PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf assesses the top ten PDC stars - based on their last 200 legs played - ahead of this week's BetMGM Premier League action and the 2024 Ladbrokes UK Open...
#1 Averages - Gary Anderson
#1 OChE - Gary Anderson
#1 Doubles - Ryan Joyce
#1 171-180 - Gary Anderson
#1 99, 101+ Checkout - Brendan Dolan
Michael van Gerwen is flying high at the top the Premier League table, but you'd never know it from the name who boasts top spot on the Form Guide.
At age 53 - eight years since winning his second World Championship title - Gary Anderson has set a new record for scoring power on the Form Guide, in addition to placing #1 in both averages and OChE rating.
With 98 three-treble visits recorded over his last 200 legs, Anderson now holds the record for the most maxima recorded in the Form Guide after a remarkable week on the ProTour circuit.
Having set a further record for tournament average as a Players Championship runner-up, Anderson is more than four points clear of third-place Michael van Gerwen in averages, and an astonishing 7.5 points superior in his leg-winning efficiency.
Though Ryan Searle has never appeared in the Premier League, his appearance in three consecutive ProTour finals this February attracted attention both for the calibre of opponents he faced and for the resolve with which he faced them.
A 111.71 average was not quite enough to topple teenage superstar Luke Littler in Players Championship 1, but a 107.63 average a week later got him over the line against Anderson and his aforementioned record-breaking form.
Searle, ranked 18th on the PDC Order of Merit, shows the potential to ascend well beyond that current position, not least on the back of his #3 doubles percentage among Tour Card Holders and #5 OChE rating.
Peter Wright's Premier League campaign showed signs of life this past Thursday, with the Scot taking Littler to a deciding leg in Newcastle, punishing multiple handfuls of 'The Nuke's missed doubles with a 103 average.
That reversion to world-class performance is reflected in the Form Guide, as Wright - who had fallen below a 90 average for his last 200 legs at the end of January - experienced the second-largest increase in February among Tour Card Holders.
Following a difficult start to 2024, Wright now finds himself once again in the top 25% of players for winning efficiency.
A surprising name has returned to the top ten of the Form Guide - Belgium's Mike De Decker. A 97.63 average over his last 200 legs puts him in good company, although the 28-year-old has only had disappointment to show for his impressive averages.
His 109.22 average and six three-treble visits in his first-round tie against Steve Lennon at Players Championship 4 resulted in a 6-4 loss to the Irishman.
Despite minimal earnings on the ProTour so far in 2024, De Decker is playing at a pace that would win him more than 60% of legs against his opponents on the floor, and has averaged 95+ in all but one of his matches.
After all, one can only average 109 for so long before bad luck ceases to be a factor.
*OChE (Ordinal Checkout Efficiency) explained:
OChE is a metric designed to evaluate the efficiency at which players convert their averages into legs won.
The statistic is the % of legs a player would expect to win on the ProTour, calculated from a weighted average of 4,5, 6 & 7 visit checkout rates.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia