Luke Humphries proposes major darts change after Gerwyn Price complaint

Luke Humphries has suggested that Premier League Darts could benefit from a revamped format after Gerwyn Price admitted that he 'did not enjoy' this year's competition. Price won only seven matches in 16 weeks of action, finishing miles off the play-off pace before the top-four did battle at the O2 Arena last week.

It was the Humphries and Luke Littler show in London as they each won their respective play-off semi-finals to set up a blockbuster showdown. With Littler top and Humphries four points behind, they finished one and two in what was their debut Premier League campaign.

But it was Littler who prevailed in the final, hitting a stunning nine-darter to spark wild celebrations en route to his 11-7 victory. The £275,000 cash prize will naturally have made 'The Nuke' feel as though four months of taxing competition were worthwhile.

Price, who recently endorsed the Premier League moving to Saudi Arabia due to the 'drunk hooligans' in UK crowds, wasn't so positive. "Happy that's done and dusted," he wrote on Instagram. "End of the Premier League for me. Would love to say I've enjoyed it but I'd be lying."

The Premier League's current format sees the eight competitors drawn in a quarter-final each week, before two semi-finals and a final are played on the same night. Players are awarded two points for a quarter-final win, one more for a semi-final victory and five in total for winning the week overall, before the top four players compete in the play-offs for one night only.

Fresh from his impressive runner-up finish, Humphries feels as though the league could benefit from bringing two more players on board and taking a similar approach to golf's FedEx Cup. "I actually had a good suggestion that maybe they could do a league format where everyone plays each other once for the 10 players," he told SportsBoom.

"So, nine games we play each other once, then two get relegated and then go to the league mini-tournament format back to what we're doing now.

"It could work like the FedEx Cup, you’d have the first phase with 10 players, and then start again with the different format for phase two, with the person who won topping the table starting on eight points, and so on. If you finish top, you see the rewards."

While Humphries supports the idea of an expanded Premier League line-up, he rejected the idea of it being made twice as big, which would give fans more darts action to sink their teeth into while allowing organisers to capitalise on the 'Littler effect', with the teenager drawing millions of fresh eyes to the sport.

"16 players would be too many because then it gets to the point where it's not that elite," explained the 29-year-old. "It wouldn't be an elite competition that feels hard to get into. 10 [players] would be a good idea if we’re keeping a league format."