Luke Littler v Stephen Bunting: Prediction, Tips and Odds

The 2025 Premier League reaches the halfway point at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Thursday night and that means the evening kicks off with a quarter-final between two players heading in very different directions.

The Night 8 card sees top play bottom, second play seventh, third meet sixth and fourth take on fifth - and that means rock-bottom Stephen Bunting faces the daunting task of trying to halt runaway leader and reigning champion Luke Littler.

And at odds of 1/6 The Nuke, it is clear where the balance of power lies.

Luke Littler v Stephen Bunting betting tips and predictions

Stephen Bunting 180s Handicap +1.5 - 10/11

Stephen Bunting messaged his fans on social media last week after crashing to a 6-2 defeat at the hands of Chris Dobey on Night 7 in Cardiff.

It was a seventh straight defeat for The Bullet, who is bottom of the table, 12 points outside the top four and surely resigned to the fact that he won't be in the play-offs in May.

The loss to Dobey was also Bunting's worst performance yet, a match in which he failed to land 15 of his 17 attempts at double.

Bunting is an emotional figure and is clearly feeling the heat as his campaign disintegrates, and that was evident in the apology he issued to his followers after Thursday's latest setback.

The problem for the likeable former Lakeside world champion is that there is no hiding place and he is back in the cauldron this week, trying for the eighth time to finally get some points on the board.

That would be hard enough against most players given his frame of mind. But against Luke Littler surely it is Mission Impossible.

That is certainly the view if price is your guide with The Bullet on offer at 4/1, quite the price in a race-to-six legs, especially given that he beat Littler at the Dutch Darts Masters in January on his way to the final.

But that was before the Premier League kicked in and the trauma that has gone with that, while Littler was still finding his feet in January as a newly-crowned world champion. Since that loss to Bunting, the 18-year-old has gone on to win the UK Open, Belgian Open and has won three Premier League mini-leagues, most recently last week in Cardiff.

I think we can safely say he has found his feet.

Littler is short enough at 1/6 and there will be a temptation to lump on the Match Treble - Littler win, most 180s and high checkout - but it is only 11/8 and fraught with danger.

The two main dangers are that Bunting will generally only be presented with big checkouts so could plausibly nail one while he also pings his share of maximums. Even in last week's horror show against Dobey he clocked up four in eight legs.

In terms of 180s per leg, Bunting is third in the table at 2.8, and is well worth chancing on the maximums handicap at 10/11 with a 1.5 start.

Stephen Bunting 3-Dart Match Average - 95.5 or More - 4/5

Bunting's double trouble against Dobey last week manifested itself in a final match average of 87.05.

In the four Thursdays prior to last week's trip to Cardiff he had delivered averages in defeat of 100.49, 104.89, 97.06 and 102.11.

The highest of that quartet was on Night 4 against Littler in Exeter, a match he lost 6-3. Littler averaged 112.34.

Bunting's tournament average is 97.15 and because games involving Littler are rarely scruffy with precious little messing around on the doubles, there is good grounds for believing the Bullet will once again produce a decent average.

He missed those 15 darts at double against Dobey - chances are he won't get anywhere near 15 looks at double against Littler.

With that in mind, it should be a safe bet that Bunting, who will never stop trying, can average way over 95.5.

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Luke Littler v Stephen Bunting odds

Luke Littler - 1/6
Stephen Bunting - 4/1

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.

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