2019 Premier League Darts

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2019 Unibet Premier League Darts
Winner
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen
Runner-up
England Rob Cross
Score
11–5
Dates
7 February - 23 May 2019
Edition
15th
Number of players
9 (plus 9 guests)
Venues
16
Premier League Darts
< 2018 | 2019 | 2020 >

The 2019 Unibet Premier League Darts was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation – the fifteenth edition of the tournament. The event began on Thursday 7 February at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle and ended with the Play-offs at The O2 Arena in London on Thursday 23 May. It was also the last to feature Raymond van Barneveld, as he retired from professional darts after the following World Darts Championship. He appeared a record 14 times in the Premier League Darts.

Michael van Gerwen was the three-time defending champion after defeating Michael Smith 11–4 in the 2018 final. He won a fourth consecutive (and fifth overall) title by defeating Rob Cross 11–5 in the final.[1]

Format[edit]

The tournament format was modified for this season.[2]

Phase 1: During the first nine nights, eight of the nine players play each other in four matches and the ninth player plays one match against one of the nine contenders. At the end of Phase 1, the bottom player is eliminated from the competition.

Phase 2: In the seven nights of weeks 9 to 15, each player plays the other seven players once. In a change from previous years, all players only play one match each night. Phase 2 matches have been increased to a maximum of fourteen legs, allowing for a 7-7 draw. In previous years, the maximum number of legs was twelve. At the end of Phase 2, the bottom four players in the league table are eliminated from the competition.

Play-off Night: The top four players in the league table contest the two knockout semi-finals with 1st playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd. The semi-finals are first to 10 legs (best of 19). The two winning semi-finalists meet in the final which is first to 11 legs (best of 21).

Venues[edit]

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Locations of the 2019 Premier League venues in the U.K. and Ireland.
class=notpageimage|
Other locations of the 2019 Premier League venues in Europe.
England Newcastle Scotland Glasgow Republic of Ireland Dublin England Exeter
Utilita Arena Newcastle
Thursday 7 February 		SSE Hydro
Thursday 14 February 		3Arena
Thursday 21 February 		Westpoint Arena
Thursday 28 February
Scotland Aberdeen England Nottingham Germany Berlin Netherlands Rotterdam
BHGE Arena
Thursday 7 March 		Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
Thursday 14 March 		Mercedes-Benz Arena
Thursday 21 March 		Rotterdam Ahoy
Wednesday 27 & Thursday 28 March
Northern Ireland Belfast England Liverpool Wales Cardiff England Birmingham
SSE Arena Belfast
Thursday 4 April 		M&S Bank Arena
Thursday 11 April 		Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
Thursday 18 April 		Arena Birmingham
Thursday 25 April
England Manchester England Sheffield England Leeds England London
Manchester Arena
Thursday 2 May 		FlyDSA Arena
Thursday 9 May 		First Direct Arena
Thursday 16 May 		The O2
Thursday 23 May

Players[edit]

The players in this year's tournament were announced following the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship final on 1 January, with the top four of the PDC Order of Merit joined by six Wildcards.

Gary Anderson, who qualified as fourth on the Order of Merit, withdrew on 4 February, three days prior to the tournament beginning, with a back injury.[3]

Player Appearance in
Premier League 		Consecutive
Streak 		Order of Merit
Rank 		Previous best performance Qualification
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 7th 7 1 Winner (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018) PDC Order of Merit
England Rob Cross 2nd 2 2 Semi-final (2018) PDC Order of Merit
Scotland Peter Wright 6th 6 3 Runner-up (2017) PDC Order of Merit
Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney 2nd 2 5 5th (2018) PDC Wildcard
England Michael Smith 3rd 2 6 Runner-up (2018) PDC Wildcard
Wales Gerwyn Price 2nd 2 7 10th (2018) PDC Wildcard
England James Wade 10th 1 10 Winner (2009) PDC Wildcard
Austria Mensur Suljović 2nd 2 8 9th (2018) Sky Sports Wildcard
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 14th 14 28 Winner (2014) Sky Sports Wildcard

Nine invited players were chosen to appear on each of the nine Phase 1 nights in the slots which were available as a result of the withdrawal of Gary Anderson due to extended treatment for a back injury. The nine main players could earn league points if they won or drew against the invited players. The invited players would not earn any points in the competition.[4]

Player Venue Order of Merit
Rank
England Chris Dobey Newcastle 35
England Glen Durrant Glasgow 74
Republic of Ireland Steve Lennon Dublin 36
England Luke Humphries Exeter 56
Scotland John Henderson Aberdeen 19
England Nathan Aspinall Nottingham 34
Germany Max Hopp Berlin 30
Belgium Dimitri Van den Bergh Rotterdam (27 March) 33
Netherlands Jeffrey de Zwaan Rotterdam (28 March) 43

Prize money[edit]

The prize money for the 2019 tournament was set to increase to £855,000 from £825,000 in 2018.[5] As the contenders picked up four draws between them it ended up being a total of £851,500.

Stage Prize Money
Winner £250,000
Runner-up £120,000
Semi-finalists (x2) £80,000
5th place £70,000
6th place £60,000
7th place £55,000
8th place £50,000
9th place £35,000
'Contenders' win (x0) £5,000
'Contenders' draw (x4) £3,500
'Contenders' lose (x5) £2,500
League Winner Bonus £25,000
Total £825,000

League stage[edit]

Players in italics are "Contenders", and will only play on that night. [6]

Play-offs – 23 May[edit]

England The O2 Arena, London

Score
Semi-finals (best of 19 legs)
Michael van Gerwen Netherlands
96.48		 10–7 Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney
94.02
Rob Cross England
100.31		 10–5 England James Wade
91.91
Final (best of 21 legs)
Michael van Gerwen Netherlands
103.36		 11–5 England Rob Cross
100.98
Night's Total Average: 97.76
Highest Checkout: Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 130
Most 180s: Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 8
Night's 180s: 21

Table and streaks[edit]

Table[edit]

After the withdrawal of Gary Anderson, nine invited players were added to replace him with one playing each week. After the first nine rounds in phase 1, the bottom player in the table is eliminated. In phase 2, the eight remaining players play in a single match on each of the seven nights. The top four players then compete in the knockout semi-finals and final on the playoff night.

The nine invited players are not ranked in the table, but the main nine players can earn league points for a win or draw in the games against them.

Two points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw. When players are tied on points, leg difference is used first as a tie-breaker, after that legs won against throw and then tournament average.

# Name Matches Legs Scoring
Pld W D L Pts LF LA +/- LWAT 100+ 140+ 180s A HC C%
1 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen W 16 10 3 3 23 107 67 +40 40 208 123 41 101.94 132 49.08%
2 England Rob Cross RU 16 10 2 4 22 102 76 +26 39 190 117 54 99.69 164 44.16%
3 England James Wade 16 7 6 3 20 104 84 +20 38 274 150 44 97.87 161 43.70%
4 Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney 16 8 3 5 19 93 86 +7 33 226 130 45 96.72 140 40.26%
5 Wales Gerwyn Price 16 6 6 4 18 99 93 +6 33 223 94 54 96.16 170 42.67%
6 Austria Mensur Suljović 16 7 3 6 17 94 95 –1 36 248 154 42 95.79 144 39.66%
7 England Michael Smith 16 3 4 9 10 79 105 –26 24 215 133 55 97.08 170 35.59%
8 Scotland Peter Wright 16 2 5 9 9 76 108 –32 22 215 138 43 95.52 160 41.76%
9 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 9 1 2 6 4 42 57 –15 12 115 65 25 96.35 170 36.46%

(Q) = Qualified For The Playoffs (E) = Eliminated From Playoff Contention

Streaks[edit]

Player Phase 1, Weeks 1 to 8 Phase 2, Weeks 9 to 15 Play-offs
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8A 8B 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 SF F
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen W W W L D W L W W D W W D L W W W W
England Rob Cross D W L W W W W L W W W L D W W L W L
England James Wade W L D W W L D D W L D W D W D W L –
Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney L W W L L D W W W L D L W W D W L
Wales Gerwyn Price W D D D W L L L W D W W D L D W –
Austria Mensur Suljović D L D W L W W W L W L W D W L L
England Michael Smith L D L W L W L W L D L L D L D L
Scotland Peter Wright D D W L W D D L L D L L L L L L
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld L D D L L L W L L Eliminated
Contenders D L L D D L L D L —
Legend: W Win D Draw L Loss — Eliminated

Positions by Week[edit]

Player Phase 1, Weeks 1 to 8 Phase 2, Weeks 9 to 15
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8A 8B 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 3 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1
England Rob Cross 5 3 6 3 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2
England James Wade 2 6 5 2 1 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 3
Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney 8 4 2 7 7 8 7 9 4 5 6 6 6 5 5 4
Wales Gerwyn Price 1 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 6 6 4 4 4 6 6 5
Austria Mensur Suljović 4 9 8 5 6 6 4 3 5 3 5 5 5 4 4 6
England Michael Smith 7 7 9 8 8 7 9 8 8 8 8 8 7 8 7 7
Scotland Peter Wright 6 5 4 6 5 4 5 6 7 7 7 7 8 7 8 8
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 9 8 6 9 9 9 8 7 9 Eliminated

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Van Gerwen Lands Fifth Premier League Crown". Sky Sports. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  2. ^ Allen, Dave. "2019 Unibet Premier League Schedule". PDC. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  3. ^ Phillips, Josh. "Anderson Withdraws From 2019 Unibet Premier League". PDC. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  4. ^ Phillips, Josh. "Premier League 'Contenders' To Replace Injured Anderson". PDC. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  5. ^ Allen, Dave. "Prize Money Soars Above £14m In 2019". PDC. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  6. ^ Allen, Dave. "2019 Unibet Premier League Fixtures". PDC. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  7. ^ Porter, Matthew [@MattPorter_PDC] (7 February 2019). "And here are all the stats from a great night in front of a sell out 7000+ crowd at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.

External links[edit]

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