2019 Premier League Darts

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2019 Unibet Premier League Darts
Tournament information
Dates7 February - 23 May 2019
Champion(s)
 Michael van Gerwen (NED)
«2018 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 Newcastle 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, although he returned in 2022. He appeared a record 14 times in the competition.

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]

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

Other locations of the 2019 Premier League venues in Europe.
England Newcastle Scotland Glasgow Republic of Ireland Dublin England Exeter
Newcastle Arena
Thursday 7 February
SSE Hydro
Thursday 14 February
3Arena
Thursday 21 February
Westpoint Exeter
Thursday 28 February
Scotland Aberdeen England Nottingham Germany Berlin Netherlands Rotterdam
AECC Arena
Thursday 7 March
Nottingham Arena
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
Liverpool Arena
Thursday 11 April
Cardiff International Arena
Thursday 18 April
Arena Birmingham
Thursday 25 April
England Manchester England Sheffield England Leeds England London
Manchester Arena
Thursday 2 May
Sheffield Arena
Thursday 9 May
Leeds Arena
Thursday 16 May
The O2
Thursday 23 May

Players

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 Anderson's withdrawal. 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

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.

StagePrize 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

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

Play-offs – 23 May

England The O2 Arena, London

Score
Semi-finals (best of 19 legs)
Michael van Gerwen Netherlands
96.48
10–7Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney
94.02
Rob Cross England
100.31
10–5England James Wade
91.91
Final (best of 21 legs)
Michael van Gerwen Netherlands
103.36
11–5England 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

References

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