"It's totally unfair" - Vincent van der Voort is not a fan of playoffs in Premier League Darts

In Premier League Darts, fifteen of the sixteen nights have now been completed in the regular phase. With one matchday to go, three players with Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price are already sure of a place in the playoffs. The battle for the fourth and final ticket is between Nathan Aspinall and Michael van Gerwen.

On the final day of play next Thursday in Sheffield, Van Gerwen and Aspinall will take on each other in the quarterfinals. For Aspinall, a win in that match is enough to qualify for the playoffs, Van Gerwen must win the matchday. A week later the playoffs will be completed, where in one semifinal the number one in the standings will take on the number four. In the other semifinal, the numbers two and three play each other. The winners then take on each other in the finals.

That it will be decided during the playoffs who wins the Premier League Darts arouses frustration among former professional darts player Vincent van der Voort. "It's totally unfair, but otherwise the Premier League Darts would be finished by now," Van der Voort said in the podcast 'Darts Draait Door'. "You don't want that either. But of course it is. If you're on top after 16 weeks, you've actually been the best in Premier League Darts. Only on that one night everything can go wrong."

"It's all commercial that final day," Van der Voort continued. "That's what it's all about. Actually, it's very unfair, but it's the way it is. This is how they (the PDC) made it up. You know all the pressure is on that one night."

Van der Voort also cites the example of the Dutch soccer league. "If you had now done that the first four clubs had to play a semifinal and final and only then the winner would be champion.... Again, that's not very fair. You can't get it absolutely perfect."

Podcast host Damian Vlottes then suggested that the numbers one and two in the standings could have some kind of advantage, for example, he would consider it a good idea that they be allowed to start the match first anyway (now they are thrown to the bull prior to the match for that). "I think that's a good idea," Van der Voort concluded.