Luke Littler and Stephen Bunting are looking to kickstart their Premier League Darts campaign at tomorrow’s third night in Glasgow.
Reigning world champion Littler, from Warrington, sits outside the play-offs in fifth after picking up his first win of the new season in the quarter-finals in Antwerp with a 6-5 win over rival Luke Humphries before losing 6-4 to Michael Van Gerwen in the semi finals.
Littler will be out to secure his first nightly win tomorrow after winning the night at the same venue last year with a 6-5 win over Humphries in the final.
St Helens arrowsmith Bunting sits winless after blowing a four-leg lead to lose 6-4 to Welsh number one Jonny Clayton.
Bunting sits seventh in the eight-player league after the opening two weeks.
It is the second successive week her has blown a lead after losing 6-2 to Van Gerwen on the opening night after racing into a two-leg lead.
It is a similar start to last year’s campaign for the Bullet, who failed to win a match until week nine in Berlin, where he won the whole night.
His addition in the Premier League was seen as controversial and his start to the campaign would have only added more criticism through his failure to hold on to early leads.
Before the opening night in Newcastle, Bunting spoke to Sky Sports’ Love the Darts podcast and detailed his aim to improve on last year and prove the doubters wrong.
Bunting out to prove “idiots” wrong ahead of Premier League opener
However, his start to 2026 has been similar to his end to 2025, despite reaching the final of the third Players’ Championship event on Monday, where he lost 8-1 to Chris Dobey.
In contrast, Littler hasn’t competed in a single floor event in 2026, but has already won a major in the PDC World Masters, establishing his aims to regain the Premier League crown after losing 11-8 to Humphries in last May’s showpiece.
Bunting will open tomorrow night’s event against world number three Gian Van Veen in the quarter-finals.
Littler faces current table-topper Van Gerwen in a rematch of last week’s semi-final.
The two Merseyside stars are on opposite sides of the draw so will only meet in the final if both progress past their opening opponents and the semi-finals as they look to put pressure on the playoffs in the early weeks of the campaign.
(Featured Image used free under licence from Alamy Images)
