Premier League Darts, known for sponsorship purposes in 2024 as BetMGM Premier League Darts, is a

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

tournament which launched on 20 January 2005 on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. Now played weekly from February to May, the event originally started as a fortnightly fixture in small venues around the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The tournament originally featured seven players, gradually expanded to ten by 2013, before reduced again from 2022 to eight players from the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

circuit competing in a knockout style format, with nights also hosted in Europe at different venues. The top four players in the

PDC Order of Merit The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded ...

are joined by four wildcard selections to make up the eight-person field. Alongside the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and the World Matchplay, it is considered part of the sport's Triple Crown. While active, Phil Taylor dominated the event, winning six of the thirteen tournaments he appeared in. He went unbeaten throughout the first three seasons before

James Wade James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2010. ...

ended his 44 match run in the first match of the 2008 season. A new champion was to be crowned after Mervyn King defeated him in the 2009 semi-finals, where Wade defeated King 13–8 in the final, to pick up the £125,000 first prize. Taylor defeated Wade the following season to claim his fifth title in the competition in 2010, achieving two

nine-dart finish A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly a ...

es in the final, the only player to achieve this accomplishment. Although there have been eight overall winners of the Premier League, the league stage has been dominated by Taylor and

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number three; he was ranked world number one from 20 ...

, with Taylor topping the table for each of the first eight editions and van Gerwen winning the next seven. In 2020,

Glen Durrant Glen Durrant (born 24 November 1970), nicknamed "Duzza", is an English former professional darts player who competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Durrant is a three-time BDO World Champi ...

became the third player to finish top after all league fixtures had been completed. He went on to win the title, meaning all three players both topped the table and won the play-offs at their first attempt. In 2024, this feat was then repeated by

Luke Littler Luke Littler (born 21 January 2007) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number two. Nicknamed "the Nuke", Littler is the rei ...

who became the fourth player to both top the table following the completion of the league stage and then win the play-offs on their debut Premier League appearance. The prize fund has risen from £265,000 in the early years of the tournament, steadily increasing each year for a prize fund of £1,000,000 in 2022. The winner currently receives £275,000.

Television coverage

The matches have been broadcast on Thursday nights on

since the tournament inception. Originally the league alternated with

Premier League Snooker The Premier League Snooker was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament. It was held from 1987 until 2012. The tournament was played in a round-robin format over a number of weeks, normally from mid-September to early December, around the o ...

one week and Premier League Darts the next. From 2006, the snooker moved to late autumn – giving the Premier League darts a straight weekly run in the spring. American sports channel OLN aired the 2006 Premier League Darts season on a slight delay, in August 2006. In 2018, BBC America started airing Premier League Darts on Thursday nights. In 2020, BBC America started airing Premier League Darts on Sunday mornings. German sports channel

Sport1 Sport1 is a German free-to-air television channel centred towards sports programming, as well as teleshopping. It was launched on 1 January 1993 as DSF (''Deutsches Sportfernsehen''), replacing the television channel Tele 5 which had become th ...

broadcasts most matches live on TV and gives coverages of a selection of matches. The PDC announced in December 2017 that the contract with Sky Television for coverage of the Premier League had been extended to 2025.

Finals

Records and statistics

Total finalist appearances

* Active players are shown in bold * Only players who reached the final are included * In the event of identical records, players are sorted by date first achieved

Champions by country

Nine-dart finishes

Nineteen

es have been thrown in the Premier League. The first one was in 2006, and the most recent one was in 2025.

Tournament records

*Most titles: 7 –

'' *Most tournament appearances: 14 –

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he was ranked world number one from January 2008 to June 2008. Nicknamed "Barney", he is a five-t ...

*Most matches played: 211 – Raymond van Barneveld *Longest unbeaten run: 44 matches – Phil Taylor (2005–2008) *Biggest victories (league stage): 11–1 Phil Taylor v

Wayne Mardle Wayne William Mardle (born 10 May 1973) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO) events. He finished as the runner-up in three PDC majors, losing ...

(

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

), 11–1 Phil Taylor v

Peter Manley Peter David Manley (born 7 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player who played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events from 1996 until 2017. He won one major title, the Las Vegas Desert Classic, in 2003, and twice he ...

(2005) *Biggest victories (playoff stages): 16–4 Phil Taylor v Colin Lloyd (2005 final) *Most 180s by one player in a single match: 11 – Gary Anderson v Simon Whitlock (

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

). 11 –

José de Sousa José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

v Nathan Aspinall (

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

). *Most 100+ averages in a season: 18 – Michael van Gerwen (

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

). Van Gerwen became the first player to average over 100 in every match of a season. *Highest match average: 123.40 – Michael van Gerwen (

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

) *Highest group stage overall average: 107.95 – Phil Taylor (

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

) *Lowest group stage overall average: 86.36 –

(

) *Highest average in the final: 112.37 – Michael van Gerwen (

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

) *Most points in a single season: 45 - Luke Littler (

)

Whitewashes

High averages

Appearances

Since the tournament made its debut in 2005, Phil Taylor made an appearance in every Premier League competition until his retirement following the

2018 PDC World Darts Championship The 2018 William Hill World Darts Championship was a darts event, held between 14 December 2017 and 1 January 2018 at the Alexandra Palace in London, United Kingdom. It was the 25th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporati ...

. Raymond van Barneveld competed in every Premier League from 2006 to 2019. From 2005 until the 2010 tournament, the top six players in the

after the

PDC World Darts Championship The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the Paddy Power World Darts Championship is a world championship competition held annually in the sport of darts. The championship begins in December and ends in January and has ...

automatically qualified, with one wildcard (2005 and 2006) and two wildcards (2007–2010) chosen by either the PDC or

. From the 2011 tournament, only the top four in the PDC Order of Merit automatically qualified, with four wildcards (2011 and 2012) chosen by both the PDC and Sky Sports. In 2013, the tournament grew from eight players to ten, with the top four players in the PDC Order of Merit automatically qualifying and six other players chosen as Wildcards on the basis of their performance in the past year or in earlier editions of the Premier League. In 2022, the tournament shrank back down to eight. In 2024, both

Luke Humphries Luke Humphries (born 11 February 1995) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number one. He is a former PDC World Darts Champion ...

and

have made their debuts, with Littler, aged 17 years and 11 days when the 2024 campaign began, the youngest ever competitor in the Premier League. Littler would also become the youngest player to win the Premier League, aged 17 years and 123 days.

Premier League players and performance

When Gary Anderson withdrew from the 2019 season just before it began,

Chris Dobey Christopher Dobey (born 31 May 1990) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number seven; he reached a peak ranking of world number six in 2025. A ...

Steve Lennon Steve Lennon (born 25 November 1993) is an Irish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "Scuba Steve", he reached his first major quarter-final at the 2018 Players Championship Finals. He ...

, John Henderson,

Nathan Aspinall Nathan Aspinall (born 15 July 1991) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number six; he reached a peak ranking of world number ...

, Max Hopp,

Dimitri Van den Bergh Dimitri Barbara Peter Van den Bergh (born 8 July 1994) is a Belgian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twenty-two; he reached a peak ranking of world n ...

and

Jeffrey de Zwaan Jeffrey de Zwaan (born 26 March 1996) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He has won two PDC Players Championship events. He reached his first major semi-final at the 2018 World Matc ...

were named as "contenders" to play in Anderson's place each of the first eight weeks. This format was reused for the 2020 season, with nine regular players and nine challengers; Henderson,

Fallon Sherrock Fallon Suzanne Michelle Sherrock (born 2 July 1994) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events; she has won ninteen Women's Series titles and the 2022 Women's World Matchplay. Sherrock ...

Jonny Clayton Jonny Clayton (born 4 October 1974) is a Welsh professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number five. Nicknamed "the Ferret", he has won four PDC major televised s ...

, William O'Connor, Humphries, Bunting, Dobey, de Zwaan and

Jermaine Wattimena Jermaine Wattimena (born 9 March 1988) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. A PDC Tour Card holder since 2015; he reached his first major final in 2024, finishing as runner-up at the E ...

were the challengers.

References

External links

Premier League Darts page on the PDC website
{{PDC Darts Tournaments 2005 establishments in Europe Sports leagues established in 2005 Professional Darts Corporation tournaments Professional sports leagues in the United Kingdom