2022 Premier League Darts

The 2022 Cazoo Premier League Darts is an ongoing darts tournament, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation – the eighteenth edition of the tournament. The event began on Thursday 3 February 2022, at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, and is scheduled to end with the play-offs, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin on Monday 13 June 2022.[1]

2022 Cazoo Premier League Darts
Dates
3 February – 13 June 2022
Edition
18th
Number of players
8
Venues
17
Nine Dart Finish
 Gerwyn Price (x2)
Premier League Darts
< 2021 | 2022 | 2023 >

Jonny Clayton is the reigning champion after defeating José de Sousa 11–5 in the 2021 final.[2]

On Night 3, Gerwyn Price hit nine-dart finishes in consecutive matches (in his semi-final against Michael van Gerwen and the final against James Wade), making him the second person in Premier League history to hit two nine-darters on the same night, after Phil Taylor, who did both of his in the 2010 Premier League Darts final against Wade.

This tournament also saw see the beginning of the PDC's new partnership with Winmau as their dartboard supplier.[3]

Format

On 14 January 2022, the PDC announced a new format for the Premier League. Instead of the previously used round robin format, the event consists of an eight-person knockout bracket every night. Each of the seven matches is played over the best-of-11 legs. The players are guaranteed to meet each other once in the quarter-finals throughout the first seven weeks and once in the quarterfinals in weeks 9–15, with weeks 8 and 16 being drawn based on the league standings at that point. Players receive two points per semi-final finish, three points per runner-up finish, and five points per final win.[4]

Though it is assured that players meet each other only twice in the quarter-finals on regular nights (i.e. weeks 1–7 and 9–15), no other guarantees are made. So certain players were drawn onto the same semi-final branch more often than others. For example while Price–Wright, van Gerwen–Anderson and Wade–Smith pairs are on the same branch only when they play each other in the quarter-finals, a Wright–Anderson and van Gerwen–Smith final is possible only twice on the regular 14 nights.

Following the regular phase, the top four players in the league table contest the two knockout semi-finals with 1st playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd.

Venues

2022 will see the return of the Brighton Centre, which was last used as a Premier League venue in 2017.

Locations of the 2022 Premier League venues in the UK and Ireland.
Other locations of the 2022 Premier League venues in Europe.
Cardiff Liverpool Belfast Exeter
Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
Thursday 3 February		 M&S Bank Arena
Thursday 10 February		 SSE Arena Belfast
Thursday 17 February		 Westpoint Arena
Thursday 3 March
Brighton Nottingham Rotterdam Birmingham
Brighton Centre
Thursday 10 March		 Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
Thursday 17 March		 Rotterdam Ahoy
Thursday 24 March		 Utilita Arena Birmingham
Thursday 31 March
Leeds Manchester Aberdeen Dublin
First Direct Arena
Thursday 7 April		 AO Arena
Thursday 14 April		 P&J Live
Thursday 21 April		 3Arena
Thursday 28 April
Glasgow Sheffield London Newcastle
OVO Hydro
Thursday 5 May		 Utilita Arena Sheffield
Thursday 12 May		 The O2
Thursday 19 May		 Utilita Arena Newcastle
Thursday 26 May
Berlin
Mercedes-Benz Arena
Monday 13 June

Prize money

The prize money for the 2022 tournament will increase to £1 million, including a £10,000 bonus to each night's winner.[5][6]

StagePrize Money
Winner£275,000
Runner-up£125,000
Semi-finalists (x2)£85,000
5th place£75,000
6th place£70,000
7th place£65,000
8th place£60,000
Weekly Winner Bonus (x16)£10,000
Total£1,000,000

Players

Usually, the top four players in the PDC Order of Merit following the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship would be joined by six invited players, of which they would have been announced following the World Championship final. However, this year, following the announcement of the new format, it was announced that only 8 players will participate in 2022.

It was revealed that the new format would encompass eight players, each playing against each other in a knockout tournament each night. The winner of each night would receive an additional £10,000 towards their prize money. Those who make it out of the last 8 each receive 2 points, the runner-up will receive 3 points and the winner receives 5.

The full list of players was announced on 31 January 2022, with the Top 6 players on the PDC Order of Merit joined by the reigning Premier League champion Jonny Clayton, and debutant Joe Cullen, fresh from winning his first televised title at the Masters the previous evening.[7]

This new format sees “Judgement Night” and relegation disappear from the league, as had been the case for the 9 tournaments previously.

Player Appearance in
Premier League		 Consecutive
Streak		 Order of Merit
Rank on 31/1/22		 Previous best performance
 Gerwyn Price 4th 1[lower-alpha 1] 1 5th Place (2019, 2020)
 Peter Wright 9th 9 2 Runner-up (2017)
 Michael van Gerwen 10th 10 3 Winner (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
 James Wade 12th 2 4 Winner (2009)
 Michael Smith 5th 1 5 Runner-up (2018)
 Gary Anderson 11th 3[lower-alpha 2] 6 Winner (2011, 2015)
 Jonny Clayton 2nd 2 8 Winner (2021)
 Joe Cullen 1st 1 11 Debut
  1. Price qualified for the 2021 Premier League Darts, but withdrew following a positive COVID-19 test.
  2. Anderson qualified for the 2019 Premier League Darts, but withdrew following an injury.

League stage

    13 June – Play-offs

    Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin

    Score
    Semi-finals (best of 19 legs)
     – 
     – 
    Final (best of 21 legs)
     – 
    Night's Total Average:
    Highest Checkout:  
    Most 180s (in one match):  
    Night's 180s:

    Table and streaks

    Table

    Five points are awarded for a night win, three points for the runner-up and two points for the semi-finalists. When players are tied on points, leg difference is used first as a tie-breaker, after that legs won against throw and then tournament average.

    Standings after 13 nights [lower-alpha 1]

    Pos Name Nights Matches Legs Scoring
    Pts W RU SF QF Pld W L LF LA LD LWAT 100+ 140+ 180 A HC CR C%
    1  Jonny Clayton (Q) 34 4 2 4 3 29 20 9 147 121 +26 47 355 211 80 98.64 142 147/351 42%
    2  Michael van Gerwen 28 3 3 2 5 27 17 10 144 105 +39 51 274 163 78 99.61 170 138/360 38%
    3  James Wade 25 2 3 3 5 26 15 11 121 118 +3 36 345 186 43 95.02 161 121/275 44%
    4  Peter Wright 20 1 1 6 5 23 11 12 104 110 –6 31 283 180 63 97.33 156 104/265 39%
    5  Joe Cullen 15 1 2 2 8 21 9 12 94 102 –8 34 196 91 62 91.91 145 88/238 37%
    6  Gerwyn Price 13 1 0 4 8 18 7 11 78 92 –14 28 194 124 34 96.40 170 78/211 37%
    7  Michael Smith 12 0 2 3 8 20 7 13 85 96 –11 23 197 121 56 96.98 150 85/195 44%
    8  Gary Anderson 9 1 0 2 10 16 5 11 67 84 –17 18 189 82 36 94.50 164 67/160 42%
    1. wins after withdrawals (Cullen's 6–0 over Price on Night 5 and van Gerwen's 6–0 over Anderson on Night 9) do count towards Cullen's and van Gerwen's standings, but not towards Price's and Anderson's standings, resulting in an uneven ratio of games won and lost, plus in an overall league leg difference of +12.

    (Q) Qualified for the playoffs

    (E) Eliminated

    Streaks
    Player Nights
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Play-offs
     Jonny Clayton RU W QF QF SF QF SF W SF SF W RU W
     Michael van Gerwen QF SF SF W W QF RU QF W QF RU QF RU
     James Wade SF QF RU SF QF QF QF RU RU W SF W QF
     Peter Wright W QF SF RU QF SF SF SF SF QF SF QF QF
     Joe Cullen QF RU QF QF SF QF W SF QF RU QF QF QF
     Gerwyn Price QF SF W QF WD SF QF QF QF SF QF SF QF
     Michael Smith QF QF QF SF RU RU QF QF QF QF QF SF SF
     Gary Anderson SF QF QF QF QF W QF QF WD QF QF QF SF
    Legend: WDWithdrewQFLost in QuarterfinalsSFSemi-finalistRURunner-upWNight winner

    Positions by Week
    Player Nights
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
     Jonny Clayton 2 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1
     Michael van Gerwen 5 4 5 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2
     James Wade 4 7 4 5 5 7 8 5 4 3 4 3 3
     Peter Wright 1 2 3 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 3 4 4
     Joe Cullen 8 3 6 6 6 8 4 4 5 5 5 5 5
     Gerwyn Price 7 5 2 4 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6
     Michael Smith 6 8 8 8 7 5 6 7 7 7 7 7 7
     Gary Anderson 3 6 7 7 8 6 7 8 8 8 8 8 8

    References
    1. "Cazoo Premier League". PDC. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
    2. Banks, Jamie. "Clayton caps amazing debut season with Unibet Premier League glory". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
    3. Allen, Dave. "Record deal announced as PDC & Winmau team up". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
    4. Allen, Dave. "Every Match Matters". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
    5. "PDC chairman Hearn announces record prize money for 2022". PDC. PDC.
    6. "2022 Cazoo Premier League Night One preview". PDC. Josh Phillips.
    7. Phillips, Josh. "Cullen to make debut as 2022 Cazoo Premier League line-up confirmed". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
    8. "Price withdraws from Cazoo Premier League in Brighton". PDC. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
    9. "Anderson withdraws from Cazoo Premier League in Leeds". PDC. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
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