Premier League Darts 2026: Player profiles with Luke Humphries, Luke Littler and Gian van Veen in title contention
World No 1 Luke Littler and defending Premier League Darts champion Luke Humphries are among the eight elite players competing; you can watch Premier League Darts live on Sky Sports from February all the way through until the finale at The O2 in London on May 28
Monday 5 January 2026 21:08, UK
World No 1 Luke Littler and defending Premier League Darts champion Luke Humphries will headline Thursday nights from February until May. We profile the eight players.
The roadshow event will be staged on Thursday nights from opening night in Newcastle on February 5 until May 28 at The O2 in London, as the top names in world darts compete for the coveted title and a record prize fund of £1.25m, with the overall winner picking up £350,000, and a £10,000 bonus available at each weekly stop.
The line-up has been revealed with Gian van Veen and Josh Rock making their Premier League bow in an unchanged format.
Premier League Darts qualification involves four automatic spots for the top players on the PDC Order of Merit (world rankings) and four wild-card selections chosen by the PDC, making an eight-player field for the season.
Top Four automatic spots
Luke Littler
The 2024 Premier League champion and the 2025 runner-up has won almost all the ranking majors in the past year. 'The Nuke' is the reigning back-to-back world champion and Grand Slam of Darts winner. He is also the reigning UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and Players Championship Finals winner and will be odds-on to regain the Premier League crown.
Luke Humphries
The world No 2 dethroned Warrington ace Littler in the 2025 final having finished as runner-up the year before. Humphries can look forward to a third appearance in the travelling darts roadshow. 'Cool Hand' suffered a third consecutive televised major final defeat at the Grand Slam in Wolverhampton before sustaining a 5-1 demolition job at the hands of Gian van Veen in the quarter-finals of the recent world championship.
Gian van Veen
The 23-year-old Dutchman is one of the rising young stars in the world of darts and reaffirmed his title credentials by defeating Humphries to claim his maiden TV major title with European Championship victory in Dortmund. He then destroyed the world No 2 in the quarter-finals of the world championship en route to his maiden final at Alexandra Palace where he was crushed 7-1 by Littler.
Michael van Gerwen
There are suggestions 'Mighty Mike' could have missed this year's tournament, but the 36-year-old naturally belongs in the best darts competition in the world. He won the Premier League title for a record-breaking seventh time after defeating Gerwyn Price 11-5 in 2023 but the Dutchman lost in the Play-Offs in 2024 and failed to qualify for Finals Night last year.
Four wild-card selections
Josh Rock
'Rocky' will grace the Premier League stage for the first time. He was a semi-finalist at the World Matchplay and UK Open, and inspired Northern Ireland to a maiden World Cup victory in June alongside Daryl Gurney. The 24-year-old has a game to mix it with the very best, although he journey at the worlds was stopped by a majestic Justin Hood in the last 16.
Jonny Clayton
Clayton has dropped down the Order of Merit, but was handed a wild-card spot as a former Premier League winner in 2021. The 51-year-old Welshman featuring in a brace of televised finals at the World Masters and World Cup of Darts, having also reached the semi-finals of the UK Open, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix.
Gerwyn Price
The former rugby ace went from having love-hate relationship with the crowd to becoming one of the fans' favourites in recent times. 'The Iceman' endured a disappointing Worlds, exiting in the second round to Wesley Plaisier, but the Welshman has also won multiple titles, including the Poland Darts Masters, several Players Championship events, and the Baltic Sea Darts Open. He famously landed two nine-darters during last year's Premier League, where he was a semi-finalist.
Stephen Bunting
'The Bullet' slipped out of the top four of the Order of Merit which out his Premier League ambitions in doubt. The world No 7 claimed six PDC titles, including World Series wins in Bahrain and Copenhagen, as well as European Tour successes in Riesa and Basel. His popularity with fans has helped his case. The St Helens star arrives in style with his iconic 'Titanium' walk-on song.
How does the Premier League work?
Matches take place every Thursday night between February and May and are played in different venues around the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands with Antwerp, Belgium a new venue this year.
Since 2022, the format has been an eight-person knockout bracket every night, with each of the players meeting once across week 1-7 and then again in weeks 9-15 with weeks 8 and 16 drawn based on league standings.
The points system is as follows:
- Nightly winner: 5 points
- Runner-up: 3 points
- Losing semi-finalists: 2 points
After week 16, the top four in the table contest the semi-finals and the final at The O2 in London.
First plays fourth and second plays third in the best-of-19-leg semi-finals before a best-of-21-leg final.
Premier League Darts winners
- 2005: Phil Taylor
- 2006: Phil Taylor
- 2007: Phil Taylor
- 2008: Phil Taylor
- 2009: James Wade
- 2010: Phil Taylor
- 2011: Gary Anderson
- 2012: Phil Taylor
- 2013: Michael van Gerwen
- 2014: Raymond van Barneveld
- 2015: Gary Anderson
- 2016: Michael van Gerwen
- 2017: Michael van Gerwen
- 2018: Michael van Gerwen
- 2019: Michael van Gerwen
- 2020: Glen Durrant
- 2021: Jonny Clayton
- 2022: Michael van Gerwen
- 2023: Michael van Gerwen
- 2024: Luke Littler
- 2025: Luke Humphries
Who will win this year's Premier League Darts? Luke Humphries will be defending his title and you can watch the action every single Thursday from February 5th in Newcastle until May 28th at The O2 in London on Sky Sports. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
