Luke Littler’s been lights out, Luke Humphries has also been on fire but Michael Van Gerwen is the one to beat in the Premier League Darts play-offs.
The flying Dutchman has won four times so far, starting with night two in Berlin, a week later in Glasgow and then on night three in Newcastle.
He lost to Littler in the night ten final in Manchester but triumphed again in Birmingham the following week.
MVG fell at the final hurdle in Leeds on night 15 when hometown hero Humphries took the deciding leg, and lost 6-3 to the defending world champion in the semi-finals in the last of the regular-season encounters at Sheffield.
Van Gerwen faces Humphries in the semi-finals at the 02 Arena in London but while he has a big task to overcome recent results, MVG and Premier League Darts play-off success are like Premier League titles and Manchester City.
He has lifted the trophy seven times, one shy of the record held by Phil Taylor, and is as good as it gets if he clicks into his devastating best.
Van Gerwen is 15/8 with Betfair and Paddy Power to beat Humphries while Littler is evens with the same firms, Sky Bet and Betfred to win the race to ten legs in the other semi-final by more than 2.5 legs.
Van Gerwen is 4/1 with bet365 to win his eighth title and it is 13/2 with William Hill for the winning double to be ten. That’s not a bad price, especially if Van Gerwen falters and Littler needs his favourite finish to claim the £275,000 jackpot.
As for the semis, it’s unlikely either player will be blown away in the MVG/Humphries battle and over 16.5 legs is 11/10 with Paddy Power and Betfair.
In the other last-four affair Littler is 10/11 with Sky Bet and Betfred to hit more 180s than his opponent Michael Smith.
• Bayer Leverkysen can move closer to completing an outstanding treble by winning the Europa League final against Atalanta at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. The Bundesliga champions, who face Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final on Saturday, have not lost a match in all competitions this season and are 17/20 to win in normal time with BetMGM and BetUK. Leverkusen to win and both teams to score is 16/5 with Betfair and Florian Wirtz is 8/1 with Betfair to score the first goal and 10/3 with bet365 to do so at any time.
• Gloucester will fall victim to a Sharks attack when they bid to win a third European Challenge Cup at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday. The South African side from Durban are 4/6 to triumph with Ladbrokes and book a place in next season’s Champions Cup.
MORE : Martin Keown says ‘desperate’ Unai Emery cost Arsenal the Premier League title
MORE : ‘Idiot’ Ferrari fans apologise to Max Verstappen after he gave them the middle finger at Imola
MORE : Luke Littler misses out as Luke Humphries names best two darts players in the world