Gian van Veen seemed surprised to learn a PDC rule in place following his stunning win over Luke Humphries to reach the World Darts Championship semi-finals.
Having previously failed to go further than the opening round, the 23-year-old has been in fine form at Alexandra Palace and after beating Charlie Manby, he thrashed Luke Humphries 5-1 on sets to set up a semi-final with Gary Anderson.
The increased prize money pot means Van Veen has already bagged £200,000 for getting to the last four.
However, the victory over the former world No.1 has already had a huge impact on the world rankings and the upcoming 2026 Premier League campaign.
Advert
Because compatriot and three-time world champion Michael Van Gerwen was defeated in the fourth-round prior to Van Veen reaching the semi-finals, the world youth champion has become the No.1 ranked Dutch player in the first change in 13 years.
But even more exciting for Van Veen, he has moved ahead of Van Gerwen in the PDC Order of Merit and into the top three in the world.
The Premier League line up includes the top four in the Order of Merit as well as a further four wildcard options, with Van Veen now a shoo-in after his incredible performances on the big stage.
"Is there a rule that the top four automatically qualifies for the Premier League?!" Van Veen said after his excellent win over Van Gerwen.
"[I'm] very excited as long as I get the phone call or email. I'm not one hundred per cent sure. But very excited of course, playing against the other top seven players in the world week in, week out. It's very exciting.
"I couldn't even dream about it growing up so really looking forward to that."
He added: "Of course, everyone said it before the year, but with the prize money increases in the World Championship are going to have a lot of effect on the rankings. But to still be in the semifinals, Dutch No. 1 now and No. 3 in the world, it's an amazing feeling."
- If you want to see even more from SPORTbible, make us a preferred source on Google.
"I couldn't even dream about it when I was a little kid, especially as a Dutchman. You always looked up to Raymond van Barneveld and then later against Michael Van Gerwen. So yeah, it's amazing."
Even if he hadn't qualified automatically, former Dutch darts star believes Van Veen would be a perfect fit for the format, saying that, "He hits a lot of 180s, he interacts with the crowd, and he gives good interviews" when speaking on his Darts Draait Door podcast.
The Premier League kicks off in February, with line up announcements expected soon for the weekly knockout tournament.
How is Premier League line up decided?
Last year, Humphries, Luke Littler, Van Gerwen and Rob Cross secured automatically qualification and Stephen Bunting, Gerwyn Price, Chris Dobey and Nathan Aspinall got in as wildcard selections.
This year's edition gets underway in Newcastle on February 5 and ends with the final at the O2 Arena in London on May 28.
Humphries has been pleading with Anderson to make a return to the tournament who has won twice, but the Scot is adamant he cannot participate due to the schedule.
Ryan Searle has also been speaking about potentially debuting in the Premier League following an impressive run to the semi-finals of the worlds.
The line up has not been released but PDC chief Matt Porter has spoken about the criteria for a wildcard entrant.
"We never make a decision until the end when we’ve got all the facts in front of us," he said.
“We always look for the players that we feel have delivered consistently. It is important. A lot of players deliver once but you have to show you can compete at the top level on a regular basis. You have to show you’ve got real star quality.“
The eight-player format will remain the same despite talk of an increase to 10.
Topics: World Darts Championship, Darts
Josh Lawless