Bunting intrigues in wide-open Premier League darts season
Published:
There has been a different winner of the PDC’s Premier League darts in each of the last four editions, which is a trend that is highly likely to be extended considering the even nature of the 2015 field.
Eight of the current Order of Merit’s top 10 players will take part in a competition that has Michael van Gerwen as the 9/4 favourite to win, from Phil Taylor at 5/2. However, in such a competitive tournament there are plenty of pieces of value to snap up in markets elsewhere.
Stephen Bunting has the potential to be the darkest horse in a stable full of them. In his debut season in the PDC the former BDO world champion rocketed up the Order of Merit thanks to a string of strong performances.
That run was encapsulated with his showing at the PDC World Championship over Christmas, where he reached the quarter-finals before bowing out in a thriller to Raymond van Barneveld.
Having already rubbed shoulders with the best around, the strength of this season’s lineup shouldn’t affect him and odds of 13/8 to reach the semi-finals look ripe for the taking.
After the first nine weeks of the competition the bottom two on the leaderboard will exit the competition, leaving the remaining eight to battle it out for the play-off places.
Belgian debutant Kim Huybrechts is the joint favourite to be among the unlucky duo at 11/10 and is justifiably carrying the tag as a strange selection for the season.
Likely to have landed his spot on the back of his partisan antics on stage at the World Championships, Huybrechts’ winning record of just 53 percent in televised matches last year just won’t stack up against a relentless field of this standard.
The other man fancied to make an early departure is Dave Chisnall, but his scoring exploits make the 7/1 on him hitting the most tournament 180s far more appealing.
Chizzy claimed that very accolade in his last Premier League campaign and recently peppered the lipstick at the Masters, scoring 13 in a match against Van Gerwen.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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