7-for-7

by Rick Nash

It's been a rough few weeks.

First off, there was the painfully close bet that I wrote about in my last blog, which went EXACTLY to script (handicaps and all) aside from the first handicap of Italy (+14) costing me everything by a total of THREE POINTS! Even the outcome would've been fine if they'd either stopped one try from crossing the line or gotten across it themselves. United covered the (-1.0) handicap against QPR, Ronda Rousey finished in the 1st round with 11 seconds to go. Even my throwaway 'West Brom over Sunderland' bet, that I only added in to pad out the accumulator and make it interesting financially, came in with relative ease.

Fuck off Wales.

Following that? A darts accy that started exactly to script, with Robert Thornton easing to victory over Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen overcoming a slow start to pip Andy Hamilton, before going to absolute shit on the Phil Taylor match that you'd assume would be a banker (Taylor even led 6-5 and had darts for the match before being pegged back to a 6-6 draw with James Wade).

With last Saturday came further taunting: QPR opened the scoring against Southampton before the Saints, the home side, equalised and pushed forward in the second half. Man Utd and Everton had their games sewn up, while Swansea and Newcastle were still goalless, meaning one goal from Southampton would have me in the money. This was my time!

Then QPR scored. Then Swansea scored. And, in a matter of minutes, I go from genius to money-losing dickhead.

But let's not give up just yet. As I explained in the last blog, I am but one €10 victory away from winning the accumulator for the season (based on 38 weeks of €5 bets during the football calendar, giving me a total stake of €190 for the season. I won €180 on a treble in October. The darts bets are separate, with me getting over the line at €70 there).

Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over-and-over and expecting different results. We're going to try something slightly different this time around, so, going 7-for-7 on the week's accumulator. Seven reasonable bets over seven days, spanning a total of four different sports.

Premier League Darts Quick Picks

by Rick Nash

Ignore the MVG hype, put your money on the unbeatable Barney

I've loved the first two weeks of the new-look Darts Premier League. The shorter format (without a break in play) has given games a new leash of life, as matches are now blink-and-you'll-miss-it and players are punished for poor starts with little chance of recovery. This leaves favourites like Phil Taylor vulnerable and 'The Power' is fortunate to still be second after having to come from behind in Week One to draw with a sickened Michael Van Gerwen.

That said, the league is taking shape and now is the time to start feeling somewhat confident in your accumulators. The short format still leaves upsets likely, but at least we now have a feel as to how the players are finding form (or not) in front of the big crowds.

As for tonight, I didn't have the bottle to pick between Andy Hamilton and Gary Anderson, simply because in this kind of inconsistent form they're essentially the same player: either a mess or unstoppable depending on whether a crucial double goes their way or not. We've no idea what to expect from either from week-to-week, so given that both are paired together tonight I'll take it as a hint to avoid, avoid, avoid. Let's get to brief quick picks before I'm back later with a full column and the weekend's accumulator tips.

Premier League Darts Preview

by Rick Nash

This week, we switch attention briefly to darts, to mark the start of a new-look Premier League format that kicks off this Thursday in Belfast (and journeys to The O2, Dublin on April 18th with six matches scheduled to take place).

Hardcore darts fans have grown tired of the Premier League in recent years and, it has to be said, it's not an opinion without merit.

For a start, due to the fact that it is an invitation-based tournament (only the top four in the world qualify by rank), it also means that it's essentially meaningless when it comes to ranking points on the PDC Order of Merit. Not to mention the fact that it's looooonnngg: the tournament spans 15 weeks, with 14 devoted to the league itself (formerly of 8 players meeting each other twice; with the top 4 then qualifying for a one-night 'Playoffs' tournament to decide the champion) and, due to the nature of darts, form tends to ebb and flow over the course of those weeks, unlike the exciting nature of Open tournament whereby an off-night could see you out of the running altogether.

This has led to the dominance of one Phil 'The Power' Taylor over the years, the reigning champion who has won all but two tournaments since the format was introduced in 2005. Taylor, in fact, went undefeated in his first 44 games in the tournament before eventually being stopped in 2008 by James Wade. However the long format generally allows players who suffer a dip in form to regress to the mean, allowing the best players to consistently come out on top and making an already-long process seem predictable to boot.

Realising this, the PDC has freshened up the format, introducing an additional two players to the fray, reducing the length of games from 'Best of 14' to 'Best of 12' and introducing 'relegation' where the bottom players don't actually get relegated to any lower league, but instead just drop out of the league altogether after week 9. The shorter format could be a bonus, making it more likely that longer-form players like Taylor will lose more regularly, or a negative in that a lot of matches will end up as draws with players not having time to establish any kind of rhythm or dominance. It remains to be seen.

The case for the Premier League, and I remain a fan myself because of this, is as follows: