Does the Premier League Darts format need changing? Darts star Damon Heta believes prestigious tournament is too repetitive

By Sporting Life

Darts

Tue May 20, 2025 · 3w ago

The Premier League Darts format has been widely criticised by fans for being too repetitive, with the eight participants playing each other many times throughout the season.

Luke Littler and Luke Humphries have now met seven times throughout the regular season, which concludes in Sheffield on Thursday night, and some argue it takes away some of the magic of what should be a special rivalry between the two best players in the world.

After all, in the days of the iconic rivalry between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld, they would only face each other two times per Premier League campaign, with plenty of build-up and anticipation before each one.

Even in tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal only faced off 40 times in an unforgettable era of around 15 years and the excitement ahead of each one was palpable.

Although darts fans inside the venues enjoy a great night of entertainment featuring seven matches and the most crowd-pleasing players on the planet, can the format survive much longer to appease the fatigued TV audience? And is it finally time for a shake up?

Australian darts star Damon Heta, who was unfortunate to miss out on a spot in this year’s line-up having climbed up into the top 10 in the world rankings and also shooting to stardom with a nine-darter at the Ally Pally, its he doesn’t even watch the Premier League and believes change is required.

Heta talks about the possibility of bringing back the concept of relegation and also whether expanding the Premier League to have two divisions would work.