Premier League Darts: Michael Smith beats Gerwyn Price to win ...

Smith missed two match darts in the eighth leg before sealing a one-sided final to earn the maximum five points.

Seven-time winner Van Gerwen said before the competition he was "still the player to beat", but he lost in his quarter-final against Smith in a sloppy deciding leg.

Smith also won in a deciding leg against Littler who was clearly the favourite with the crowd.

"I actually thought in the semi-final Luke Littler was Welsh," said Smith, the 2023 world champion.

"It's going to be every week, it doesn't matter where it is.

"Everyone's fallen in love with him. He's even bigger than Phil Taylor who won 16 world titles, Luke is the most popular thing in darts."

The 17-year-old had beaten Luke Humphries in a quarter-final which was a rematch of the 2024 PDC World Championship final.

This time Littler got the better of Humphries, an outcome which looked likely early into their match as the 17-year-old twice broke the world champion on the way to a 6-2 win.

Littler averaged 100.30 against Humphries, and backed that up with a 105.31 average against Smith - the highest of the evening.

But it was not enough for the Bahrain Masters winner on his Premier League debut, as he missed one dart at double 15 to win the game before Smith snatched victory.