Sky Sports HD screening for new-look McCoy’s Premier League Darts

Due to screen live on Sky Sports HD from February until May, this year’s McCoy’s Premier League Darts tournament will feature ten players – against the previous eight – under a new format announced by the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) on 2 January.

Michael van Gerwen, Wes Newton and Robert Thornton will all make their debuts in the tournament, which will see some of the sport’s leading stars compete across 15 nights in the UK and Ireland’s largest arenas.

The ten players will face each other once over the opening nine weeks of the tournament, over the best of 12 legs, before the bottom two players in the league table are relegated following the ninth league night in Brighton. The remaining eight players will then face each other again over the remaining five league nights before the top four progress to the Play-Offs at The O2 in London on May 16.

“This new format for the McCoy’s Premier League Darts is going to take the tournament to a whole new level,” says PDC chairman Barry Hearn.

The McCoy’s Premier League Darts will commence on 7 February at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast before travelling to Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Exeter, Nottingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Brighton for the first phase of the event. The final five league nights will be held in Sheffield, Dublin, Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle, before the Play-Offs at The O2 in London on 16 May.

Almost simultaneously with news of the new format, the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) also confirmed that Coral is to serve as the Official Betting Partner of the McCoy’s Premier League Darts.