2008 Premier League Darts


2008 Whyte & Mackay Premier League Darts
Winner
Phil Taylor
Runner-up
James Wade
Score
16–8
Date
31 January–26 May 2008
Edition
4th
Number of players
8
Venues
15
Premier League Darts
2009 >

The 2008 Whyte & Mackay Premier League was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The prize money was increased by £75,000 compared to 2007. The overall fund was £340,000 with the eventual winner taking home £100,000.
Phil Taylor continued his dominance of this tournament by taking the title for the fourth year in a row despite losing for the first time in 44 matches, losing the opening game 8–6 to newcomer James Wade and going on to lose twice more in his first four matches. Taylor beat Wade 16–8 in the final.
Sky Sports secured television coverage of the event until 2010, and Whyte & Mackay sponsored the tournament for the same duration – taking over from Holsten who sponsored the event in 2006 and 2007.

Qualifiers

The World Grand Prix in October 2007 was the cut-off point for automatic qualification for the event. The top six players in the World Rankings after the tournament received an automatic place in the Premier League. The qualifiers were thus:

Glasgow Plymouth Manchester Coventry Bournemouth
SECC
31 January
Plymouth Pavilions
7 February
MEN Arena
14 February
Ricoh Arena
21 February
Bournemouth International Centre
28 February
Nottingham Sheffield Brighton Birmingham Aberdeen
Trent FM Arena
6 March
Sheffield Arena
13 March
Brighton Centre
20 March
National Indoor Arena
27 March
AECC
3 April
Liverpool London Belfast Newcastle Cardiff
Echo Arena Liverpool
10 April
Wembley Arena
17 April
Odyssey Arena
24 April
Metro Radio Arena
1 May
Cardiff International Arena
26 May

Prize money

The prize fund increases for 2008 – with the top prize of £100,000 matching the amount that the 2008 PDC World Champion received. The guaranteed prize for reaching the Premier League is now £20,000.

Results

League Stage

31 January – Week 1

SECC, Glasgow

7 February – Week 2

Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth

14 February – Week 3

MEN Arena, Manchester

21 February – Week 4

Ricoh Arena, Coventry

28 February – Week 5

Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth

6 March – Week 6

Trent FM Arena, Nottingham

13 March – Week 7

Sheffield Arena, Sheffield

20 March – Week 8

Brighton Centre, Brighton

27 March – Week 9

National Indoor Arena, Birmingham
† = Terry Jenkins replaced Adrian Lewis on 27 March show against Phil Taylor because Lewis was too ill to play. The next week, Lewis played his match against Taylor and James Wade, giving Jenkins the night off.

3 April – Week 10

AECC, Aberdeen

10 April – Week 11

Echo Arena, Liverpool

17 April – Week 12

Wembley Arena, London

24 April – Week 13

Odyssey Arena, Belfast

1 May – Week 14

Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne

Play-offs – 26 May

Cardiff International Arena, Cardiff

Table and Streaks

Table

NB: LWAT = Legs Won Against Throw. Players separated by +/- leg difference if tied.

Streaks

NB: W = Won
D = Drawn
L = Lost
N/A = Did Not Play

Player statistics

The following statistics are for the league stage only. Playoffs are not included.

Phil Taylor