Paul Nicholson has urged the PDC to consider a two-division Premier League Darts model for 2027, arguing the sport is now too deep to keep recycling the same eight-player league phase.
The former Players Championship Finals winner and Sporting Life analyst has made the case after the 2026 Premier League ended with another high-profile Finals Night at The O2, but a regular season he believes has started to feel too familiar.
Nicholson said PDC chief executive Matt Porter’s indication that the format could be reviewed before 2027 was encouraging, then pushed for a bigger change than simply restoring relegation or elimination.
Why the two-division plan matters
In his Sporting Life column, Nicholson proposed a Premier League with two divisions, potentially 16 players split into two groups of eight, with four matches from each division staged every Thursday night.
The argument lands at a sharp point in the PDC cycle. Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen remain the obvious box-office anchors, but Nicholson highlighted the growing claims of players such as Wessel Nijman and Beau Greaves, plus the wider group left outside the 2026 selection.
His view is that fans would still see the biggest names in each city, while broadcasters would gain fresher match-ups across the 16-week campaign. For the PDC, the question is whether variety now matters as much as star certainty.
