Newcastle’s Utilita Arena hosted Night One of the 17-week Premier League Darts event which saw Michael van Gerwen beat fellow Dutchman Gian van Veen to take the first nightly win of this year’s tournament.
The Premier League Darts involves eight of the best darts players in the world; the top four players on the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) Order of Merit and four additional ‘wildcard’ selections made by the PDC. The format is a knockout bracket beginning with four quarter-finals, leading to semi-finals and then the final in which the nightly winner is crowned. Players receive two points per semi-final finish, three points per runner-up finish, and five points per final win. Following the 16-week league period, the top four players play-off in two semi-finals with the winners progressing to the Premier League Final.
This year’s tournament includes a record-breaking prize fund of £1,250,000 with the eventual champion taking home £350,000. The 17 nights will be held weekly in host cities across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
Seven-time Premier League champion van Gerwen made the perfect start to his 2026 campaign with a victory on Night One, already bettering his record at last year’s event where he failed to pick up a single nightly win.
Seven-time Premier League champion van Gerwen made the perfect start to his 2026 campaign with a victory on Night One...
Van Gerwen’s route to the final saw 6-2 victories against Stephen Bunting and defending champion Luke Humphries. This included winning six consecutive legs against Bunting after going 2-0 down. Humphries, who survived two match-darts in his own quarter-final against Welshman Gerwyn Price, failed to shift gears when up against van Gerwen. His semi-final checkout percentage of 18% compared to van Gerwen’s 75% proved the decisive factor in settling the final scoreline.
I am expecting everyone to have a 100, 105 average against me
Gian van Veen’s first ever Premier League matchup as a debutant came against world number one and defending world champion, Luke Littler. Van Veen was largely seen as the underdog with Littler winning the previous three matches between them, including the World Darts Championship final in January. Before the tournament van Veen stated, “I am expecting everyone to have a 100, 105 average against me”. A sub-par Littler performance averaging 96.98 saw van Veen take a 6-4 victory with neither man playing their best darts. Van Veen’s semi-final came against Jonny Clayton who beat second debutant Josh Rock 6-2 in the quarter-finals, with the highest average of the night at 109.81. Clayton failed to continue this momentum with van Veen picking up another 6-4 win, despite Clayton returning some fight from 5-2 down.
This set up an all-Dutch final between the Dutch number-one (van Veen) and the Dutch number-two (van Gerwen).
Van Gerwen stormed to an early 2-0 lead until van Veen fought back to half the deficit. Van Veen missed a number of opportunities to draw level with van Gerwen who went on to win the following leg, however a 110-checkout from van Veen kept him only a leg behind at 4-3. Van Gerwen pushed on but missed three match darts at 5-3 to seal victory, this was punished by van Veen who pulled another leg back. A sixth 180 from van Gerwen followed by a double-14 checkout finally put the game to bed at 6-4, and crowned van Gerwen the winner on the night.
After the match, van Gerwen spoke on personal issues that had caused him to take a step back from the game in 2025, “It is always nice to respond well. At the World Masters I had some issues at home, so I had to deal with that, and to bounce back with a win here in Newcastle, it means a lot to me”.
To bounce back with a win here in Newcastle, it means a lot to me
In an interview with The Courier, when asked about if he thought he could go onto win a record-extending eight Premier League after tonight’s performance, he said the following: “it would be good but we are so far away, so many weeks. In the next upcoming months so many things can happen, but of course I want to win it. I always want to win wherever I am competing”.
Night Two of the Premier League Darts takes place on Thursday 12 February at the AFAS Dome in Antwerp, Belgium.
