Dubai Darts Masters: Premier League shows this tournament is wide open

Michael van Gerwen claimed yet another trophy last week, beating Peter Wright in a thrilling Premier League final. In other news, grass is still green.

With that in mind, the Dutchman represents great value to win any trophy that’s put in front of him – right?

Wrong.

If the Premier League taught us anything, it’s that the gulf in class between the world’s best players isn’t as big as the odds suggest.

Granted, MVG is quite rightly the favourite to win any tournament he’s in – but he’s certainly beatable.

Raymond van Barneveld and Phil Taylor both got the better of Mighty Mike in the Premier League last year, while Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis, Peter Wright and Dave Chisnall all came mighty close too.

Up next for the PDC circuit is a trip to the Middle East for the Dubai Darts Masters. Yes, Van Gerwen is 4/6 to go all the way. And yes, he’s won three of the last four tournaments here. But plenty will fancy their chances.

Peter Wright (5/1), for example, will be looking to exact revenge – as will Gary Anderson (5/1) who lost to the world number one in the Premier League semi-final.

Then there’s Phil Taylor, who’ll want to go out with a bang in his final year on the circuit. The Power is adored on these shores, so plenty will be backing him to put on a show. As we’ve said so often over the last year or so, if Taylor is anything around the 10/1 mark outright to win a tournament – he’s cracking value.

He’s 14/1 to win in Dubai, and that would certainly be our each-way pick.

As for the rest of the competition, Dave Chisnall and Raymond van Barneveld are both 20/1 shots, while behind them comes James Wade (33/1) and 2017 UK Open runner-up, Gerwyn Price (66/1).

Click here for a full list of Dubai Darts Masters odds.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing