countryman Gian van Veen 6-4 in the final to earn the £10,000 prize and claim the first five points of the season.
Alongside the start of the new season, many fans have been discussing the format of the Premier League season, with some arguing that they are growing tired of seeing the repeated match-ups.
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And following the opening night, PDC boss Matt Porter addressed these concerns, promising that the format will change.
The Premier League darts season sees eight different players - the top four in the PDC's rankings plus four wildcards - face each other weekly in a knockout competition.
Each player is scheduled to face each other in the opening round at least once, before the format repeats itself from Weeks 9 to 15.
Naturally, the likes of world no.1 Luke Littler and reigning Premier League champion Luke Humphries tend to make it to the latter stages every week, frustrating fans who feel they see the same event on a weekly basis.
But, Porter believes that, although the format must change at some point, there is still enough interest to keep it as it currently is for now.
Speaking to the Metro, he said: “We will change it at some point, but at the moment you can only look at the numbers that are in front of you.
“The live crowd and the TV audience, the numbers are telling us that the format is working.
“If people stop buying tickets or start changing the channel then it wouldn’t be working, but every metric is improving.
“It’s not a format that will keep forever because we never keep any format forever in the Premier League.The format must have changed half a dozen times in the 20 years of the event.
"But at the moment, it’s still the right format, we believe, for what we’ve got.”
Porter went on to admit that he has seen the criticism about repeated match-ups, but explained that he thought it was a necessary part of the format to ensure fans attending live get to see the best play the best.
He added: “I would accept that that is the biggest criticism of it. There is a lot of repetition.
“But you’re looking at it through the eyes of somebody who’s perhaps watching it on TV every week.
“If you’re in Nottingham, you want to see Littler vs Humphries.
“If you’re in Aberdeen, you might want to see the same, and if you’re in Brighton, you might want to see the same.
“It’s very difficult to turn around to people and say, ‘oh, sorry, you can’t see the biggest matchup in your city.’"
The Premier League travels to the AFAS Dome in Antwerp, Belgium for Night two, with the matches taking place on February 12.