Chief executive of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), Matt Porter, has revealed that a huge change to the format of the Premier League Darts will be made in future.
On Thursday (February 5), night one of the 2026 Premier League Darts got underway with eight players – Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen, Michael van Gerwen, Jonny Clayton, Stephen Bunting, Josh Rock and Gerwyn Price – all in action.
The 16-week tournament uses the best-of-11-legs (first to six) format, with each night hosting four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and a final to determine who is crowned the winner of each evening.
The victor of each night is awarded a £10,000 prize. Players meet each other once in the last-eight between week one and seven before playing each other again between week nine and 15.
Advert
Matches in weeks eight and sixteen are determined based on league position at that point, with players earnings points based on their respective performances in each of the 16 events.
Then, the top four out of the eight players on the 16th night will qualify for the finals night, which will take place in London on May 28.
The overall prize pot is worth £1.25 million, with the outright winner after 16 weeks set to pocket £350,000.
And on the first night of the Premier League, Porter, who heads up the PDC, has revealed a change will be made to future tournaments without saying exactly when.
Speaking to the Metro, he touched on claims that the format was tired and repetitive.
Porter said: “We will change it at some point, but at the moment, you can only look at the numbers that are in front of you.
“The live crowd and the TV audience, the numbers are telling us that the format is working.
“If people stop buying tickets or start changing the channel, then it wouldn’t be working, but every metric is improving.
“It’s not a format that will keep forever because we never keep any format forever in the Premier League.
“The format must have changed half a dozen times in the 20 years of the event. But at the moment, it’s still the right format, we believe, for what we’ve got.
“I would accept that that is the biggest criticism of it. There is a lot of repetition.
“But you’re looking at it through the eyes of somebody who’s perhaps watching it on TV every week.
“If you’re in Nottingham, you want to see Littler vs Humphries, and if you’re in Aberdeen, you might want to see the same, and if you’re in Brighton, you might want to see the same.
“It’s very difficult to turn around to people and say, ‘Oh, sorry, you can’t see the biggest matchup in your city.’
“Actually, the nature of the bracket with those short-format games, you should get enough variety in it anyway.
“But clearly with the same eight players playing each other over 16 weeks, there is going to be some repetition."
He then revealed that Daniel Noppert, who reached the semi-finals of two majors in 2025, was the unluckiest player to have missed out on being one of the eight competitors this year.
“Danny Noppert was probably the one who would have the most cause to say he could have been in it and he had a very valid case and he was very, very unlucky not to be selected,” Porter added.
“Everyone’s in consideration, but obviously only to a point.”
The eight-player line-up is based on the four highest-ranked players - Littler, Van Veen, Humphries and Van Gerwen - as well as four wild cards - Rock, Price, Bunting and Clayton - chosen by the PDC.
Topics: Darts, Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen
Luke Davies