A week and a half after this season’s Premier League Darts was announced, Nathan Aspinall revealed that he found out that he’d been snubbed by text.
The season begins on February 5, with automatic picks Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and fellow Dutchmen Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen joined by wild cards Stephen Bunting, Josh Rock, Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton.
Aspinall was on a plane, sitting next to “The Bullet” Bunting, when he found out. Aspinall was messaged at 3:21pm. A few minutes after, Bunting received a text saying that he was included. Aspinall said the journey home was “difficult”.
Aspinall’s “backdoor” entry into last year’s competition?
Aspinall said he felt he “backdoored it last year” and probably didn’t deserve a spot in the Premier League. Darts News’ Lucas Michael recently wrote that fans were bemused at Aspinall’s 2025 callup.
But this year Aspinall felt he would be more deserving of a place. The Englishman made it to Finals Night last year but said he would take the rough with the smooth and avoid dwelling on the omission.
In his first nightly win of last year’s Premier League, Aspinall surprised then-world No 1 Humphries 6-4. According to the current Premier league darts betting odds, Humphries is second favourite for the title. Littler is the favourite and was champion in 2024. Van Veen, and Price follow. Van Gerwen, with three World Championship trophies, is only considered an outside bet. Clayton, one of the wild cards chosen over Aspinall, is considered an unrealistic winner at 50/1.
Aspinall said the Premier League will “miss” him
Some news outlets didn’t report the less easy-going parts of Aspinall’s interview with Online Darts. The Stockport native namedropped Noppert, Price, Rock and Bunting, saying he thought he had a better season than “some of them”.
Noppert was snubbed along with Aspinall, who acknowledged that some players had to miss out.
He then said he wasn’t going to praise himself but that the Premier League will miss him this season.
Star quality
Matt Porter, Professional Darts Corporation chief executive, has previously said that “star quality” factors into their decision of wild cards. The PDC also looks at players’ ability to perform on big stages, their performances over the past 12 months, and whether their brand is suitable for the tournament.
Bunting is considered the surprise pick this year. Sky Sports Wayne Mardle said that Bunting might consider himself fortunate to make the 8-player lineup.
The top four qualify automatically each season based on their rankings in the PDC Order of Merit.
Paul Nicholson, a former Players Championship Finals winner, said that Aspinall would be the “most disappointed” among the players to have been omitted. Nicholson said that Aspinall’s exciting style and how much he gave to last season’s Premier League would mean that he would feel “very hard done by” (per dartsnews.com).
The Northumberland player described Aspinall as a fan favourite and said that everybody loves his walk-on to the song ‘Mr Brightside’. Nicholson suggested that leaving Aspinall out would have been the trickiest decision for the PDC.
Aspinall and the World No 1
Having only just turned 19, Littler started 2026 by defending the Sid Waddell Trophy. Still a teenager, he has achieved more than most players manage in the sport in their entire careers. Littler only has the Winmau World Masters and European Championship left to win of all the PDC ranked TV events.
Aspinall met Littler in November at the Players Championship Finals. Littler won 11 legs to Aspinall’s 8. They had previously met in the semi-finals of Night 16 at last year’s Premier League, where Littler defeated Aspinall 6-4 in Sheffield.
More recently, Aspinall made headlines for suggesting not all of the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters crowd were “there of their own accord”. Littler, Humphries, and van Gerwen competed at the event.
This is a submitted article written by Lucy Roberts.
