Premier League Darts 2025 Belfast Predictions: Iceman to win on opening night

The Premier League is back and as well as giving us his outright preview, our darts expert Sean Rafferty has also given us his picks for the opening night in Northern Ireland. So, without further ado, here are his Premier League Darts 2025 Belfast predictions. 

Premier League Darts Odds

1 unit Gerwyn Price Night 1 Winner @ 7/1 

Gezzy sits in the more inviting half of the draw this week, alongside Chris Dobey, Stephen Bunting and Rob Cross. Big hitters such as Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen are all in the bottom half, so straight away it’s a golden chance for the likes of Price to reach a final on night one.

Bunting has probably got the strongest form on the four players in this half, however, I feel he was beginning to look a bit fatigued at the World Masters this past weekend, perhaps suffering from a bit of burnout having gone deep in a lot of events in recent months.

Dobey, other than at the World Championship, has very little televised form to brag about. Cross had shown next to nothing in terms of form before winning the Dutch Darts Masters last week, but that victory was followed up with a first round defeat to William O’Connor at the World Masters, meaning he’s lost his first match in four of his last five events.

Gezzy spoke pretty negatively of this event last year, but has since worked with a sports psychologist which appears to have changed his attitude and mindset, at least for the time being. He sounds positive now when talking about his game and his chances at this event, where he’ll likely come into the opening night feeling confident and in the right frame of mind which is half the battle with Price.

It’s perhaps worth noting that 'The Iceman' made the final on Night One last year. He’s almost guaranteed to be second favourite in the final against one of Humphries/Littler/MVG, but at 7/1 I’m willing to take a chance on the Welshman making it to the final and possibly causing an upset.

Gerwyn Price to beat Chris Dobey

A little follow-up from the comments I’ve already made about Price above and Dobey in my Premier League Preview article - 4/6 seems a pretty generous price for Gezzy to pick up victory here.

After a tricky 2024 all in all for Price, recent form has shown a lot more promise and will give him hope of a better year on the oche - The Iceman reached the quarter finals of the World Championship, before a run to the final of the Bahrain Masters, which included a 115 average on his way to beating Luke Littler.

This was followed by a run to the semi finals of the Dutch Masters before losing to eventual champion Rob Cross. Last weekend, he recorded an impressive 3-0 win over Florian Hempel before a tough 4-3 defeat to Damon Heta, which he likely would’ve won had he hit more than 32% of his doubles.

There’s generally a lot more positive signs for Price, who will seek revenge on Dobey who beat him in their recent World Championship quarter finals. It’s worth noting that Price boasted an incredible head-to-head record against Dobey before that match, winning all twelve meetings in a row between the two before that match.

Price has shown the stronger form of them since then and also has the advantage of having more experience in these big arenas - I fancy the Welshman to do a sufficient job on Dobey at 4/6.

Luke Littler to beat Michael van Gerwen

You could say Littler is suffering from somewhat of a silverware “drought”, a whole month without a trophy! The 18-year-old has yet to follow up from his triumphant World Championship victory, so will be keen to make a statement on the opening night of this year’s Premier League, where he begins his defence after being crowned champion in his debut Premier League campaign last year.

Despite not winning a trophy in the three events he’s played since the World Championship, 'The Nuke' has still shown signs of that top level game he always has in his locker - incredibly, in the three defeats he’s suffered this year, his averages were 105, 108 and 108, which tells you it’s likely to take a world class performance from MVG to get the better of Littler.

Littler has averaged 101+ in six of his eight matches this year since the World Championship. In comparison, MVG has only played four matches since then and averaged below 99 in all of them. That World Championship final which saw Littler hammer MVG 7-3 in sets, summed up the teenager’s dominance over the Green Machine. Littler since beat MVG at the Dutch Masters too, meaning he’s won his last four meetings against the Dutchman.

Littler topped the league phase last year with 40 points, he’ll look to come flying out the traps again this year and I think he’ll kick off with a relatively comfortable win over Van Gerwen in this blockbuster tie.

The two selections can be combined in a double below which pay a touch over 13/10.

Darts Odds

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