The 2026 BetMGM Premier League Darts steps up to the oche for the first time this week in Newcastle, with an extra incentive for the eight tungsten titans doing battle.
Any player who throws a nine-dart finish over the 17 nights of competition will be rewarded with a set of 18-carat gold darts.
It is a continuation of an initiative introduced by title sponsors BetMGM during last season’s competition.
The golden arrows are hand-crafted by luxury jewellers Humphrey and Hawkins and are valued at £30,000 a set.
World No 1 Luke Littler is favourite in the odds to win 2026 Premier League Darts.
His campaign begins in Newcastle with a quarter-final against Gian van Veen, who he beat in the final of the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship.
Nine-Darters At Premier League Darts
Up until last year there had been just 16 nine-darters in the tournament’s 20-year history.
Season 21 didn’t disappoint.
There was a bumper crop of five nine-dart finishes landed during the event in 2025.
Although a nine-dart out gets the crowd pumping, it seems to put a lot of players off their game.
Luke Humphries bedded the perfect finish against Rob Cross during night five in Brighton last year but went on to lose 6-4 in their quarter-final.
Perhaps inspired, Cross repeated the feat in his semi-final with Nathan Aspinall, but also ended up as the loser by 6-5.
Luke Littler bagged the third nine-darter for 2025 while beating Michael Van Gerwen 6-4 in the final at night seven in Cardiff.
Iceman Gerwyn Price then eclipsed them all with two nine-dart hauls of his own.
During night 10 in Manchester Price demonstrated his nine-dart finesse against Littler but was beaten 6-3 in their quarter-final.
He did it again at the quarter-final stage on night 15 in Aberdeen.
Stephen Bunting watched on as Price bagged his second and the event’s fifth perfect finish for the year.
But it was Bunting who came out tops with a 6-4 win.
By the time Humphries was being crowned 2025 champion, Bet MGM had awarded five sets of golden darts to the dead-eye arrowsmiths, worth a total of £150,000.
BetMGM Betting On More Nine-Darters
PDC World Darts Champion Luke Littler is favourite to win Premier League night one in Newcastle.
He will no doubt fancy his chances of adding to his collection of 18ct gold darts with BetMGM offering the prize again this season.
The five perfect finishes in last season’s event means we have had 21 nine-darters in 21 years of Premier League Darts.
Adam Perfect, the head of Commercial at the PDC, expressed his delight that the title sponsor is back for more.
“It’s brilliant that BetMGM is running this initiative again for this year’s Premier League.
“It went down really well with the players last year and the fact we saw five nine-darters across the 17 weeks of action shows how much of an added incentive it was.”
Dan Towse, Brand Director at BetMGM, echoed those sentiments.
“With five nine-darters, the standard we saw in last year’s BetMGM Premier League was absolutely unbelievable.
“We felt it was only right to once again reward the eight players if they can thrill the crowds by hitting more in 2026.
“We were really happy with the feedback we received from the players last year about the £30,000 18ct gold darts and they act as a really interesting subplot in what is set to be another brilliant tournament.”
2026 BetMGM Premier League Darts Schedule
Matches will take place every Thursday evening from February 5 to May 28.
The League will be hosted by various venues around the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, with finals night at the O2 Arena in London.
- February 5: Night 1 – Newcastle
- February 12: Night 2 – Antwerp
- February 19: Night 3 – Glasgow
- February 26: Night 4 – Belfast
- March 5: Night 5 – Cardiff
- March 12: Night 6 – Nottingham
- March 19: Night 7 – Dublin
- March 26: Night 8 – Berlin
- April 2: Night 9 – Manchester
- April 9: Night 10 – Brighton
- April 16: Night 11 – Rotterdam
- April 23: Night 12 – Liverpool
- April 30: Night 13 – Aberdeen
- May 7: Night 14 – Leeds
- May 14: Night 15 – Birmingham
- May 21: Night 16 – Sheffield
- May 28: Finals Night – O2 Arena, London
