Luke Littler can retain Premier League title as teenager’s darting domination continues

Luke Littler’s World Darts Championship final demolition of Michael van Gerwen is still fresh in the memory as the start of this year’s Premier League tournament beckons in Belfast and The Nuke is the justified hot favourite to defend his title at the grand final in May.

Littler only turned 18 on January 21 but was already worth his weight in gold after finishing runner-up to Luke Humphries in the 2024 final at the Alexandra Palace in London before totting up double-figure successes in PDC events including the Grand Slam and World Series finals as well as taking the Premier League crown at the first attempt.

The teenager wiped out Humphries on that occasion last May and although he remains top of the world rankings it has to be said Cool Hand has lost some of his lustre since joining Phil Taylor as the only player to have won both a world title and the World Matchplay in the same year.

Humphries suffered a surprising defeat to Michael De Decker in the World Grand Prix decider before failing to advance from the group stages of the Grand Slam of Darts and losing to Peter Wright at the world championship.

Van Gerwen has to be reckoned with, despite falling in a one-sided final to Littler at the Ally Pally, as he is seeking to extend his record of seven Premier League titles while Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Nathan Aspinall and debutants Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey make up the rest of the field – who will be playing every Thursday until a couple of days before the Champions League final with £1million in prize money up for grabs.

Littler is no bigger than 11/8 with bet365, Unibet and BetMGM to successfully defend his grip on the trophy and it’s worth backing the fast-improving Liverpudlian Bunting each-way at 16/1 with Betfred as the crowd favourite may well be best of the rest.

Welshman Price, well known for his love of greyhounds having enjoyed success with his racers, will expect to be fast out of the traps in Belfast where he threw two nine-darters on the opening night three years ago. 

The Iceman is 4/6 across the board to beat Dobey this week and should be put in a double with Bunting, who is 8/11 with StarSports to defeat Cross.

France can add to England’s Six Nations woes

England suffered a dispiriting Six Nations defeat in Dublin when they were followed their trend at the autumn internationals by blowing a 10-5 half-time lead against Ireland with a 27-22 loss which wasn’t really as close as the score suggests.

Yes there were positives for take from the performance, but playing France next with generational talent Antoine Dupont in full flow after leading Les Bleus to a devastating 43-0 win against woeful Wales in Paris on Friday won’t fill any home fans at Twickenham with much glee.

France are 10/11 with bet365 to win by over 5.5 points and that can be doubled up with a wager on over 43.5 points in the outing at the same price with the same firm.

Ireland are also 10/11 to win by more than 5.5 points with bet365 when they travel to Murrayfield to face Scotland, who rather flattered in their 31-19 victory at home to Italy on Saturday.

The Azzurri are 2/5 favourites to beat Wales in Rome which shows how far the 2021 grand slam champions have sunk in recent years and the Italians are 10/11 with bet365 to win by more than 6.5 points.

• Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy has developed into a trusted target for Patrick Mahomes’ accurate passes into the end zone and he is 10/1 with BetMGM to score the first touchdown in Sunday’s Super Bowl and 8/5 to do so at any time.

Philadelphia Eagles wideout DeVonta Smith is 13/1 with the same firm to be the first to put six points on the board in New Orleans and 2/1 to haul in a TD at some stage in the showpiece. Worthy is 9/10 to haul in receptions totalling more than 56.5 yards while Smith is 17/20 to grab passes for more than 49.5 yards, both, again, with BetMGM.

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