Michael van Gerwen won his fourth night of the 2024 BetMGM Premier League Darts, with the defending champion getting back to winning ways and remaining firmly in a Play-Off spot with victory on night 11 in Birmingham.

In a rematch of the night two final from Berlin, The Green Machine once again defeated Luke Littler, this time coming through a low quality final 6-3.

It means van Gerwen is now within a nightly win of regaining top spot, but the 17-year old debutant Littler, who was aiming for a third successive nightly win, is still top of the pile as the race to qualify for the Play-Offs begins to properly take shape.

MvG remains control of own destiny in Play-Off race

Both held to start the final, but MvG bust in the third leg, hitting double 15 instead of double 10. This allowed Littler to come back and hit tops, grabbing the first break and going 2-1 up. The Green Machine responded in the fourth leg, pinging a 125 to level at 2-2.

The Nuke went 3-2 up, before van Gerwen wrestled control of the match. Breaking on double 8, he hit back to back double 10s to go within one. A 95 finish saw the Dutchman over the line 6-3 to take the overall nightly victory.

Van Gerwen had won just one of his previous seven fixtures in the 2024 Premier League Darts coming into tonight. In his last eight tie, he was level 4-4 with Nathan Aspinall, but a stunning 152 checkout in the ninth leg, followed by 13 dart break on tops, saw him take the win.

In his semi final against Michael Smith, the first seven legs went on throw, before The Green Machine punished a missed dart by Bully Boy to ping 65 and go within one. The 2023 World Champion hit a 107 to get the game back on throw, but a 14 darter on double four secured the win for the seven time winner of this event.

Littler had to battle through two last leg deciders to make his third final in a row. He was 5-4 down to Rob Cross and had to survive a match dart in the tenth leg, before finding double 15 to send it all the way. A 15 dart hold got him the victory.

The teenager then went 2-0 down to Luke Humphries in his semi final, but reeled off five straight legs including hitting seven perfect darts in leg three and six perfect in leg four. The world number one reeled off three straight legs of his own to send it all the way, but having squandered two match darts prior, hit double 14 to prevail, averaging 107.28 in the process. It’s the sixth straight time Littler has beaten Humphries, five of them coming in last leg deciders.

What else happened?

Although Humphries and Smith lost in the semis, each picked up two points on the night. Cool Hand came back from 4-1 down to Peter Wright in his quarter final, winning five legs on the spin to leave the two time World Champion a massive 14 points off the Play-Off places.

The Bully Boy took on Gerwyn Price in the other quarter final. Smith raced out to a 4-0 lead, before The Iceman battled back to cut the deficit in half. In the end, the St Helens native won the game 6-3 with an 11 dart break, finishing 6/9 on the outer ring. He’s now just one point off Nathan Aspinall in fourth place, as the race to qualify for the Play-Offs at The O2 in London in May tightens up.

The 2024 BetMGM Premier League Darts makes its final stop in continental Europe next week, touching down at the Rotterdam Ahoy in the Netherlands.

2024 BetMGM Premier League Darts Night 11 Results

Utilita Arena, Birmingham

Thursday 11 April

Final

Michael van Gerwen 6-3 Luke Littler

Semi Finals

Luke Littler 6-5 Luke Humphries

Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Michael Smith

Quarter Finals

Luke Humphries 6-4 Peter Wright

Luke Littler 6-5 Rob Cross

Michael Smith 6-3 Gerwyn Price

Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Nathan Aspinall

2024 BetMGM Premier League Darts Night 12 Schedule of Play

Rotterdam Ahoy (Thursday 18 April, 1900 GMT, 2000 local time)

Michael Smith v Luke Littler

Rob Cross v Gerwyn Price

Peter Wright v Nathan Aspinall

Michael van Gerwen v Luke Humphries