Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports/PDC
Topics: Premier League, Darts, Fan Reactions
Ryan Smart
Darts fans have had one complaint after watching the opening night of the Premier League campaign.
Michael van Gerwen won the week one title, defeating Dutch compatriot Gian van Veen 6-4 in the final.
The three-time world champion recorded a 6-2 victory over Stephen Bunting in the quarter-final, before a win by the same scoreline over reigning champion Luke Humphries.
Current world champion Luke Littler was knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Van Veen, who got the better of Jonny Clayton to reach the final on what was his Premier League debut.
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It was a good quality night of darts, highlighted by Clayton coming close to a nine-darter in his 6-2 win over Josh Rock before ending with an average of 109.81.
Van Gerwen averaged under 100 in his semi-final and final wins but was relentless in his 180 scoring, hitting six of them against Van Veen.
The 36-year-old didn't win a week during the 2025 Premier League season, with this the perfect start to his 2026 campaign.
While fans praised the quality of darts and the coverage on Sky Sports - with Glen Durrant, Wayne Mardle and Mark Webster among those covering the action alongside presenter Emma Paton - there have been a number of question marks about the nightly format itself.
The current format sees the eight players contest a weekly knockout tournament over 16 weeks.
And while the quarter-final matchups are rotated each week, it invariably occurs that some players perform consistently stronger than others and the same matchups often take place.
One fan wrote: "It's only week one but the darts Premier League could do with a refresh."
A second agreed: "Format has to change. Can win the league and doesn't count for much in the end. Go back to the old way. Full on league."
A third stated: "Absolutely amazed they have stuck with this Premier League darts format. They need to think outside the box for this."
And a fourth suggested: "After watching the World Masters, I feel like the best-of-five set format (first to two legs) would be electric for the Premier League."
PDC chairman Matt Porter told Metro on Thursday that he understood criticism of the format being repetitive, but noted that internal PDC data shows it is still working, and added that he wants to ensure that live fans can be guaranteed to see the top players when they attend.
"We will change it at some point," Porter said. "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.
"It's not a format that will keep forever ... but at the moment, it's still the right format, we believe, for what we've got.
"I would accept that that is the biggest criticism of it [the 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, and 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 match-up in your city'."