How does Premier League Darts work?

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Emma Middleton

BBC Sport journalist

55 minutes ago

Luke Littler is back to defend his Premier League Darts title, now with a PDC World Championship win under his belt.

The eight-player elite tournament starts on Thursday, 6 February, with weekly fixtures building towards the final in London on Thursday, 29 May.

You can follow live text commentary from each match day on the BBC Sport website.

What is the Premier League?

It is an annual tournament contested by eight players, run by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

The top four in the world rankings qualify automatically and four others are selected as ‘wildcard’ entries.

The tournament has been going since 2005 and has a £1m prize pot.

How does the Premier League darts work?

Every Thursday, the eight players go head-to-head in a straight knockout tournament. So, each player will be entered at the quarter-final stage, before moving to the semi-finals and then a final.

These matches are all played over the best of 11 legs (or games of darts).

Players take home points from each of these rounds. The winner of the night gets five points, the runner-up three points, and each semi-finalist wins two points.

All eight players are re-entered into the tournament for the next round on the following Thursday.

The players will meet each other once at the quarter-final stage from weeks one to seven, and then again in weeks nine to 15. The matches in weeks eight and 16 will be played based on position in the league at that point.

The four players at the top of the table by the end of night 16 qualify for the final play-offs, which take place on Thursday, 29 May.

The semi-finals of the play-offs are played over 19 legs, while the winner is crowned in a final match played across the best of 21 legs.

Is Luke Littler playing?

Luke Littler makes his return to the Premier League as the defending champion, having defeated Luke Humphries to win his first major PDC title in 2024.

Humphries joins the line-up alongside PDC World Championship runner-up Michael van Gerwen, and Rob Cross, who won the Dutch Masters last month.

All four players qualified through the PDC Order of Merit, the world ranking system for professional darts players.

The remaining four players – Stephen Bunting, Chris Dobey, Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price – were handed ‘wildcard’ entries.

The PDC told BBC Sport its board of directors “discusses a range of factors” when deciding who gets a wildcard place, including “form, achievements, whether a player is considered ‘ready’ for the Premier League, their experience and profile”.

Michael van Gerwen is the most successful Premier League player of all time with seven titles.