Michael van Gerwen began his bid for a record-extending eighth Premier League title with victory over fellow Dutchman Gian van Veen on Night One in Newcastle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven-time Premier League champion Van Gerwen failed to register a solitary nightly win in last year’s competition, but he made the perfect start to his 2026 campaign with victory at the Utilita Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutch superstar recorded successive 6-2 wins over Stephen Bunting and Luke Humphries in advancing to Thursday’s showpiece, rattling off six straight legs to dispatch Bunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three-time World Champion then converted six of his eight attempts at double to dump out reigning champion Humphries, wrapping up proceedings with consecutive ton-plus finishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Gerwen continued from where he left off against Van Veen, storming to the opening two legs in 28 darts, before his younger compatriot halved the deficit with a 14-dart hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Veen then missed a hat-trick of opportunities to restore parity in leg four, although he responded to a 12-darter from Van Gerwen in leg six with a 110 checkout to reduce the arrears to 4-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Gerwen then squandered multiple darts of his own to close out victory in leg nine, but he made amends moments later, following up a sixth 180 by pinning double 14 to seal the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Without playing my A-game I still won, but I had some fantastic finishes at the right moments,” reflected Van Gerwen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I know I can do a lot better than this, but winning gives you confidence. Winning games is the best medicine for performing better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s always nice to respond well. At the World Masters I had some issues at home, so I had to deal with that, and to bounce back with a win here in Newcastle, it means a lot to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but as long as I keep tht in mind, anything is possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite missing out on a nightly victory on debut, Van Veen also enjoyed a night to remember in Newcastle, defeating Luke Littler and Jonny Clayton to reach Thursday’s showpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Veen avenged his defeat to Littler in last month’s World Championship final with a hard-fought 6-4 win, before defeating 2021 champion Clayton by the same scoreline in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in the night, Clayton marked his return to the Premier League fold with a majestic 6-2 success against Josh Rock, averaging 109.81 to triumph in this year’s curtain-raiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humphries, meanwhile, began his defence of the title with a deciding-leg victory over 2023 runner-up Gerwyn Price, surviving two match darts in a dramatic finale, despite averaging north of 104.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Night Two of the BetMGM Premier League will take place at the AFAS Dome in Antwerp next Thursday, as the darting roadshow visits Belgium for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world’s top two Littler and Humphries lock horns in the evening’s opener, before Night One winner Van Gerwen takes on Rock for a place in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, Clayton faces Bunting, while Van Veen and Price also go head-to-head on Belgian soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS Semi-Finals Final Michael van Gerwen began his bid for a record-extending eighth Premier League title with victory over fellow Dutchman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-9049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen.jpg",2000,1333,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen.jpg",2000,1333,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIchael-van-Gerwen.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9051,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9049\/revisions\/9051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Quarter-Finals<\/strong>
Jonny Clayton 6-2 Josh Rock
Gian van Veen 6-4 Luke Littler
Luke Humphries 6-5 Gerwyn Price
Michael van Gerwen 6-2 Stephen Bunting<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Gian van Veen 6-4 Jonny Clayton
Michael van Gerwen 6-2 Luke Humphries<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Gian van Veen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"