The darts commentator and former Players Championship winner previews the 2026 Premier League Darts, including insights on Stephen Bunting's selection, Michael van Gerwen's chances and his dream line-up of players.
Former darts player Paul ‘The Asset’ Nicholson provides his insights into the upcoming Premier League Darts, which begins on 5 February in Newcastle.
After his triumph in the PDC World Championship, Luke Littler is the favourite in the darts betting to clinch the Premier League title after finishing runner-up to Luke Humphries in 2025.
In our exclusive interview, Nicholson discusses why the Premier League format often lends itself to shock results, how debutants Josh Rock and Gian van Veen could fare and why this could be a big tournament for seven-time winner Michael Van Gerwen.
We’ve seen some surprising Premier League winners in recent years, such as Glen Durrant and Jonny Clayton. Does this format lend itself to shocks?
I think this is one of the reasons why the PDC like this format so much. It’s come under a lot of scrutiny over the last two or three years because of this incessant need for change, and I am one of the people, hand on heart, who said, “I’m not sure about it.”
But the more they’ve done it, the more I get it. I looked at every single night last year with different eyes, trying to see the intricacies of the crowd, see the body language of the players.
I like the idea of the bonus at the end of the night as well, because it makes sure that it’s an individual tournament every week. That really does lend itself to upsets. When Stephen Bunting won a night last year, it came out of the blue. We didn’t think that he was going to get many points at all. We thought people like Bunting and Chris Dobey were struggling. Then they would end up winning a couple of nights and all of a sudden that’s a huge upset.
So getting to the playoffs is one thing. You’ve got to have longevity, you’ve got to manage your entire season well. If I were to put my name on four names right now to make the playoffs, I would simply be lucky to get it right, because for the first time, we might have eight names with no weak link.
There’s going to be a lot of people saying that Stephen Bunting is the weak link. That’s entirely their choice. But you look at eight international, world-class players – are they going to struggle? I don’t think they are. It could be any four in the eight, but I think the biggest shock would be if Stephen Bunting were to win it.
What did you think of the decision to give Bunting a place in the Premier League, and has he almost got to prove he belongs there given the narrative around him?
That’s exactly right, because I think a lot of people either had Bunting in the last spot in or the first spot out, at the expense of maybe Nathan Aspinall or Danny Noppert. But the reason that Stephen is under pressure is not because of how he’s played, it’s because of what is on social media and the narrative around it.
If it was a case of Stephen retaining his place in the top four in the world, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But because of people having big runs at the worlds like Gian van Veen getting to no. 3, we now say that because Aspinall’s not in, Bunting’s got to be fortunate to be in. Why is it always that someone’s fortunate to be in the Premier League? We are talking about Stephen Bunting, who had the best year of his PDC career, and it’s controversial that he’s in the lineup! That’s how difficult it is to get in it now.
When James Wade is saying that it’s unfortunate he’s not in the lineup, look at Stephen. He’s won twice on the European Tour, he’s won on the floor, he’s won twice on the World Series and he’s only just got in, and James barely won a thing.
So it’s a strange old world that we live in. Stephen is under pressure because of the narrative, but it will be really interesting to see how he does.
It’s Jonny Clayton’s first Premier League appearance since 2023 and he has reached the playoffs in every appearance to date. How impressed has his return to form been, and what makes him so good at this format?
Jonny’s a burst player. His ability to get out of the traps, straight into a game, straight into someone’s face with some 121 checkouts and points to the camera to show them that he’s willing to go from dart one in Newcastle all the way to week 16. He’s someone who’s got an engine and he can programme his calendar well enough to make sure that he’s got enough in the final sprint to make the playoffs again.
The one thing I didn’t agree with Jonny about was that he was prioritising the Premier League when he was at the Worlds. Do you want to be world champion or do you want to be Premier League champion?
And 99% of the world wants to be world champion, and apparently on some level, Clayton is more focused on being in the Premier League. So by virtue of that, he would like to go and win a second one of them. If he were to win a second, it would eclipse the first one because some of that was behind closed doors.
Can you imagine what it’s going to be like in Cardiff when you’ve got Jonny and Gezzy [Price] there? That’ll be some party.
Josh Rock and Gian van Veen are the two debutants – is it harder than ever to come into the Premier League as a newcomer?
I think I would have said that two or three years ago. Nowadays you’ve got people coming through like Van Veen, who have amassed averages of about 115 on the European Tour against world-class talents like Damon Heta. Because it’s best of 11, it’ll just feel like the last session of a European Tour event, albeit with slightly bigger crowds. But some of these Premier League venues aren’t as big as European Tour crowds, so it will just feel like European Tour-plus-16.
It’ll be interesting to see how Van Veen does, but if anybody’s going to fit in like a round peg in a round hole, it’s going to be that young man. He’s so eloquent, he’s so smart and so well prepared. The only question mark I have for is will he take his foot off the gas at the right times during this campaign? Will he take that European tour event off? Will he have a two-week break just to make sure he’s ready for the second half of the season? Because if he plays too much, we saw what happened to Stephen Bunting last year and Damon Heta. They just played a little bit too much and they left themselves with nothing in the tank.
How high are the stakes for Michael van Gerwen at this Premier League given his relatively early exit at the World Championship?
I think this is a big Premier League for him because of last year’s Premier League.
His success is very well-documented and his personal life has been very well documented. That is something for Michael to handle. But the one thing he is in control of is how he prepares for this Premier League. If he’s able to prepare the way he wants and he’s got enough motivation, he’s going to do well.
I think if he doesn’t get his priorities right on the dartboard, then this could be a long 16 weeks. If it’s not better than last year, I get the feeling that he might not be in the top four this year. It’s going to have to be a better approach, a more efficient approach than this time last year, otherwise, no playoffs for Michael again.
He’s the record holder with seven Premier League titles. Can anyone else reach that mark?
If we’d asked three years ago, can someone win every PDC major before the age of 20, I would have said, “you must be out of your mind.” So, is it possible that someone could win eight Premier League titles before they’re 30 years of age? Absolutely.
I’m saying it’s possible, I’m not saying he’s going to go and do it. Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are winning so much money. They could be retired in less than 10 years. We’re talking about footballer retirement ages.
No one has to go to 72 like Paul Lim, or into their mid-60s like Steve Beaton. You don’t have to. Some of these guys are still doing exhibitions and other commitments because they don’t have the same wealth in the first 10 to 15 years of their career, but these guys do.
They’re earning so much money and they’re being so astute with it that they don’t have to play into their mid-30s and 40s. They can go on to other things like reality TV or have some sort of social media career. But if they want to play for 20 years, they can earn a lot of money and they break records like getting eight or more Premier Leagues.
What would be your dream Premier League line-up of players from any era?
Anybody that would ruffle feathers. The first name on the list would be Jocky Wilson, because I can imagine him in Scotland being unplayable. But then I’d pick Gary Anderson, because I’d want him in Scotland as well. I’d pick two from Scotland, a couple from England, a couple of Dutch players and a couple of randoms.
It wouldn’t necessarily be about talent, for me. It would be about entertainment, because that’s the angle that I’d want to see. I definitely want Phil Taylor in there, because if he was having his feathers ruffled by Jocky Wilson, I’d want to watch it. I’d definitely have Eric Bristow in there. I’m not 100 per cent on my eight, because this is the kind of thing that would take me about a month to configure, but there are certain people that I would 100 per cent have – Gary Anderson, Jocky Wilson, Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor, because I want to watch them every single week, especially when playing each other.
You were known as a showman throughout your career – who are your favourite showmen to watch at the moment?
I’ve always liked watching Peter Wright. I think Peter’s brought something to the game that some other people couldn’t do. I tried to do what Peter did, lift the audience with something different, but he was able to do it and win – get the world titles, get the Match Play, play in the Premier League. Over the last 10, 15 years, I’ve enjoyed watching him probably more than anyone. I’m slightly biassed because I love him to pieces. He’s a good friend of mine, but I think what he’s done for the vibrancy of the game is maybe more than anybody has in the modern era.
The only people I see taking it to that level in the history of this sport are Eric Bristow and possibly Bobby George. I was nowhere near the level of a Peter Wright, but these days with Snakebite slipping down the rankings a little bit, there is an opportunity for someone to take that mantle, because we don’t know how much longer Peter’s going to want to play professional darts.
With all due respect to Stephen Bunting, his walk on is good, but is it Peter Wright good? I’m not sure it is. It’s not as groundbreaking either. So there is a possibility for someone over the next year or two to come into the game with a fresh outlook to give the fans something new. The challenge is on the players.
Tom Sykes got his PDC tour card recently. What do you think of him as a player and how far can he go?
Tom’s ceiling of performance is frightening. I’ve watched him a lot at the MODUS Super Series. I’m a huge fan of his work ethic. I think if someone were to give him the vehicle of taking financial pressure away and saying, “Tom, all you have to do is wake up in the morning, stay fit, stay happy, stay sharp”, there’s no telling what Tom Sykes could do.
There’s only been one question mark over Sykes over the last two or three years – can he win the big game? He’s been in three MODUS Super Series finals, he’s lost them all. What we’ll find out most about Sykes in 2026 is if he puts himself in that streamed quarter-final, that streamed semi-final, can he beat world-class players when he needs to? Q School’s one thing, he did very well at getting through that. But now the work hasn’t stopped, it’s only just started. We will find out how good Tom Sykes is from now.
